comics – Page 25

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!

All dressed up and nowhere to go

I’m seeing and feeling my future and I like it. My goal is to cartoon full time and with this shelter-in-place going on, that’s what I am doing. Business is not good as we all know, so days are not hectic like they normally are. I wish they were because I need the business, but I like it being low key, too. I am getting lots of cartooning done. I like being home all day, too.

But it’s odd, and I am sure you are feeling the same way – you wake up in the morning and think, “What do I have to do today?” Then you remember – nothing! You don’t have to go to work or have the car washed, you don’t have to run out anywhere, there is nowhere to go. There is no pressure where normally you might feel something pressing on your to get done. There is nothing to get done!

What’s on tv now? Is there a podcast you like to listen to? Have you been cooking or baking? This blog – I’ve been posting daily or almost daily. In the past I would post once or twice a week. Now it’s all the time!

My comics have been becoming quite popular, I’m picking up fans on Facebook and Instagram and on my website TomFalco.com and I can see it growing and growing.

I was watching a sort of podcast/YouTube video the other day where cartoonists were being interviewed and they were talking about the pandemic. They all agreed that they were sort of drawn into it (no pun intended), in other words, they were doing comics on pandemic subjects. It’s hard to ignore. I’m going to possibly post two pandemic-related comics a week and the rest will be general interest, just so it doesn’t get boring.

The first week went well with four pandemic-related comics, the fifth was actually the “fifth be with you one on the ‘fourth be with you’ day.”

Merch

I’ve been playing around and adding and enhancing things.

Circulation is going up for my Tomversation comic; I have almost 3000 followers/fans on Facebook in just a week or so – maybe more as you read this and almost 1000 at both Instagram and TomFalco.com. I’m confidant that both will be at 1000 or over by Friday. If there is no reader overlap, which I guess there is some, that is 5000 subscribers in a little over a week! If it keeps up, that is 20,000 per month – if it keeps up. I love she shares on Facebook, I think that is what puts it over the edge, friends sharing with friends. Instagram needs to add that feature, you know, an easy share button. Universe – please add a share button to Instagram posts. Thank you.

I added a page to my Etsy site that sells things – I call it “Merch” on the ads and links I have on this blog and Instagram. I’ll add and subtract things like t-shirts, mugs, etc. There are just a few things now but I’ll design more art and items and add them.

The link is here.

And Instagram has this cool thing called “Highlights.” They are little circles above the posts where you can have things like previous stories which link to ads and other things. I added them to Tomversation.toons and my personal site Tomversation.

I found out one cool thing while setting this up – did you know that if you go into “archive” on Instagram, all the “stories” you previously posted are there? Stories are the short 10 second videos that last 24 hours. I was saving the ones I liked along with my iphone photos, but you don’t have to, they are right there on Instagram! If you click the little hamburger thing in the right corner it will open and you’ll see “archive” right there as the second item down.

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

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.

Tomversation comic panel starts today!

may-the-5th-4th-color-print

My daily Tomversation comic starts today!

This is my first comic. You can see it larger on the daily comics page at TomFalco.com

Hope you follow along there or if you prefer social media, the comics will be published here daily:
Instagram:
instagram.com/tomversation.toons
Facebook:
facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

The countdown begins

tomversation-may4 So I’m excited about the premier of Tomversation tomorrow, May 4th.

I did publish Tomversation years ago and I stopped because a few newspapers were interested in publishing the comic on their daily comics page, I wanted to hold all the fresh content back for them, but they gave me the run around for years. Is this how features editors behave – promise you the world and then string you along?

One editor eventually was fired for sexual harassment, so that ended that after being strung along for many years.

I see it as a good thing – I am not bound to anything and I’m on my own. I noticed that a lot of comics have millions of followers on Instagram. That’s my goal. I drew comics all weekend and the previous weeks – it helped that we are in self isolation, but I’ve been drawing comics over the years, too, so I have plenty of material.

Anyway, one more time, here are the locations for Tomversation:
Online at my website at TomFalco.com
Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons
Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

And I may add other locations in the future, I’ll let you know, but I hope you can choose one or all of these places to follow along.

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!

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

Word is getting out

I ran into a couple of neighbors the other day – downstairs at the front gate, we were waiting for deliveries – Instacart and UPS – our connections with the outside world. They mentioned my comics, they knew that publication date is coming up – May 4th.

Later in the day another neighbor called to say, “hi,” and check up on me and she knew about the comics, too. So word is getting out!

I’ve been promoting it a lot on social media and a couple of local publications wrote about my comics venture – when I say local, I mean local, one was a neighborhood newsletter and the other was a chamber of commerce newsletter – but still, I was well known around here for many years, so people are interested in what I’m up to these days and I’m glad to have the publicity for my Tomversation comic. And the nice part is that they contacted me and asked me about Tomversation.

It’s odd, as the editor of our daily news, I was in the middle of everything for so many years, now I am almost invisible. I choose the invisible part, I never was one for being “out there” but I had to be due to the situation. But now I liken myself to that old American Express commercial – “Do you know me?” Remember that? People were known for their names, but not their faces. I like that. I like it that way.

Anyway, again – my Tomversation comic panel will run daily starting May 4th. You can find it three places –
Online at TomFalco.com
Instagram here: instagram.com/tomversation.toons and at
Facebook here: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

Hope to see you at one of these places. Thanks!

Our Boarding House

One of my all time favorite comic panels is Our Boarding House. I don’t know when I became aware of it but I’ve always loved it.

It was created by cartoonist Gene Ahern in 1921 and lasted until 1984 and most likely I remember the later ones, but lately I have been enjoying the ones from the 1920s which are published on Facebook daily and they are all done by Ahern, who passed the strip on to another cartoonist in 1936, so the ones below from 1927 are the best and in his prime.

I have always loved single panel comics and this one has a lot of text, which normally I don’t like, but Ahern has a way with words. The expressions he uses and the story line that continues each day in one single panel is something I really enjoy. Major Hoople’s nonsense at the boarding house run by his wife, is the basic premise of the panel.

Here are a few samples.