This cartoon is a remake of one I did in the 1980s. I found it along with my school stuff.
I’ve been cleaning out my old room at the house I grew up in and I found lots of old cartoons and stuff; things I created so long ago.
I had one cartoon called “Opal” and this witch cartoon above, is a take-off on the Opal cartoon here.
I used to draw a lot of different comic strips with different characters and themes.
I also found a big batch of rejection letters from syndicates. Not sure why I saved those, but they are interesting to read when they have little notes attached, you know, they aren’t just form letters.
I didn’t submit most of the work I did, I just drew and drew without a plan in mind. My issue was that I didn’t set a date or have a plan. I know now to set a date to submit work. Have a plan in mind, write it down, work toward that goal and then send the work in on said date. Maybe have a date to complete writing the series, then a date to draw everything out, maybe a separate time to color them and then finally the submission date.
Of course those rejection letters will come, but at least the work was submitted.
I once sold advertising for a newspaper. My boss used to say, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” But also, it goes without saying, “If you don’t submit your work, you don’t have a chance of being published.”
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My parents passed away – my Dad last September and my Mom the October before that. The house is still sitting as it was left. I’m not sure what it taking us so long to clean it out. Too many memories maybe, maybe too big of a job. There is 50 years worth of stuff in that house. 50 years this month.
I decided to start going a couple of days a week and try to make a dent. I started with my old room. I’m amazed that so much of my old art from when I was a kid and also from high school and college is still there. Not that anyone would dispose of it, but 30 years ago, Hurricane Andrew struck and the house was inundated with water. There was so much water in the house that the refrigerator was on its side. It was lifted up and thrown over! I guess maybe four feet of water or more was in the house.
The art was on the top shelf of the closet, I’m luckily it survived. Everything below that is gone now, destroyed in the flood.
There were piles and piles of large pads full of cartoons and comic strips I drew and also art from high school and college classes.
Yes, we had nude models in college for figure drawing. I guess we got used to it after the first couple of times.
It’s funny, but I remember this guy’s face from so many years ago. I know, he was naked, but it’s his face I remember. For some reason, it had a familiar look, almost like a famous person or so, so when I look at this I can almost remember him.
Here’s a more detailed figure. These nudes are from college, But one image from high school sticks out. We had to draw a pair of sneakers that were on the table and I remember doing that. I remember how happy I was with the results. I guess I’ll find that in the pile of art I now have.
Not sure who this is, but I don’t remember her being a model. Maybe it was from a book or magazine.
I saw this photo of the Obamas on my mother’s dresser. I don’t remember ever seeing it before.
When I picked it up and read it, I see she must have donated to them or his campaign or something. I was living out of the house by then so I guess I never saw this and she never mentioned it.
My mom loved the Obamas, so did my dad, I was happy to see that she kept the image along with family photos on/in the mirror like people do.
My mom gave to all sorts of charities, she always did. I’m glad to see she donated to political campaigns, too.
One sad thing about the way my parents passed away was that they left the house and didn’t come back in the end. And things are left as if they just walked out of the room.
This looks like my dad’s eyeglasses, just sitting on the side of the bed.
In the kitchen, next to the sink there is a towel and there are two spoons on it, looking as if they were washed and placed there to dry. Just like it was yesterday.
My dad used the dining room table as a desk. All of his papers are there – just as he left them. A pen sits on the pile, just as if he put it down and walked out of the room for a second.
All this reminds me of famous houses I’ve visited – the Roosevelts, Hemmingway, etc. Their personal papers and things were just sitting there, although they were probably set up and placed there. But it gives the illusion that they just walked out of the room for a second. In these cases at my parents’ house, they were really just left as I see them now.
I spoke to one of my brothers. We may start going through the house next weekend, to just start packing things up. We’ll do it as a group to make it go faster, I guess. We grew up up there. It won’t be easy.
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There are two cartoons published today – same concept, two images.
I wasn’t sure which version to use, so I did two of them.
As you know, lately performers have things thrown at them from the audience. Not sure why, seems like a stupid thing to do. Cardi B threw a mic at one guy who threw water from a plastic cup on her!
The story goes that Cardi B was asking the audience to throw water on her because she was burning up in the Las Vegas heat. So this person threw the water. But when Cardi B threw the mic into the crowd, she hit someone else – a lady, and now the lady is suing because she is “bruised.”
The world we live in today.
Even the Sign Guy agrees. Saw this on his Facebook page.
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Today’s cartoon reflects the changes at Twitter, or is it now “X”? Not sure.
I will miss the little bird. It’s been the mascot/logo since day one. I don’t think the look ever changed after all these years like so many logos do. In this case, it just became a whole new thing.
The X in this cartoon is a shuriken, a ninja star, killing the poor Twitter bird.
I don’t use Twitter these days as much as I used to. I mostly read it and get news there. I recently signed up for Threads. The new alternative to Twitter.
