cartoons – Page 2

How do I start cartoon tutoring?

I’ve had the idea of tutoring or teaching kids lately. What would I teach? The art of cartoons or comic drawing of course. I can barely add two and two, so math would be out and I am good at English, but I guess cartooning is the way.

I have a neighbor who is a retired teacher and she makes more money tutoring kids than she ever did teaching. I think she teaches Spanish and was a Spanish teacher in her teaching career.

She mostly tutors here at the condo, at her condo unit. There are kids in and out all day, I don’t see how she does it, it’s a lot of work, but she is raking in the money.

I’m wondering if this type of tutoring is the way to go. How do I start?

Things are done digitally now. I draw my cartoons digitally using a Surface Pro and a program called Clip Studio Paint.

I’ve used other programs like Procreate and an ipad and a Wacom Tablet, but I like the Surface Pro because it’s also a computer with a keyboard and it’s easy to work on when I need to do actual work. I’m used to Clip Studio Paint, so I use that. But anything will do, I suppose. But therein lies the rub.

How do I teach? Do I teach using digital tools or do I use pen and paper? Does the student need their own hardware (computer) and software (program)? I’ll of course need to know how to use all the tools if I am setting them up to draw, which I suppose would be the same using all platforms.

How do I get clients? Is it ok to have kids here at my condo or is that weird since I’ve never been a teacher and I’m a strange man having students in and out? I guess it’s like giving piano lessons or tutoring Spanish or math.

Lots to think about, but I like the idea of being a sort of art teacher, which was always my favorite “subject” when I was in school.

Maybe I could do the whole thing digitally, you know, online I could possibly do lessons through zoom. Do people still zoom? Or maybe I can tutor on YouTube or something; give drawing or cartooning lessons on YouTube. Then I can reach a lot of students at once and not have to interact one-on-one in person.

if I teach through zoom or YouTube, then adults can be tutored, too.

Guess I should think this all over for a while before I make any decisions, or god forbid, get any paying students and then not know what to do with them.

Till next time . . .

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Fall is here

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New for 2026 – my ‘Tomversation’ calendar!

It’s calendar season and I’m part of it this year.

Many years ago, I published a calendar based on our village and it sold like crazy. Now I have a 2026 “Tomversation” cartoon calendar, based on my cartoon work.

It’s a wall calendar, 11″ x 8.5″ in size when opened. There are over 25 cartoons covering the 12 month calendar pages. It’s a limited edition.

They matte finish allows for writing on the calendar for notes and such.

I based the calendar on animal cartoons – mostly dogs, some cats and even snakes and other animals like lions and fish (are fish animals?).

I don’t charge for my blog or cartoons published online and people are always asking how to support me, so I put this together where you can purchase a calendar or two and support me that way. It will keep me from charging for subscriptions for this blog and my Tomversation comics online.

I’m selling it through Etsy here, if interested.

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Till next time . . .

It’s fall and Halloween week!

All cartoons via TomFalco.com

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Wizard of Oz to Computer Wizard

All comics By Tom Falco

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Why I’m ambivalent about Nancy and Sluggo

Nancy the comic strip is going through some changes.

You remember Nancy, don’t you? Well, it has been in production all this time.

The Ernie Bushmiller comic, started in 1925, went on until 1982, when he passed away. Mr. Bushmiller wrote and drew the comic. It started out as Fritzi Ritz, who is Nancy’s aunt and then morphed into Nancy when she was introduced in 1933. So yes, it goes way back.

From 1982 to 2018, after Bushmiller’s death, the strip was written and drawn by various people.

Mr. Bushmiller took Fritzi Ritz over from a cartoonist named Larry Whittington, who started it in 1922. I only mention it because it’s been in quite a few hands over the years. For the last seven, it’s been written and drawn by the mysterious Olivia Jaimes, but currently it’s in reruns.

Another change. And therein lies the rub.

I remember reading Nancy when I was a kid. I mostly remember it at my grandmother’s house, so maybe it wasn’t in the newspapers we got at home and was in something she subscribed to.

Since 2018, there was a “new” Nancy. It was the same old Nancy and Sluggo, but in a new way. As I mentioned, cartoonist Olivia Jaimes wrote and drew the strip, now she is retiring from that and Caroline Cash is taking over. New strips will appear in the new year. Currently old Ernie Bushmiller strips are running.

