Tomversation comics

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.”

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.

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.

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!

Comic awareness

alfred-pete — Alfred E. Neuman and Pete Buttigieg

The Daily Cartoonist recently had an article about the younger generation not being aware of past comic references, like when Pete Buttigieg was compared to Alfred E. Neuman, many younger people had no clue what that meant, or Andy Capp was referenced on a late night show and it went flat, younger people didn’t know Andy Capp.

I find this interesting because when I’m cartooning, I try to think in my head about the audience. Who is my audience? I go back and forth. I make references to things in the past but more often than not I refer to current things that the older audience doesn’t understand. That was common when I published daily a few years back.

I would use a current term associated with today’s youth and the readers didn’t have a clue. But then I realized that perhaps it is because of where I was posting. It was basically a site read by older folks, people who actually hold the newspaper in their hands and read comics and news!

When I start publishing Tomversation on May 4th, I will publish on my own website, but also I will publish on Facebook here and Instagram here and I assume that most of the readers on those platforms will be younger more than older, although Facebook seems to be out of favor with the younger crowd, but they still like Instagram.

So it will be interesting to see which group accepts my work more, or which group understands and gets my work more – not that it’s anything too complicated, but I do make references that will be from the past or more current, the spectrum that covers my knowledge and age I guess. But I’ve always liked the fact that not everyone gets a comic. I feel when that happens it’s an inside joke.

I didn’t understand this Tiger King thing that was going around – the memes and stories and things people were saying and posting online, so I looked it up and I’m all caught up now; not with the show, but knowing what Tiger King is about and how he fits into current pop culture.

I’ve been ‘pumping out’ comics

tomversation-comic-friday2

I’ve been pumping out comics on a daily basis – two, three, four comics a day! And I’m still getting giddy after completing each one. I really love the single panel format. I enjoy having different characters all the time in different situations. So by “pumping out” I don’t mean it to sound like an assembly line – I am enjoying every moment of it!

tomversation-comic-friday1 All systems are go for May the 4th for daily publication to start. I chose May the 4th, because it’s sort of a pop culture sort of day – “May the 4th Be With You!”

Pretty soon, this page at Tomversation.com will turn into a gateway page for this blog and also for the Tomversation comic. You’ll see what I mean when it switches over, so you can read the comic daily here online or at social media sites:

Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/
Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons/

Go ahead, follow now so you won’t miss out on premier day!!

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Single panel vs comic strip

I’ve been asked why I like single panel cartoons rather than comic strips.

I like to read both, I appreciate both, but for my own projects, I prefer the single panel. They both have their pros and cons to me.

A single panel comic might seem harder in theory, as each day is a single gag that has to be funny, where a comic strip can move the story along without being a belly laugh daily because once you know the characters, you don’t have to be funny every day.

With a comic strip or even a panel with the same characters daily, I’ve found that they write themselves after awhile. Their own personalities come out and you can have a character stare out into the audience and get a laugh without even saying anything. But I get bored drawing the same characters and basic situations day after day.

While a single panel may be a bit difficult where you have to come up with different situations and gags daily, I really enjoy that. I like having different characters and different situations; different time periods -future, past, whatever. As for coming up with the gags, I don’t seem to have a problem with that, I guess it’s just how my mind works. I’ll hear something or read something and I then sort of twist it in my mind and get a comic out of it. I don’t do that to get a comic, I just think like that on a daily basis!

The comic strips take me from three to four hours to complete each strip, where a single panel can take from 45 minutes to an hour. I was told one time by a comics editor that I work too fast, he could tell that by looking at my work, not watching me work, but just by looking at the completed comics.

I like the fact that with a single panel comic, it is easily shared on social media. You don’t have to know the characters, you don’t have to know the storyline, it is just a single gag that you might enjoy and share. I’ve had single panel comics shared on social media by thousands of people and liked by thousands, where I don’t know if that would be the case with a strip unless it’s Peanuts or Pearls Before Swine or something like that.

So I hope you’ll be following Tomversation daily when I start publishing my comic starting May 4th. You can follow here online (that’s a different address than this blog, or at Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/ and Facebook: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons/

Go ahead, follow now so you won’t miss out on premier day!!

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.

Another rejection letter and I’m grateful!

So it’s time to get off the pot. I need to make a move.

After 15 years, I ended my daily news blog, which chronicled our local town and I am now fully committed to posting daily comics. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the syndicates do not like Hal and High Water.

Just like Benilda threw Hal out, the syndicates seemed to have thrown the Hal comic strip out. I received rejection letters from most of them and yesterday, Andrews McMeel Syndicate sent me a letter explaining their decision, and I’ll take “no” for an answer, as for the rejections, I believe Charles Schulz received 80 of them!

Here is their response:

Thank you for your submission. I have had a chance to review your comic and, unfortunately, we are not in a position to syndicate your feature idea. Although there are some qualities to your work that I do really enjoy, I feel like there isn’t enough to your concept for us to consider running it. There are a number of other syndicates that do an excellent job and you might consider sending your work to them, too.

Best regards,
Andrews McMeel Syndication Editorial

I am happy about this as I find it tedious to draw the same characters and situations day after day. It’s like painting the same painting over and over day after day, my true love is the single panel cartoon. I’ve always been “drawn” to that.

I did explain that to the editors at Andrews McMeel and they must be wondering why I submitted a comic strip. I’m not quite sure myself. I did 30 of the strips and submitted those 30. Maybe one day I’ll post them here so you can see what they were all about.

I’m not sure what they meant by not having enough of a concept as I explained what I would do with the comic for years in the future. But again, I am happy they declined the feature as I would like to do my Tomversation comic panel, rather than a strip, on my own terms.

So here is the news: Starting May the 4th (“May the 4th be with you” day) Tomversation will start publishing daily. So far I have three venues where I will publish online:
At this website: TomFalco.com
Facebook: facebook.com/tomversation.toons
Instagram: instagram.com/tomversation.toons/

If I decide to add another venue, I’ll let you know here.

There are comics on Instagram and Facebook with millions of fans/followers. That is my goal.

Stay tooned.

Subscribe to this blog now. Receive Tomversation via email
each time I publish Click here.