art – Page 30

The ‘new normal’

new-normal This cartoon has so many different connotations from people. I changed the text at the last minute, originally it said, “Don’t you miss when only computers got viruses?” But that’s not true since people have always gotten viruses, so I changed it to this instead.

So many of the comments left by readers seem to have struck each one differently. I saw it as both people stuck in a rut and the wife is constantly saying, “Be patient, it’s the new normal,” or something like that.

Others saw it differently. One lady commented, “Same normal for her: still picking up his crap.” I didn’t see it like that, I saw it as her being loving and handing him a mask so he could be safe. This reader saw it as if he dropped his mask on the floor and she picked it up and was handing it for him! Interesting.

Another person said they hated the phrase the first time they saw it. Someone else said, “They are trying to brain wash us with that phrase.” Another mentioned the Karen meme, which I don’t think I knew about before I named her. Many people repeated that they hated the phrase. Others said, “I like Karen,” or “Listen to Karen and wear your mask.” It could be the Karen meme thing that adds to the comedy, who knows, but people seem to relate to it. Also, I am wondering when they say they “hate that phrase,” do they mean anything to do with Karen or the “new normal?” Things that make you go hmmm.

Is Rob there to rob?

bank-color-print

This comic ran a couple of weeks ago and people loved it. It got a lot of shares on social media. But I thought of another funny version. See this one below?

It’s tricky when you have to read something because if it was on tv or in a movie, it could be taken as, “too,” as in “Are you here too, Rob?” and you would hear it in a way that would make it funnier – “to” and “too.”

bank-color-print2

Evolving drawing styles

I have so many comics that I did years ago that I would like to publish now but they are dated; not the content, but the drawing style. So I guess I need to redraw them.

I always love the original drawing styles of things – for instance when I see Family Guy or American Dad on tv, I love the originals from the first seasons – even The Simpsons and oldies like Popeye. There is something about them.

doonesbury

I love the original Doonesbury, which is sort of simple, but I like it more than the more refined look. Look at this old one, I think it’s the original one from October 1970. So simple, but I love it.

Every comic is like that, they all evolve over time. Well almost, if you look at Bringing Up Father, George McManus’ lines were impeccable from day one it seems; same with Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo, which is perfection.

I have a more refined look than I did years go, so after publishing those, I can’t really go back to the original look, there’s too much of a difference there and it throws things off. But this all of course happens with everything. Fine artists have evolved over time, it’s just natural.

Maybe I’ll show you before and after images some time, you know, of comics I did years ago and how I redraw them.

The anatomy of a cartoon

The final.

The first

The second

one of the final

I added the musicians

So I published two weeks of Tomversation comics. Love the feeling, it brings back memories of years ago when I published daily. I am good with deadlines, I published the daily news in our neighborhood for 15 years, published daily comics and also printed and published things for so many years, including school newspapers that I guess every day is a deadline for me.

Anyway, the first comic, the “May the 5th be with you,” started out differently and I changed and redrew it many times. The day before it was to be published I started playing with it. You can see some of the incarnations here. There were more with changes related to these.

These are the finished ones, after I thought I was done and ready for publication, then I went back and moved things around and in some cases just redrew from scratch. You know, when I had Obi-Wan Kenobi handing Luke the bottle in the one drawing, I was wondering why is he just handing him a bottle in the middle of nowhere. Then I thought of the bar and added a couple of musicians, but still it wasn’t right.

I didn’t want to end up drawing that chaotic scene in the small panel I had to work with, so I ended up with the two of them at the table with Chewbacca and I did leave out Han Solo, who I believe is at the table, too. It was just too busy for everyone and everything.

This is what I love about single panel cartoons, too. You have that space and you have to make best use of it. Some guy mentioned on a social media site that the cartoon is a copy of some meme. I don’t remember seeing the meme, but that is the one thing I don’t like about single panel cartoons, it seems that everything has been done before. I’m guessing the “5th be with you” part is what he is referring to in the meme, not the whole bar set up, etc. But this is my concept, from my brain and that’s how it came to be.

Anyway, as you can see, first it was just a bartender and a guy in the bar, then the bartender ended up with a Darth Vader mask on then it ended up being the wookie bar or whatever that is on Star Wars and on and on and it finally because what it is.

I usually take 45 minutes to an hour to complete one panel cartoon, this one took six to seven hours with all the re-draws and changes!

Ignorance is bliss; I got my mojo back

calvin-and-hobbes

I’ve been seeing so many good things happen this past month or so. I don’t know if it’s the whole stop and regroup thing with this sheltering-in-place or something else.

