--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Shown above is my very first professionally-published cartoon dated May 23, 1994. In September of 2015 I used it as the inspiration piece for a project that I worked on whereby I interpreted how other artists might approach that particular gag. In a sense, it was as if I were Rich Little, but instead of pursuing a life in show business, I decided I wanted to draw for a living.

This project was really just a fun way of learning how to cartoon using my new Wacom Cintiq. However, before I even plugged it in I needed to select the strips, and their creators, to "honor". After perusing the local Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel I realized that there were too many good strips to choose from, so I decided to select strips whose characters might one day actually find themselves in a lifeboat or raft in the middle of the ocean. In other words, I felt more certain that Earl and Opal would be floating adrift after their cruise ship sank rather than Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and PJ (sorry Jeff).

The really fun part was trying to predict how these talented artists would have treated the gag, and then write the dialog in their individual styles. I regret not spending more time studying each artist's particular drawing style and lettering techniques as I believe I could have done a much better job on some of them. But in terms of capturing the special sense of humor that each of these geniuses posses, well, I'm pretty pleased with the results. What do you think?

Ps ... I really enjoyed using the Wacom Cintiq.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hats off, and a big thanks, and/or my apologies to the following artists/creators ...

Mike Peters, Brian Crane, Wiley Miller, Sandra Bell-Lundy, Joe Martin and Dan Piraro. w