This actually happened. Not the kneeling part, but the barista calling out, “Neil! Neil!” for his coffee. Of course my mind got to working when I heard that and I came up with this cartoon.
One time in Starbucks in NYC, there were four of us in there waiting for our orders. It was about 8:00 pm and they were getting ready to close down. All four of us customers were men.
They called out, “Tom!” And I went to pick up the order, but it was for another Tom who was there. And the same thing happened a couple of other times – there were four Toms in Starbucks waiting for our orders. No other customers in there, just the four Toms.
That was some sort of Universe message or something. Not sure what but I’m sure that will never happened again anywhere.
Every time I pass that particular Starbucks at 26th and Broadway, I think of that Tom incident.
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A friend posted this on Facebook: “Annoying in the moment but everyone is grateful afterwards.”
She was referring to a quote: “Take pictures of everything and everyone. I don’t care who I annoy by constantly taking pictures, in the end they will be all we have left. Every photo is a memory – capture it.”
I had to laugh because for years I would take pictures of everything – with a camera. This was before cellphones. So it was with an actual small camera that I carried around.
I would take pictures of us on the subway or on a bus, or in the middle of the street and one of my cousins, who I was always with, would get embarrassed and annoyed. He would always tell me to stop it, but in the end, he would always ask for a copy of the picture(s).
Every once in awhile he brings that up and we laugh.
Even today, with my cellphone I still embarrass people at times, even though everyone is constantly taking pictures all the time. I’ll say to a stranger who we ask to take our picture if they mind, “We are from Kansas, we aren’t used to all this city stuff,” I’ll say. I think the person knows I’m joking.
I read once that in this age of non-stop picture taking, we are losing something that in the old days was a part of it all – the scrapped pictures – which have a life of their own. But these days I assume most of us take a bunch of pictures and only save the ones we like, deleting the ones we don’t like, losing those scrapped, interesting pictures for good probably.
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I laugh every time I see this cartoon, not just because it’s mine, but because it’s true.
I was recently in New York and Boston and I saw it, and every winter/fall, there is some guy in shorts and t-shirt running or just standing in the city while everyone else is bundled up.
Is he showing off or does he not feel the cold?
He’s probably from a cold climate and 30 degrees is not cold to him. Maybe he’s from Alaska or Canada or some northern European city.
I know that when I’m home in Miami, when it gets to 70 degrees, I need to wear a hoodie or jacket or something, but when I’m in NY, I can go out in a t-shirt in 50 degree weather and when it’s been 39 degrees and sunny, I can walk with an open jacket and t-shirt in NY and not feel the cold. I think it may have something to do with the humidity in Miami and maybe lack of it up north. It just feels colder down south when the temp drops.
I remember one year, it was 19 degrees at the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in NY and I was fine out there. I was bundled up and dressed for the weather and I think only my nose was cold. But I was bundled up, I wasn’t in shorts and a t-shirt.
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This recent cartoon is not really correct – the hieroglyphics are not numbers.
The ankh, the cross symbol is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol meaning “key of life,” used to represent the word for “life” it’s a symbol of life itself.
And the eye symbol – the Eye of Horus, in ancient Egypt, symbol representing protection, health, and restoration.
Numbers are shown here, as an example you can see the year 2765 is written as shown above and here are the Eye of Horus and the Ankh, the cross symbol.
But the Egyptians didn’t count the years as we do. The ancient Egyptians counted the years starting at the year a Pharaoh started his reign (called Regnal Years). So back then they started over every time they had a new Pharaoh.
Other than all that, I think it’s a cool cartoon.
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I wrote last week that the week between Christmas and New Years was one of my favorite weeks. But I think the days and probably the whole week after New Year’s Day is also my favorite. I like when everything goes back to normal.
Things start off slow and ease into the New Year, which is a big change from the chaotic period between October and December, which I also love. But when it’s time for the chaos to end, it’s nice that January comes just in time. Of course by the end of February, I’m ready for something to happen, I feel that the months between January and maybe April, are boring.
