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Leave me and my mojo alone

linus Things have really turned around for me – in a good way. I wrote about getting my mojo back before. I really think the daily news I published for years was dragging me down. I am free of it after 15 years and I have my mojo back. I am able to manifest and will things like I did for my whole life (minus the past 10 years or so). You may or not believe in The Secret, but I have been manifesting since I was a little kid. I don’t know how I knew to do it, but I just did, long before The Secret and The Power and all those books came out.

I believe the negativity was from non-stop stress. I would argue and fight with politicians and developers and stuff but also I was involved in everybody’s business whether I wanted to be or not. Just the other day I got an email from a girl at a local tattoo shop, she wanted me to fight their battles, which I would have done in the past – as part of my job, I guess.

The tattoo shops are closed, but beauty salons and barbers are open, she wanted me to write a story, come over and get involved, which of course would have lead me to the mayor and the local commissioner, who would have directed me to the governor’s office or something like that and for the next few weeks, I would have been dealing with people who I didn’t want to deal with. As you know this quarantine thing is right up my alley. I love mankind… it’s people I can’t stand. And I hated every second of doing that for the past 15 years.

I am friends with her boss, the owner of the shop, who incidentally called me a few weeks ago to say hello and check up on me, which I think was the nicest thing, it really meant a lot to me that he did that.

But anyway, my life consisted of this daily – who is doing what, do they have a permit for that? Why is this that way, who do I have to call? Who do I have to interview? While doing that for six years I was the condo prez, talk about stress. I also ran a business and published cartoons daily. Not sure where I got all the energy and time from, but it worked out at the time.

Now I don’t have to deal with anyone. Now I can be alone. I pay my bills and mind my own business. I am cartooning full time – my lifelong dream. I do like writing, so I write here on this blog but am not forced to cover news and events and I don’t have to write if I don’t feel like.

A friend who is a fantastic artist asked me to be part of his art project – me drawing cartoons on his Impressionistic paintings. I like the idea, but for now I want to be alone, like Garbo.

By the way, today is my birthday and I feel reborn! I feel like my life is starting over and I’m going to run with it.

Food is fresher, have you noticed?

pumpkin2

I was mentioning Mother Nature’s revenge and the reverse of climate change in an article at the end of March. The air is fresher, the ozone layer is closing, the water is clean – I noticed the other day how clean the ocean is. When I was a kid it was gin clear, you could be waist deep and still see your feet at the bottom of the water, my cousins from New York always were amazed at that. But over the years with the over-population of the state and more and more and more pollution, the water got murky.

Another reason could be that the cruise ships are not going out cruising and they are not dumping any trash and oil into the sea. Over the years the ships proliferated in number and of course the pollution caused by them proliferated.

I noticed another thing – fresh fruit and produce. Either Instacart shoppers are choosing the best there is or the produce is fresher and I tend to believe the produce is fresher simply because it’s always brought in fresh and the turnover is daily. People are buying more and more these days so the stores are stocking up more frequently, probably daily. I noticed it with lemons, celery, broccoli, apples and other things.

I’m sure the produce is going through the same amount of hands but you don’t notice it.

I have a neighbor who owns citrus and avocado groves. Every year for Christmas he would give each of us a case/carton of grapefruits or something like that. They were the freshest and most tender I ever have. I asked him why and he said only one pair of hands touched them, they came right off the tree into the carton, that was it. No other handling!

Which of course reminds me of apple picking in October in the Hudson Valley in New York state. I hope that happens again this year.

I saw an article about the future of concerts which mentioned 4th of July. I sent the first paragraph to my cousins, whom I spend 4th of July with: “Where were you planning to be on the Fourth of July this year? Backyard barbecue with your crankiest relatives, fighting over who gets to light the illegal fireworks that your derelict cousin smuggled in from South Carolina? Or maybe out on the Chesapeake Bay, arguing about the amount of mayonnaise in the crab cakes while drinking warm National Bohemian beer? Better yet, tubing down the Shenandoah with a soggy hot dog while blasting Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re an American Band’?”

We laughed at the “crankiest relatives,” which is all of us at one time or another. We spend the 4th in The Hamptons, not Chesapeake Bay, but sort of the same thing. We are all hoping for a “normal” 4th of July this year.

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 naked guy had a mask on!

There’s this guy who rides his bike around town naked. Or almost naked. For maybe 25 or 30 years, he has been riding from one end of the city to the next, all over Miami, in a flesh colored thong, so he appears naked and basically is. He’s about 65 now, so picture it. And no, I don’t have a picture. But if you ask anyone in Miami about the naked guy on the bike, they’ll know who you mean.

