More Caricatures

I've been doing more caricatures, at THE Club's 4th of July party; Altec's Family Fun Day; and Sidewalk's Saturday night After Party, at the Avondale Brewing Company.  Here are 12 of my favorites:

Onion Puss, #1

Onion Puss is now in print.  Add this to your collection!

Issue #1 collects all the Onion Puss strips so far, from my weekly webcomic Zoo Laffs.

Onion Puss is the most wretched little fella you ever saw, and he has terrible luck with girls.  Fun adventures!  In this issue: Onion Puss goes on a wild ghost chase with the elusive Priscilla, the vivacious Holly, and the long dead Elizabeth. (recommended for ages 13 & up ... give or take)

You might have read this online already, but if you buy the print comic, you get

• the wonderful TACTILE sensation of holding the comic in your HAND and turning the PAGES
• the satisfaction that comes with the feeling of OWNERSHIP, and the ability to actually HAVE these comics among the precious THINGS that you have gathered throughout your life
• the warm feeling that comes from ENCOURAGING an artist to keep MAKING stuff, not just for his own personal enjoyment, but for actual monetary RECOMPENSE

Only $2.99.  Order now!  (And while you're at it, you can still pick up Jakey the Jerk, #1, too.)

Mystery Animals

Here are some illustrations I did for a pal, for a secret project of his.  I can't tell you what it is!

Reacting to the Past - 2012

Here's an illustration I did recently for an educators' workshop at Central Michigan University. To offset the harsh realities of history, I decided to depict all the characters with pleasant looks on their faces.

The guy in the upper right is Professor Mark Carnes, in the role of Revolutionary War general and statesman John Morin Scott.  Also shown: Frederick Douglass, Berthe Morisot, Emperor Wanli, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, Emma Goldman, Socrates, Anne Hutchinson, and Jawaharlal Nehru.  As themselves.

Jakey the Jerk, #1

Jakey the Jerk is now in print.  Add this to your collection!

Issue #1 collects all the Jakey the Jerk strips so far from my weekly webcomic Zoo Laffs.

Jakey the Jerk is a little ram who has trouble with women.  Because he's a jerk.  In this issue: Jakey goes on a mountain hiking adventure with the beautiful and baffling folk singer, Sassafras Vallee.  Is she the girl for him?  (recommended for ages 13 & up ... give or take)

You might have read this online already, but if you buy the print comic, you get

• the wonderful TACTILE sensation of holding the comic in your HAND and turning the PAGES
• the satisfaction that comes with the feeling of OWNERSHIP, and the ability to actually HAVE these comics among the precious THINGS that you have gathered throughout your life
• the warm feeling that comes from ENCOURAGING an artist to keep MAKING stuff, not just for his own personal enjoyment, but for actual monetary RECOMPENSE

Only $2.99.  Order now!

APF caricatures

I did a bunch of caricatures over the weekend, at the Alabama Phoenix Festival. I drew them smaller than usual, and with more colors, and with some effort, as always, to continue to get cartoonier. What do you think of these?

This kid's name is Darby.

For some reason, on this one, I reverted to my drawn-big-and-monochromatic style.

 This is my cartoonist friend Chris Fason.

This is my cartoonist friend Tim Rocks. He gave me license to try and be as grotesque as possible. I'm sure I could have pushed it further, though. I'm still trying to improve. 

This is my cartoonist friend Tom Briscoe. I did a very bland version first, then later in the day tried again in an attempt to be cruel. Probably somewhere in between would have been good. 

Trying to be a little more creative with color here, but I've got a lot to learn in that department.

This is the beautiful baby of my cartoonist friend Kinch Raby, II. 

This fellow only had a dollar, so I said I'd do a little bitty version for that. I like it. Maybe I should make them all little bitty.

The Alabama Phoenix Festival

It's here!  Birmingham sci-fi, fantasy, gaming, & arts convention The Alabama Phoenix Festival is starting now and continues throughout the weekend.  Click that link for all the info.

A bunch of Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas will be there: Tom Briscoe, Chris Fason, Andy Gray, James Hislope, Kinch Raby, and me, Chris Garrison.  As well as a bunch of other artists who probably SHOULD be SHC's, but just haven't joined yet.

I'll be selling Jakey the Jerk #1, which collects all the Jakey stories so far from my webcomic Zoo Laffs, and I reckon I'll also do a few caricatures.  See you there!

More Party Caricatures

I've been doing more party caricatures!  It's a lot of fun.  What do you think of these?

Never put red around the eyes.  It's demonic.

She wasn't squinting when I drew her!

Loved these guys.

I'm still feeling like my caricature style is just okay.  I think if I would just study what some of my favorite caricaturists are doing, and employ some weird theories I've been hatching about the art form, and really practice to figure some things out, I might make a stylistic breakthrough.  I just need to take the time to do that stuff.

Kablooey Extras

Over at Zoo Laffs (my weekly webcomic on DummComics.com), I just finished up a 10-part story.  It's called Kablooey!!!, and it stars Jakey the Jerk and Sassafras Vallee.  (If you'd like to read it from the beginning, start HERE.)

It seems like it went over pretty well with the readers, so I thought maybe a few people would enjoy some behind the scenes stuff.  So now, here are a few of the DVD Special Features.


These, I think, are the first drawings of Jakey ever. (click any of these images to enlarge) --

For some reason, I did my writing for Kablooey in longhand.  Here's a typical page of the script (although most pages didn't have any sketches on them).  Note the numbers, where I'm trying to work out what to put in which panel.

Here's a look at the design process for our heroine.  It took me three pages of my sketchbook before I felt like I'd hit upon a pretty good Sassafras.  Here are all three pages.  Maybe you like one of the earlier versions better, eh?

I like to plan out the pages before I start the actual drawing, to work out the panel layouts and acting beats.  Here's my rough idea for the beginning of part 9:

Then I pencil it for rilz:

For this story, I inked it on my light table, instead of doing it digitally.  Here's how that page turned out:

Hopefully, I'll get to come back to Jakey and Sassafras before too long.  Although I do have a few other things I want to do first.