Return to the Throne

Back in the mid 90's, the Ottawa citizen used to have a section called "High Priority" showcasing student writers, poets, and, cartoonists. Upon hearing they were paying 50 clams to whomever's material they printed, my post-college, beer-craving-intellect went into overdrive. Although having moderate success in getting some "toons" published under my new (younger) Alias, I remember there was this one other cartoonist who was consistently getting printed week after week. This guy was killing me in the polls (and seriously cutting into my beer profits). Eventually, the Citizen dropped the section altogether, but not before my old foe managed to get himself syndicated in the Sunday color comix page. 15 years later, low and behold, I was sitting right next to my old nemesis at Amberwood Studios. This dastardly villain's name: ANDY KING !!
Well, it didn't take long to find out about our run-in on the pages of "High Priority" and Andy turned out to be one funny guy to work with, and inspired me to get back into cartooning again. This particular cartoon never got published, but was one that the editor kept on her bulletin board. Upon a surprise visit from me, I asked her why she had never published it ( and more importantly, never given me another fifty bones). She told me "yehhh... sorry, but we just can't print a cartoon of a guy sitting on the can...funny though!". Mystery solved.

Executing Free Speech

In hindsight, I probably should have had the "Eski-Hoe" buried up to her chest in snow ( knowing what I know now about the finer points of a good stoning ). Also, I wish I had done a better job on Jesus's hair ( ' kinda looks like a Basset Hound's ears). Forgive me O'Lord.

Elevated Perspective

I remember trying to "batwalk" up the side of my house as a kid. It's actually much harder than it looks.

A View to a Kill

Although, I always found this cartoon to be a little too "wordy" for my present tastes, I always liked the expression I came up with on Kirk's face - dead calm! It's the same expression I wear when my roommate Jen gets a hold of the TV remote and asks me if I wouldn't mind watching "The View" for awhile.

The Love Boot

Another "oldie" but one that stood the test of time. After seeing this one again after 13 years, I realized that the palm tree acted as a third "dreaded" element I never noticed before (until just a few minutes ago). Never underestimate the power of the force ( or the "zone" as I call it) when it takes over.

Un-Fortunate Cookie

My favorite element in this cartoon has to be the camera in Ded-Yung-Guy's hands. Although in hindsight, I should have given him a bigger zoom lens.

Fingerbags

I remember (one summer) working with my friend Neil at a small carpentry factory where strangely, half the employees were missing the same half-finger and thumb from their left hand. We soon found out there was a certain saw mounted at 45 degrees which had a distaste for wood-knots causing it to jerk boards forward abruptly( and whatever was holding onto it ). Being the young fools that we were, we came up with the term fingerbags for our less than friendly co-working victims. Neil quit after two days and I got fired after a month for taking extra-long lunches. I can't ever remember being as happy as the day I drove out of that dusty parking lot to continue my lunch. I drew this cartoon on the crest of that euphoric wave.

Bat-tered Pride

This little comic came to me one night at Amberwood while on ghost duty ( playing my weekly game of Deadline Impossible). It was reassuring to know I still had some magic left in these tired paws.