In the past, most of my life, I was always in the right place at the right time, I would will things, seriously, I would manifest whatever I wanted. I did this before The Secret was a thing, I didn’t know I was doing it, I would just do it.

I had premonitions all the time, too.

But for some reason, it all stopped. I was off kilter, I was almost in the right place at the right time, but not exactly, I was off a few degrees. I had problems willing things and the whole system shut down.

Now that it is back – and in a big way – I realize that my doing the daily news here in my town for 15 years maybe have been a big part of the problem. It was all that negativity. I myself turned negative, I got swept up into politics and things I normally would not care about. And I am sure there was a lot of hate coming toward me from people who disagreed with me. I am sure I spewed a lot of hate right back at them. It was sort of part of the job – journalism can be ugly.

I don’t want to say the whole thing was ugly, because it wasn’t. I met so many people and made so many new friends to this day. I was part of so many events too, on the inside, where I would not have normally been a part of. I got preferential treatment all over and honestly in so many instances, I was treated like a celebrity. But I like that the run is over.

Now that I ended that 15 year run, I see a difference. I feel peace, I live positively and I shut out negativity. It could be the sheltering-in-place and the settling of the universe, too. But I noticed that I am able to turn the negativity off whereas in the past I was in the middle of it all whether I wanted to be or not.

Now, again I have been willing and manifesting things, I have been having lots of “good luck” and graces or whatever you want to call it and I feel like I have my mojo back and I believe it all has to do with changes I made, especially the change of not reporting the news around here and not being in the middle of all the quarrels and such. I don’t have a clue what’s going on around town and I love it! Ignorance is truly bliss!

Pandemic comics

Here are the first five Tomversation comics published this week which can be seen and followed at TomFalco.com. If you click on them here they will open larger.

All except one pandemic related, but I promise they aren’t all going to be pandemic related.

I originally had planned to post a bunch a once, you know, maybe run 12 comics at one time, so they could sort of be binge watched, like a tv show on Netflix or something, but the daily publishing seems to be working for now.

I’m enjoying being back in the game. I truly get giddy every time I complete a comic. Some of them I go back and rework but most go fast and I get my thoughts out as planned on the first go round.

Too enveloped in your work to know there is a quarantine going on?

Today’s comic, which you can see in larger format at TomFalco.com relates to how I feel. I work from home, so this shelter-in-place thing has not been too difficult since I’m doing what I usually do – stay at home and work – my regular work/job is not happening due to the shut down, but I have been drawing. And I’ll bet this is the same for so many people who work in a studio or even are addicted to things like games.

I have a cousin who is a gamer and has many followers and friends on YouTube, I don’t know his site or I would post it here, I’m not sure why I don’t know his site name, but every time I am was going to ask him, he was busy gaming and a lot of the time he was live online and I didn’t want to interrupt. But anyway, he could be gaming for hours and not really notice being quarantined. He makes a living at it. Yes, he makes money from playing games online!

A cartoonist, an artist, a cook, an architect, a writer, a designer, etc. Whomever is envelopes in their work and not really noticing the outside world is the guy in this cartoon today.

As for my gamer cousin, his brother is a performer in New York.

My cousin TJ Fox who is a musician, has been doing bi-monthly concerts from Long Island on Facebook. This Saturday, May 9, will be the third Saturday night he’s doing “Live from the Living Room.” It’s free at his Facebook page here: facebook.com/tjfoxmusic it starts at 8 pm (eastern time) and usually goes for two hours. You can request songs, he plays the guitar and sings.

If you go to the site now, you can see past concerts.

It’s become a thing with me now. I really look forward to it. I’m a create of habit, do something twice and it’s a thing from now on. What I enjoy aside from his talent is we all chat along as we listen and it’s broadcast from their Hamptons house which I sort of get homesick for since I spend some time there each summer. I’m hoping to be there this summer.

TJ is quite big up north. So many times I’m walking around NYC and I see his name on a sandwich board or marquee – “TJ Fox here tonight!” He performs in NYC and Long Island mostly. He’s also written and performs his own music as well as so many things you already know.

What about the face masks?

I noticed that the majority of my comics, let’s say all but a few of my comics, show people without facial coverings, you know, no masks. And the people are in groups and being just normal people. But what about the new normal? Will we ever gather in groups again? Will we sit next to each other in bars or at ball games, will we shake hands?

Here is a cartoon where the people have no masks because when I first drew it, getting hand sanitizer was the big thing, now wearing masks is the thing, so I added masks. Even the dog has one.