I’m thinking of this because the other day I was with a friend at a bar, which was closed, but had an open pick-up window for food pick-up, and he was talking to the naked guy who was the only person on the street with a mask! He wasn’t naked at the time, he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. But I found it funny that about 12 people where there and the only person wearing the mask was the usually naked guy – all covered up – on his face that is.

As for the naked guy, the gym won’t allow him in wearing a thong anymore, he has to have a shirt and shorts and whenever I see him at the bike shop in town he is in a t-shirt and shorts.

I got a comics idea about the situation the other day at the bar because something funny happened regarding the mask and the naked guy and my friend. Stay tooned.

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!

Sheltering-in-place is creating new businesses

hotdogs In this covid time, so many people are changing their lives. I have two friends who are sort of in the food business. I don’t know how far it will go, but there are many people who started food businesses in their kitchens.

One friend is selling hot dogs from a stand in front of his house, you know, like the ones you see in NYC. I stopped by and the whole neighborhood was out. He is doing an incredible business, especially at his prices. I only wanted a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut but I ended up with everything, two hot dogs for $16.00! I gave him a $20 and told him to keep the tip.

Another good friend of mine is selling pies and coffee! The coffee is ground in bags from some South American country, but the pies he is making in his kitchen from scratch. I took a couple of photos of him making the pies, but he is shy, which is the total opposite of his regular job – he is a cameraman and a producer of reality tv! I won’t mention the shows, but if I did, you would know them. So he prefers to be behind the camera, rather than out front.

He is selling the pies to restaurants and to people on the street. Those he sells in front of his house, like my hot dog friend. He has an idea now to go around on a bike and sell slices of pie! There is another guy in town that for years has sold hot dogs and hamburgers from his bike – so this is the idea with the pie.

Another friend started a bagel business, but they are gourmet bagels that sell from $9 to $15 each! And he sells coffee and other things. He sells 900 to 1000 bagels a day and sells out daily! Do the math! He has a regular storefront, presently he sells through a window since restaurants can only do take-out.

These are all village people by the way, they are from my village where I live. And they are my friends. There’s something in the water here I think.

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.

My friend Arva

arva A friend passed away yesterday – Arva Moore Parks – she was a Miami historian who knew everything there was to know about our city and she saved so many great historic places in the city.

When I was growing up, I admired her. Every time I read about her in the newspapers or saw her on tv, I was impressed.

Some years ago, I saw her on a plane. I was starstruck, totally starstruck. I didn’t say anything, but I was honored to be in her presence. She was a person of such high regard and honor.

Years later I met her at a local protest. I was covering the news for our town and she was there protesting the demolition of a 100 year old church. She came up to me and she knew me. She knew my name! She said my name! I had never met her before but she knew my name. From that day on we were friends. Not friends where we would talk all the time, but she would contact me about things and I would contact her about things and she even honored me by writing about me in her book about the history of Coconut Grove – our village.

Over the years whenever I was writing the news, fighting with politicians and trying to save the world, I would think as I was writing, “What would Arva think?” Would she agree with what I was doing? She always did.

One of our local PBS stations shows a little thing on the history of Miami every night in between programs. The first voice you hear is Arva’s and then you see her on the screen explaining one thing or another. The music at the beginning of the segment is always the same and when I hear it, I say out loud, “Cue Arva!” and I point to the tv and smile as she comes on the screen.

You can see her obit and see how great she was in this Miami Herald obit.

This is the video when I hear the music at the beginning, I know Arva is coming on next.

Jerry Stiller – Frank Costanza to you

Jerry Stiller passed away last night. As I watch all these tributes to him on tv I am finding myself needing to revisit Seinfeld. I watch now and then, but not on a regular basis. I mean I’ve seen every episode 100 times, but I haven’t watched for awhile.

When I see reruns now I can almost remember where I was when the episode was on for the first time in the 1990s. Thursday night was Must See TV.

When I am in New York, it’s all about Seinfeld and it has been over the years. It seems that every single person in New York City is a Seinfeld aficionado. Everything that happens can be compared to a Seinfeld scene.

Just last week my cousin called me from New York he had something happen to him and he said, “what does this remind you of? and I answered, “such and such episode of Seinfeld.”

When I am in the city I go up to Tom’s Diner which is the exterior for Monk’s Restaurant on Seinfeld.

My parents loved Stiller & Meara. When I was a kid we saw them in the street in the city one time and my parents were excited. They didn’t go up to them, but they pointed them out and said, “Look, there is Stilla and Meara.” They were that big at the time. But of course I know Jerry Stiller from Seinfeld and King of Queens, where he stole every scene. If you ever get a chance, check out these Seinfeld outtakes here on YouTube there are many videos of outtakes. Hysterical.

Here is a short one. I heard they had to redo this scene so many times because no one could keep a straight face while filming.