I never make resolutions for the new year, not sure why, I just don’t. Guess I’ll just start taking the Christmas tree down and boxing up Mariah Carey, Home Alone and the leg lamp (yes, I have one, it was a gift a few years back).
Happy New Year!
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I think this is my favorite week of the year. We don’t have a name for it, though. What could we call the week between Christmas and New Years?
For many years, I was a bit worried, related to business. Each year, business would come to a complete halt. Two weeks before Christmas, up to New Years, business would just cease and I would get worried. And each year, my mother would say, “You say that every year! Don’t you remember, it’s like that each year?” And she was right. Business picked up right after the new year.
Now I don’t care. I learned to just take things as they come, or don’t come. And now I enjoy the lull in everything. I honestly keep forgetting what day of the week it is!
It’s funny, because right before Christmas, it’s very hectic with all the preparations and then it just stops on December 26.
I’m enjoying see all the hecticness at the airports this week on tv, and knowing I’m not part of that mess. I last traveled at Thanksgiving time, but it was during the off-days, so it wasn’t hectic. While it’s a big tourist time in Miami, I don’t live in a tourist area, so it doesn’t affect me.
I have a friend who has always loved New Year’s Eve and the new year. I guess it was all a fresh start for him, and now I appreciate that. I think these days my favorite Holiday is Thanksgiving. For many years it was Christmas, as I am sure most kids enjoy the most, then it was Halloween. Now it is Thanksgiving.
My mother always loved July 4th. One year for her birthday, I bought her all sorts of July 4th things – it seems weird, but it was great. I got decorations and big serving platter, lots of U.S. Flags and things like that. She really loved it.
While I love this time of year, I also enjoy my time in New York in the summer. I already made my plane reservations. I have six months to go and I have already started the countdown. I would like to go somewhere in Europe in the Spring, too. Still thinking what to do about that.
So for now I’m going to enjoy New Years Eve and Day and the new year. Hope you do, too.
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As usual, I am posting my favorite Christmas commercial from Publix. It may be my favorite commercial of all time.
It reminds me of my youth, for a number of years, from 1987 to 1996, it ran every season.
The music in Last Train Home is from Still Life (Talking) an album by Pat Metheny Group, released in 1987.
To this day, when Pat Metheny is performing, he’ll refer to the song as, “The Publix song.” Publix has a new Christmas commercial every year, but I always hope they will bring it back for nostalgic value, so when I hear it come on, like I did in the “old days,” I would just drop everything and run to the tv to watch and listen.
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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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When I was younger I went to a lot of parties. I don’t know if I was a party animal in the sense that I went to every party, which I didn’t, but I enjoyed going to quite a few, plus all my friends were there, so I sort of had to go. These days I don’t really care to go. I do, but I would rather not attend.
There’s a condo get together next week, just about a dozen of us are attending, I would love to not go, but I guess I should. I mean I just have to take the elevator down a few floors.
A few years back, I didn’t go to my brother’s for Easter. I had just seen my family a couple of days before at Pizza Night and I didn’t feel like taking the long drive out to their house. When my nephew asked me why I didn’t show up, I said, “You expected me to drive all that way for a fukn slice of ham?”
I can still see the look on his face, his reaction. He jumped back, the way Charlie Brown does when he sees the little Christmas tree all lit up and decorated at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I laugh every time I think of it. I’ve been to so many events at their house over the years, I just didn’t feel like going that one year.
I was just with about 20 people at Thanksgiving at a cousin’s house in New York – that’s a yearly thing, I wouldn’t miss it. And this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ll be with my family here in Miami, I wouldn’t miss any of that.
One time I didn’t go out on New Year’s Eve. It was my first time being alone, ever. I’m including when I was a baby and a child up to adulthood. I was never alone.
I don’t remember the reason for being alone this one year, but it was very uncomfortable at first. I’ve always been with family or friends or at parties or whatever. But this was so odd. I didn’t know how to react. But you know what? I loved it. I look forward to not doing anything on New Year’s Eve every year now. As they say, that’s a night for amateurs to go out.
I’m known for not doing things I don’t want to do. Typical Gemini.
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tomversation.com 