entertainment – Page 2

Be creative, seasons and all

Someone posted a question on Facebook on a comics/cartoonist-related page. He was asking about seasons. He said, “I’m thinking about doing a TV-style release schedule for my comic. What I mean is this: instead of following a schedule the whole year (like XKCD does for example), divide my comics into “seasons” (i.e., Season 1, Season 2, …) and follow a schedule for a few months before going on breaks for a few months or so between seasons.”

I brought this subject up a couple of years ago in a post called, “Can a comic strip have seasons?” where I bring up the fact that comics should have seasons and why. As long as you are creative and can keep your audience, why not take a break and enjoy seasons.

I have one cartoon that I haven’t published for awhile, but every day it gains dozens of followers on Facebook. It has a life of its own. So even though it isn’t being published right now, people are still interested, so I believe if a cartoon is on hiatus, fans will still be there when it returns to publication.

Also, regarding the process, someone mention that they are having an issue coming up with gags for their comic and also they cannot relate to the characters. They can’t find themselves (the characters, not the cartoonist).

I’m doing my panel now, so I don’t deal with characteristics, it’s a quick, in and out gag, but in the past when I did strips and recurring characters, they sort of found themselves fast. One who was in the background, would sort of take over the strip by default, he just popped out of the shadows. Others in another strip would easily pick up their characteristics as I drew and wrote for them. They defined themselves. In one instance, they almost wrote themselves, what I mean is, they sort of wrote their own gags and dialogue.

As for my Tomversation single panel cartoons, one thing that stands out for me is the names. I don’t wrestle with names, they just come out, like, “this one is called this and this one is called that.” I don’t sit and think of names, the names just fit the drawing or personality and I use the first one that pops into my head.

I don’t use names often, but some years back, it seem the thing to do in gag cartoons. Like this Santa one which ran recently, In the past I might have given the lady a name, the gag would say, “Is it me, Martha, or does it seem to get more commercialized every year?”

I did two things there – I named her and I gave her the name Martha, which actually popped into my head as I was looking at the cartoon.

With this one, “Jane” popped into my head when I looked at it, and it could be, “The tree is up, Jane!”

I like not having names now, it seems less pretentious.

In this instance, for some reason, maybe to emphasize the doctor’s concern, I think a name was need. “Mr. Reynolds,” seemed to fit as s name for some reason.

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Walking in the air

The last few years there has been a Sarah Brightman Christmas special on PBS and in it she talks about an animated 1982 British movie called The Snowman, based on a children’s book.

There’s a haunting song that she features about and has a boy from her choir along with the original singer Peter Auty.

This is a scene and the song from the movie.

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Norman Lear

I saw this cartoon by Bill Bramhall and it really brought memories back of Norman Lear. It’s sad that today’s generation doesn’t know so much about our history, including television history. I still pay for cable! I want to cut the cable, honest, but I can’t figure out if I’ll miss it or not.

Bill Bramhall is the excellent cartoonist for the New York Daily News, you can see his cartoons daily at GoComics here.

I grew up watching all of the Norman Lear shows from All in the Family to Maude to Sanford and Son and of course Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. And there were so many more. He basically created 1970s tv. For awhile there, All in the Family was must see tv. Norman died on Tuesday, he was 101!

I googled a list of Norman’s shows here.

I think our favorite was All in the Family. My mother and I used to mock Archie Bunker all the time. There was one thing that Archie did when Edith would over-talk, he would make believe he was killing himself. He would slowly load a gun and then shoot himself. Or he would tie a noose and hang himself. My mother would do that when I overtalked. She would just suddenly mime one of the actions, and we would both bust out laughing.

There was a period when Mom used to cut my hair and I would quote Archie. There were a few episodes when Archie was out of work due to a strike or something, and Edith would cut his hair, so when my Mom would ask me how I wanted my hair cut, I would say, “Without blood, Mom, without blood.”

And I would also say, “Go around the back, take some off at the top and when you get to an ear for Gawd sake, stop.” I would say God, the way Archie said it, Gawd.

Archie was a bigot and politically incorrect, we knew it. But so did the 40 to 60 million people who watched All in the Family each week.

Here is a list of Archie’s top 10 most politically incorrect comments.

I’m just thinking now, what Norman Lear would have been an excellent person to interview for my 10 With Tom series.

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Below deck; boos cruise

When I look at today’s cartoon it reminds me of that Below Deck tv show on Bravo. It’s a franchise, there’s all sorts of Below Decks. There’s the original Below Deck and there’s Below Deck Mediterranean, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Below Deck Down Under, and Below Deck Adventure. Sort of like the Real Housewives – one for every city.

