The Madness of March

What am I going to post this month?

I've gotten in the habit of using a holiday to guide my posts for the given month, and this month we have both Saint Patrick's Day and Easter.  How is one to pick a fitting theme with these competing holidays. They've sorta canceled each other out in my mind. Although it's not that I'm sitting on a amazing stash of fascinating Saint Patrick's Day and Easter related stuff either.

Maybe I could use this post to rant about the upcoming daylight saving time.  It's nothing but a pain.  A quick word to the world leaders and captains of industry who I know are fervent readers of this blog - isn't it about time we pulled the plug on this nonsense people?

Hey speaking about "rich and powerful" readers, I suspect many famous comic artists read my blog also.  For example how many saw the comic strip Lio by Mark Tatulli that ran on Sunday February 17, 2013...

Now check out the blog post I made on December 5, 2007.  It was about homemade Christmas cards I made back in 1990...

Card Front

Inside

I'm sure it's totally a coincidence, or possibly a homage.  

Well back to figuring out what the heck I'm going to post for the rest of the month.

Crazy Christmas Cavalcade: Christmas on Easter Island

Here's another new animation for the holidays.

It's a new animation based on an old Christmas card I made years ago...



If you're an avid reader of this blog maybe you remember this card from a post way back on December 7, 2007.

Hmm, I think I like the way I originally drew that Santa hat better than what I've drawn in the new animation.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #7

I discovered Microsoft Publisher in 1997, and thought it would be a great tool for creating my cards (I'd barely even heard of the Adobe's Photoshop or Illustrator back then). Kinko's told me they could print my Publisher file directly on to card stock. Great news! This was going to be my best card yet, but, unfortunately, due to some odd quirk my artwork printed in B&W. So I had to settle for some weird colorized look...

Front

The colorized look sorta works since my card was supposed to resemble a poster for an old cartoon. Still I would have preferred my artwork to be in full color, so for the first time ever here's my original art...

Original Art

On the inside I made up a fake news clipping about my fake cartoon...

Inside

And finally my fake company name for the year...

Back

Well this completes my homemade card posts for the season. Thanks to everyone who left comments, or emailed with some kind words. I truly appreciate it.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #6

I used a paper cut-out technique for the art on my 1996 card. This wasn't my attempt to copy the look of South Park (South Park didn't premiere until 1997), but to copy the look of Mary Blair. Mary's art is very cute and charming, and I wanting my elves to look cute even if they were doing something very weird.

Front

Head cheese has to be one of the grossest food products ever, and about the strangest thing I could think to substitute for gingerbread. On the inside I didn't have any clever text, it just said "Happy Holidays."

Here was my fake company name for 1996...

Back

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #5

In 1995 I got a little religious, but it was a geeky kind of religious with the three wise men depicted as robots.

On the inside it read...


On the back is my fake card company name for the year...

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #4

We're now up to 1994, and I decided to place something disturbing on the front of the card.

Front

On the inside it read...

Inside

As you can now see it was disturbing, yet highbrow at the same time (hey isn't that Hooters' slogan?) with my idea of how old Pablo Picasso might have drawn Old Saint Nick.

Also I put another fake card company name on the back...

Back

You may have guessed by the company name I do like using a thesaurus from time to time.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #3

Two years of hand airbrushing each and every one of my Christmas cards, not to mention coming up with a totally original idea, is grueling work. So in 1993 I made a quantum leap into the future by photocoping my cards, and I further cut down my labor by simply altering the artwork of an existing card.

I found a cheap card that featured some corny old-timey artwork, and I spiced things up at bit by carefully painting in a stick of dynamite. Years of watching Loony Tunes is bound to have an effect on ones' mind.

front

I kept the original inside text which now took on a slightly new meaning...

inside

On the back of the card where you'd find the Hallmark logo (if this was a real store-bought card) I made up my own brand name. I don't remember where I found the word dactylogram (it means finger print), but I think I liked how it rhymed with the word brand. It also sorta ties in with the OK hand gesture clip-art.

Back

The addition of the dynamite in the pants was so subtle that some people didn't even notice it. Upon news of this one of my friends profoundly stated, "In life there are those who notice dynamite in the pants, and those who don't."

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #2

For Christmas of 1992 I made another airbrushed card, but unlike the snowman card I only did the front of the cards this time.

I liked the word play of "Christmas on Easter Island," and using the island's iconic statues in a fun way.

Homemade Christmas Card Retrospective #1

In 1990 I got the idea to make my own Christmas cards. Here is my first official card. I only made about 15 since the cards were a bit labor intensive. Each card was hand drawn and airbrushed. That's right no photocopying here, each card was an original, and made with love.

Front

Inside

As you can see my card tackles a bold hypothetical question about snowmen having skeletons. I liked the idea of a sweet looking Christmas on the outside hiding a something slightly ghoulish on the inside.

This time my idea was totally original. Although I think I've seen a cartoon in resent years that used this same idea. I'm sure it was just a coincidence, or maybe it was karma payback for the Seasonings' Greetings photo.