But showing people without masks, is this good? Is this bad? Is this keeping with the times? I noticed that even on tv news, the reporters out in the field always have masks on. Sometimes you can’t hear what they are saying correctly as they speak through the masks, but I assume they are wearing them just to prove a point and to be part of the movement since most are solo except for their camera man and in many cases they are filming themselves, so they aren’t near others.

If I add masks to my comic characters then all of the comics will have characters wearing protective masks, and when this pandemic is over, then what? Will I have a portfolio of comics where every person is wearing a mask?

It will document the times, but I’m not sure if that is how I want to be documented.

It would be funny if I went back and added masks to everyone and then when this pandemic is all over I go back and remove the masks and repost the comics mask-free.

Stephan Pastis – 10 With Tom

10 With Tom
10 questions in 10 minutes

I did this interview with Stephan Pastis a few years ago. For a long time I did a bunch of 10 With Tom interviews for the Huffington Post. I’m thinking of getting back into doing that. Anyway, here is Stephan.

I got the chance to ask Stephan Pastis, creator of the comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, my Ten With Tom questions. Stephan has one of the most popular comic strips around, his tipping point was when Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, noticed his work and mentioned it in a blog post. The rest is history. His online readership went through the roof overnight.

He won the 2015 Reuben Award for best newspaper comic strip. I’m trying to follow in his footsteps with my comics, so it truly was an honor doing Ten With Tom with Stephan.

stephan2

Do people mistake you for Seth Macfarlane?

I’ve heard that before, but the one I hear more is Robert Downey, Jr. I even had a restaurant owner in Dublin, Ireland tell me what an honor it was to have Robert Downey, Jr. in her restaurant. I told her that I appreciated it, but that I didn’t like to be disturbed while dining.

Why do you create your comics 7 months in advance, why so far ahead?
I’m anal retentive. I need to relax.

Are you recognized on the street?
Almost never. Except as Robert Downey Jr. in Dublin.

What are a few of your favorite classic newspaper comics from your childhood?

Far Side
Calvin and Hobbes
Peanuts
Bloom County

Flintstones or Scooby Do?
Scooby. There’s always someone trying to scare away prospective house buyers by filling it with fake ghosts and/or monsters. Knowing that the ghost thing is a sham, I could probably get a great deal on real estate.

Which comic strip would you like to crawl into and spend the day?
Krazy Kat. Lots of peyote and throwing bricks at others.

Dick Tracy or Little Orphan Annie?
It wouldn’t be Annie. Her lack of pupils would be disturbing, particularly if you fell in love. You could never look into her eyes.

What section of the printed daily newspaper today should be eliminated to add more comics?
Many of the comics.

Without looking, what color is Olive Oyl’s dress?
Top half of her is red. Bottom half of her is black. Both halves are probably stained by spinach.

Do you think you’ll ever go digital in creating Pearls Before Swine? Why?
No. Too lazy to learn. Plus, it doesn’t seem like something Robert Downey Jr. would do.

Thank you Stephan!

========
Don’t miss my next post. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.
=======

Read my comics

tom-read8 So I’ve been working on comics, redrawing and refreshing some old ones and preparing for my Tomversation debut on May 4th. If you haven’t guessed by now, I chose May 4th because it’s May the 4th Day, you know, “May the 4th be with you.” I thought the anniversary of the debut would be easy to remember that day and it’s a scifi reference.

I’m doing the comics digitally, which I started years ago. It took a bit to go from pen and paper but it’s such a pleasure working digitally. There is only one drawback and that is there is no original art.

When I first went to digital cameras from film cameras, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around not having negatives although I don’t remember ever needing negatives other than the first print. But it really bothered me not to have negatives, now it seems so silly.

Regarding the digital comics, I started right at the top with a Wacom Cintiq. I had a problem setting up the system and my friend Johnny came over and helped me out with it, but eventually I moved to a Surface Pro, sort of a downgrade but so much easier to travel with and maneuver. The Cintiq was tethered to the computer and there was no keyboard so it made some things difficult.

I keep toying with the idea of going back to the Cintiq from the Surface Pro, because the Cintiq is so much smoother and really is the top of the line, but I am still happy with the Surface pro and doing a single panel is easy and doesn’t need much room like a full comics page or strip would need.

Anyway, you can see Tomversation the comic at these three locations:
Online: TomFalco.com
Instgram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/
Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

I’ve been asked why it’s tomversation.toons and not just Tomversation – I do own Tomversation on Instagram and Facebook, but I’ve been using them for personal photos and things so long that it would be hard to transfer and switch names. I tried.

You can subscribe to my blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.