When Olivia first took over, I tried to interview her for my 10 With Tom column, but I received no response. Olivia Jaimes is a pseudonym and she, or is it a he? likes to remain unknown.

I find it quite careless to just take on a well-known strip, make it your own for a few years and just “retire.” But I guess that was the case from 1982 to 2018 when the strip was run by others, sort of passing it around until Olivia took it over in 2018. And now she is passing it on. And who knows, perhaps she needs to leave for personal or health reasons.

I know that if I was given a legacy strip, I would guard it and cherish it like so many other cartoonists do.

I was reading comments on The Daily Cartoonist blog, where I found out about this Nancy change and there are those for it, and those against it.

One commentor feels as I do, saying, “I find it highly insulting that Andrews McMeel just passes this classic comic strip over to others willy nilly. And Olivia had a plum position that people would kill for. She just went through the motions. Didn’t she take off a long period of time last year, having others fill in for her?” He went on to call her “blasé” about it.

Andrews McMeel runs GoComics.com – they syndicate the strip along with so many others.

But again, since we don’t know who Olivia is, perhaps she was ill in the summer and needed the break and maybe that’s the case now.

One guy says in the comments at The Daily Cartoonist that it isn’t a “plum” assignment. But I beg to differ. As a cartoonist myself, I think having a nationally syndicated comic strip is a “plum” assignment. He called it a “zombie strip,” but it was alive when Olivia produced it. And thousands, if not millions of people read it over the past seven years.

Another comment on the Daily Cartoonist: “I miss the original Bushmiller style Nancy. I shudder to think what would have happened if Peanuts had been continued after Schulz’s death. I guess, however, things change and time marches on. And maybe I’m a little envious of a working cartoonist.”

Other strips have changed hands and changed the look and feel, which sort of makes it the cartoonists’ own. In the beginning, Ernie Bushmiller took Fritzi Ritz over from Larry Whittington, so there right there it shows that a person can take over a feature and really put their stamp on it.

Anyway, the new Nancy starts in January, we’ll have to check it out.

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Sole heirs and easter eggs

Charles Edwards and Rebecca Gibney from “Under the Vines”

I came upon this new show (new to me), called “Under the Vines“. It’s a drama-comedy from New Zealand. It just started showing on one of our PBS channels here in Miami, but I think it’s a few years old.

I had seen the commercial and it looked good, almost a Green Acres sort of thing – a fish out of water plot line.

Two people, a step daughter and a nephew inherit a vineyard. They don’t know each other and are told they are “sole heirs” of the vineyard.

To make a long story short, they meet each other and find out the quandry, of both being owners, but they end up both wanting to sell the place and get out asap. But it’s such a charming place, that by the end of episode one, they stay and attempt to work it out, and therein lies the show. I’ve only seen the one episode, but I love it.

I guess there are not many actors in New Zealand because the actors seem to move from show to show. One guy, Pana Hema-Taylor, I’ve seen on “Under the Vines”, “800 Words” and “Brokenwood Mysteries.” He has small parts on every show, and I laugh whenever I see him pop up. It’s almost a requisite to have him on a show based in New Zealand.

Anyway, I got the idea for this cartoon from the show. When the barrister told the characters they were the “sole heir” of the vineyard, the cartoon is what popped into my head.

In my head, my cartoon had a different scene – they were in a lawyers office and were being read the will, but it ended up being this.

I like to put little Easter eggs in my cartoons – things that regular fans would notice.

In this case I just reused the storefront and “redressed it.”

I’ve used scenery from other cartoons over, sort of like they do in tv and movies – just redressing the scene and using the same sets. And I’ve used the same people at times – just giving them different dialogue.

In this case, you can see the storefront, redressed, and used in two cartoons.

Sure, I can easily redraw the scene, but I think it’s fun to do this, just to give the audience something to enjoy if they find the “Easter egg.”

Here’s a quick little video of the single panel cartoon. There’s no sound.

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I’ll do it every time

I saw this old comic strip recently, it’s “They’ll Do It Every Time.” It’s from the 1940s.