If you want, you can follow me on Twitter/X at: twitter.com/tomversation And Threads at: @tomvesation.toons
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It’s a pink weekend. Between the new Barbie movie and Lionel Messi. the soccer superstar’s USA debut, it’s all pink. You can swipe back and forth for both cartoons here.
Pink is of course the theme of Barbie and Messi’s color is pink. Messi’s pink a little bit lighter in color, but still, I think this deep, bright pink makes the point (cartoonwise).
I first did the Barbie cartoon and at the last minute I thought of Messi. Here in Miami, it’s Messi all over the place. Murals are appearing on buildings, soccer tickets have zoomed up in price and that’s all you hear about – Messi, Messi, Messi.
On the national news, I’ve seen lots of reports on Messi, so I thought I would add it to today’s cartoon as a second option, to add to the pink theme of the weekend.
Barbie and Messi
The Oppenheimer movie is opening this weekend, too, and people are buying tickets for both Barbie and Oppenheimer and will do a double feature, sort of like the old days. The big debate there is which one to see first so as to set the tone for the next movie.
I couldn’t fit Oppenheimer into the pink theme. It’s anything but bright and pink.
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I went to the Brooklyn Museum the other day. I visited the art and then just before I left, I stopped by the Ancient Egypt area. And you know what? I felt at home. I literally felt at home.
I was pleased to see objects from Ramesses II and so many others, including Akhenaten.
I’m always fascinated by ancient Egypt. The exhibits have inspired me to do more Egypt-based cartoons.
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I went to the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in NYC to see Starry Night. It was on loan from MOMA for a special Van Gogh exhibit called Van Gogh’s Cypresses.
To be honest, if you’ve seen much of various Van Gogh works in different museums, it’s not worth the trip. The wait can be hours to get in.
Once you are in the museum, you need to get on a wait list for Van Gogh. You scan a QR code with your phone and wait and wait and wait and wait to be pinged for your arrival into the exhibit at your allotted time.
If you are willing to wait, you could be seeing everything else in the MET while waiting, but if you just intend to see Van Gogh, prepare for the wait.
Many people are crowded in and it’s more enjoyable to see his work, especially Starry Night, at it’s regular home at MOMA where it never is a madhouse.
I was in and out, but I did of course enjoy the rest of the museum.
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I went to MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC yesterday, only to not see my favorite piece of art – Starry Night. I had forgotten that it was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There’s some sort of Van Gogh exhibit going on up there and they loaned it out. Not a problem as I can easily get to the MET a few blocks uptown.
But I did find it uninteresting to see some of the new displays at MOMA. As you can see here, on display are soap boxes – no, not Warhols, something else – and there blocks of wood, a violin filled with corn, doors with bats. And some other weird things.
I did see so many of my other favorites by Picasso and Monet and so many others.
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I saw some Berry’s World cartoons online the other day. It reminded me of Ralph Dunagan, who I wrote about here. Both of them seem to be big influences on my drawing style – on the way I draw comics. I love their styles, which are very similar.
When I was a kid I enjoyed both cartoonists’ work.
Jim Berry’s “Berry’s World” was a daily cartoon which ran from February 18, 1963, through March 1, 2003, with a Sunday color comic.
Jim received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1965, 1966, and 1972 for his work on the strip.
I see so much of my own work in both of these cartoonists and until recently I didn’t realize that they were a big influence on my work.
Here are a few images of Dunagin’s work.
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A dog and cat are part of my new Ollie and Jacomo cartoon. They will start showing up in cartoons later this summer.
Jasper is the dog and Richard is the cat. I always liked the name Jasper for a dog and Richard seems quite funny as an animal or pet’s name to me.
Years ago, my parents had a next door neighbor who had a dog named Richard. She would often call out to the dog who was out lost in the neighborhood somewhere, “Richard! Richard!” The first time I heard the lady’s high pitched voice calling, I asked my mother, “Who is Richard, her son? Her husband?” And my mother replied, “Her dog.”
I never got over it, every time she called out to Richard over the years it always made me laugh. I don’t think I ever saw Richard or the lady. I guess I was too lazy to look out the window. I didn’t live there at the time, I had long moved out, so I was just over visiting and I guess I really didn’t want to spoil the image by seeing what Richard and the lady looked like.
That reminds me of that train trip I took where I listed to the old ladies the whole trip and didn’t want to know what they looked like, but did see them in the end and was disappointed. That story is blogged here.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying Ollie And Jacomo. I know it’s started out slow, but I had to introduce the premise. It will pick up now. Here’s today cartoon. It sort of hits home because lately I’ve been noticing that everything seems to be half full or less these days – in cans, packages, whatever. You open the package and wonder where the food is? It’s worse with clear packaging, you really feel gipped.
You can see Ollie and Jacomo at these locations if you would care to keep up with their adventures in Coconut Cove:
tomversation.com 