I don’t watch any of the Below Decks, even though they seem to be very popular and my reasoning is quite stupid. The reason? I can’t understand how the full crew, including the captain and his staff and all the guests, along with the film crew, fit on the yachts. Seriously.

I live on the water, there are many yachts like that in my area, and I tried to look them over and figure how a large crew and a large bunch of guests, along with the camera men, sound men, etc. all fit below deck, let alone above deck!

*Just the crew on Below Deck, not counting the guests and film crew.*

And that’s why I can’t watch the show. I get too technical in my head to enjoy the story. I keep trying to figure out where everyone is sleeping, how they maneuver in the galley/kitchen, how they store all the food and drinks and how they all live aboard for a whole week or however long each outing is.

By the way, when I came up with this cartoon idea, I didn’t have Below Deck in mind, it just made me think of it after I looked at the cartoon.

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Paul on the tube

With The Beatles’ new song out, “Now and Then,” there seems to be a lot about The Beatles online now. I’ve seen a bunch of memes along with news stories. One meme, shown below, reminded me of this old Paul McCartney cartoon I did awhile back. Tube vs. Tube.

I guess it should really be is he on the “tube,” meaning subway or “telly,” meaning television? But tube and tube seems to work.

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NY Comic Con 2023

Another October, another NY Comic Con.

Went to the first day of Comic Con on Thursday, it was a beautiful day, sunny, cool and perfect. The usual cosplayers took over the Javits Center.

I walked around for a long time looking for the National Cartoonist Society booth, the program provided by the convention, didn’t show their location. Finally found it after an hour of walking around and there was Jason Chatfield, right in the center, doing his thing, which I think was drawing and giving out autographs.

I didn’t get too close to the booth – too many people. But I’m always tempted to “talk shop” with him. I interviewed last year for my 10 With Tom column and that would be a good ice breaker, but I didn’t introduce myself last year and I didn’t do it this year.

You can see him in the group of photos above, chatting away at the booth.

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I gotta rock

This recent cartoon is a play on words from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” You know, the “I got a rock!” part.

I got a t-shirt recently with the Peanuts characters and Charlie Brown is shown saying that as the kids go trick-or-treating. I plan on waring it at NY Comic Con on Thursday.

I was wearing the shirt the other day and one of my neighbors, who reads this blog, by the way, asked me what it meant. She didn’t get it.

She’s not big into pop culture. But this cartoon been playing non-stop every October since 1966, so I don’t understand how she didn’t understand it. She’s about my age, so we have had plenty of years to see the tv show. It was funny, because I was explaining the scene to her. She asked, “You mean every time he went to another house he just got a rock? Why?”

“Because he’s Charlie Brown,” I responded.

You can get the shirt here on Amazon if you like it. It comes in different colors.

Looks like Apple tv still has the rights to the Charlie Brown specials unfortunately. I miss having the shows on CBS with Dolly Madison and Coca Cola sponsoring them.

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Aieee! It’s Arnold!

I’ve written about “Arnold” before. One of my favorite comic strips from the 1980s. Arnold ran from 1982 through 1988. Kevin McCormic, was the cartoonist and Arnold Melville and his friend Tommy Jordan were the main characters. Mr. Lester, their teacher, rounded out the cast. That was it. Only the three characters were shown. If there were other characters, we would only see/hear their voices, but never see the person, sort of like Charlie Brown’s teacher.

Well recently a book came out, it’s volume one of what will be three volumes featuring the strips.

Cartoonist Charles Brubaker knew how much I loved Arnold and Charles contacted me to let me know that with Kevin’s cooperation, Charles is reprinting the entire run of Arnold in the three volumes.

I had to tell Charles he was too late, I had already ordered volume one!

You can get it here at Amazon and also have a look inside there at Amazon where there’s a brief history that can get you right into the strip.

I ordered it Friday and it arrived Saturday. I can’t put it down! Aieee!

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Words are very unnecessary

Depeche Mode has a new album out, I saw a segment about them on the CBS Sunday Morning, you can see that CBS segment below.

They were one of my favorite bands in the ’80s and ’90s.

I drew this cartoon in 2019. I’ve been holding on to it because I was thinking of redrawing it – having the guys in ice cream, you know, sort of lounging in a banana split or something. But I left well enough alone and just made it look like a new album, which, as I said, is now out. It’s called Memento Mori, which means “Remember You Must Die,” which is a bit morbid, because fellow band member, Andy Fletcher passed away in May 2022.

Dave Gahan and Martin Gore are the remaining duo.

Memento Mori can be heard here in full at YouTube.

The CBS interview is here.

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Protecting the entertainers

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.