This reminded me of me because I never wanted to go anywhere – to weddings, parties, communions, whatever, and my mother would always say to me, “You always say you don’t want to go, and then you’re the last one to leave.” And she was right, I did it every time.

I remember a few years back I was at a Chamber of Commerce event and at the end, I was sitting at a table with three other people, and as we were talking the restaurant staff was taking the table cloth off the table, telling us they needed to get ready for the dinner service, so we were basically pushed out.

One of the people with us was a friend named Robert, who is no longer with us, he was a nice guy. As we exited the building, I can remember him looking down at my shoes and saying, “Nice set of wheels!” Which I guess meant he liked the shoes. I had never heard that expression before, but it always stayed with me.

“They’ll Do It Every Time,” the comic panel is one of the ones I enjoyed as a kid. I was surprised to read recently that it ran new until 2008; it started in 1929.

I also liked “Hazel,” and “Our Boarding House” and so many single panel cartoons, which is why I probably do my Tomversation single panel cartoon today.

I see also old “Our Boarding House” cartoons posted daily on Facebook and I often watch the old Hazel tv show reruns.

While the cartoon above is not single panel, most of the time “They’ll Do It Every Time” was single panel.

I like the fact that single panel cartoons have to happen in that one panel. Of course, “The Far Side” was the best when I was growing up. I loved seeing that in the newspaper every day.

While I don’t have to be limited to a single panel or a single size since I’m publishing online and I could fill up a whole page with multi-panels if I wanted, I do enjoy having the one size – 5″ x 5″ where I have to fit it all in.

Once in awhile I do break it up, as I did with this one last week, but it’s very rarely that that happens. I like to keep it in the one panel.

There are many single panel cartoons that I don’t like, simply because I don’t enjoy them, so it’s not that every single one is enjoyable to me. But the format is what attracts me to it.

New Tomversation tees are available at the Etsy shop. They come in four colors, many sizes. Only available in the U.S. at the moment. With free shipping on every order. Here’s the link to the shop.

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Abstract recipes

I don’t know why, but today’s Tomversation cartoon makes me laugh out loud. I mean I usually laugh at my cartoons, otherwise I wouldn’t create them, but for some reason, every time I look at this, I crack up.

I guess I am picturing a calm lady explaining to her friend that she goes mad when her recipes don’t turn our right and she throws them across the room onto the wall.

At first, it was going to say something like, “Oh, that – Frank doesn’t like some of my recipes.” But I didn’t want to bring violence into it, so I made her mocking her own creations.

It sort of looks like modern art that she is creating.

I have a friend, who needed to start making money, so he started creating modern art; you know, abstract stuff and he it sells for thousands of dollars now. He never did this before, he just used his imagination and came up with incredble stuff.

They are huge canvasas, I’m not even sure how he transports them to houses and condos where his work is sold and hung, but he does work sort of like Jackson Pollock, that sort of abstract stuff. It’s awesome.

The huge canvasas go perfectly in very large spaces in condos and houses. They really complete the decor.

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House Hunters

Ever notice on House Hunters that every time people see a nice balcony, overlooking a beautiful scene as they are house hunting, they say, it’s a perfect place to have coffee in the morning.

And of course, every spare room or small room, would make a great office.

I wonder how many people use the room for an office and how many people have coffee on the balcony.

I have a beautiful wrap around balcony where I live. I’ve been here for over 20 years and I don’t think I have ever once had coffee out there. I do use one spare room as an office, I’m typing this in the office right now.

I have another spare room that looks like an attic – it’s full of stuff.

My balcony faces the bay – it’s literally feet from Biscayne Bay and it’s beautiful. Whenever people would come here and see it for the first time, they would invariably say, “If I lived here, I would be out on the balcony all the time.”

I tell them, “I’m usually in my bedroom watching tv.” And they laugh, but it’s true. I guess the grass is always greener.

I was doing this thing where I was taking pictures of clouds and making images out of them. I was showing someone the balcony and said, “Here is where I take the cloud pictures. But I take them through the window, I don’t go out on the balcony to do it.”

The height of laziness.

I do appreciate the balcony and the view though. I look outside every day, it’s the first thing I do in the morning. I never get tired of it. I’m just not out there having coffee, or wine, or whatever. Maybe I should.

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