SparkyMuntz: relationships

Showing posts with label relationships. Show all posts

02 December 2012

The Kiss, drawn Summer 2011.

Thinking of turning this into a print for sale.

18 September 2011

First wide-format single panel for the Sunday edition of Workin' Dogs. Maybe soon I'll start working in color.

11 September 2011

New Cartoon Idea: Workin' Dogs

A cartoon about workin' canines... in workin' situations.

08 September 2010

The Missing Pieces

The missing pieces, in no particular order...I just managed to pull them from the Eastern Echo's digital archives: To see them more clearly, click on them.

This was one of the first for the Fall 2008 semester.

Probably one of the better ones I've ever made. Lots of sentiment with a healthy helping of sarcasm mixed into it.

A nice reversal. Underdogs of the world, unite!

This one was the beginning of a weird backstory exposition regarding the reason that Jonathan can understand the speech of all canines. Maybe I'll publish that here, but later.

There were two versions I made of this one, and I found this one to be funnier. My editor actually liked the other one, but this was the one I chose to publish.

Brief backstory concerning Eisnar the lolcat's connection to Doctor Spot. Eisnar is a lot like me in this respect. Can't talk to save his life, but a great writer.

As a trifling yet adamant fan of manga, I looked in the mirror one day and noticed some slight resemblance I held to the main character of Deathnote, which is a supernatural mystery manga. It struck me as funny in such a way that I was inspired to make a comic about it, but having Jonathan's reflection talk back to him.

Comics Appreciation Day...it doesn't exist. I made it up. I probably should have given the titles of the books in question, namely:

Will Eisner's (yes, in the comic I misspelled "Eisner") Sequential Art.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and finally, Making Comics.

Can't remember if I ever published this one. I know I'm still missing part I of it.

This was supposed to be the introduction of Eisnar the Lolcat. Unfortunately, it got lost in the shuffle, and was published long after Eisnar had already been in the paper several times...

...so long, in fact, that this one, the return of Eisnar the lolcat, was published almost a whole semester prior to the one which was intended to precede it.

Eisnar was actually going to be in this one, but I found him to be distracting, so I Photoshopped him out of it.

First is as published. Second is retro-fitted with computer font.

Same thing.

A shot at grim humor, met with my editor's hearty approval...then overturned the next issue.

I need to recover some of the other ones from this section.

Little Johnny tries to prevail upon Jonathan for an inheritance. Little does he know he's an asset, rather than an heir.

17 June 2010

Little Johnny's beef with Milkcowski, part II

Eastern Echo, 8. March, 2010

This post may say, it was published earlier, but I actually got around to posting these on the 17th of June. Jonathan wasn't originally supposed to work or live on a farm, but it seems to fit better since he sees so much of Milkcowski, so I just went with that. This would be the reason Jonathan is wearing a plaid supposed-to-be flanel shirt and overalls.

Eastern Echo, 11. March 2010

This one plays out more like a comedy sketch than a comic strip, which was one thing my editor warned against at a recent meeting, but I didn't notice how much like a sketch it actually was. I didn't actually get to finish the storyline due to my father's passing. The rest of the story is that Milkcowski was shipped off to California, where she becomes one of the California Happy Cows. I'm not sure how I would put that, since the phrase is pretty much, if not exactly, a registered trademark. Anyway, Spot gets a little bitter, having lost her business parter to a business transaction, but learns to cope when Milkcowski sends her a postcard. In the Tennis Doubles storyline, I plan to have Dr. Spot bring Dr. Milkcowski back as her Doubles parter in the Man-and-Beast Tennis Doubles Tournament. Details to follow later on.

03 February 2010

The Honeymoon

first published 7. Jan 2010 in the Eastern Echo

Stop one of the honeymoon:

the farm.

Uh-huh, poor planning prevents proper playtime.

first published 11. Jan 2010 in the Eastern Echo

first published 14. Jan 2010 in the Eastern Echo

Stop two:

Alaska

in the middle of January.

Where Little Johnny manages to make a fool of himself in front of Rex, a very distant relative...

who, by the way, was inspired in small part by my Alan and Danielle Muntz's (and Samantha's too, of course) husky-Australian shepherd mix.

He's got real personality.

first published 21. Jan 2010 in the Eastern Echo

first published 25. Jan 2010 in the Eastern Echo

Stop three:

the Pound

where something wonderful is going to happen (off the record).

Have you ever walked out to your car and wondered where in the heck you put your keys, and you search the buildings you've been in, and you can't figure it out, then you check in one of your more secluded pockets, and you find your keys?

Gosh I hate that!

24 January 2010

Cliffhanger for my Echo readers!

Keep in mind, when you see this, that it was published just before the end of the FALL2009 semester...

first published 17. Dec 2009 in the Eastern Echo

Ran this idea by Sojourner Jake before I actually made it.. He helped me to iron out some lack of clarity that was in the original script. When I sent it out, I received both his and my editor's stamp of approval.

I'm wondering if I should label all comics with the word "pregnant" in them as "PG." You know, for "Parental Guidance," not "PreGnancy." I know, it's a stupid joke to tell in the text. I'm sorry...I'm not gonna hit backspace just yet, but I'm sorry for the stupid joke.

21 January 2010

Pre-Wedding Jitters

first published 23. Nov 2009 in the Eastern Echo

Obviously, this wouldn't fly for some people, but since it's a college newspaper I was writing for, it fit in pretty well. It was interesting to see Dr. Spot's out-of-character aggressive side.

first published 30. Nov 2009 in the Eastern Echo

And, of course, they can't stay mad at each other forever. Actually, Little Johnny doesn't seem so much angry as he appears just a little hurt. I wonder how he could be so understanding at a moment when his fiance has just threatened him with a neuter.

Not a good match...

first published 19. Nov 2009 in the Eastern Echo

After emailing this and the one before it to a friend (Sojourner Jake, as he is known online) he told me it was one of the most refined he had ever seen from me.

I knew the joke was very odd, but a few people I showed it to said it was great. I thought the punchline was just the right length. Three words were enough.

"Atta-fiance!"

first published 16 Nov 2009 in the Eastern Echo

After five weeks of self-imposed exile, which I used to work on OpCode: Wolfram, I returned with the idea of having Little Johnny's and Dr. Spot's wedding take place. This was the first comic leading up to the big day.

Also, this is the first one of Smile and Wag (that is, aside from the farewell comic before I began OpCode, which I will hopefully publish, just for the record) in which all of the drawings were done on separate pieces of sketch paper.

17 January 2010

Last comic before the "OpCode Digression"

first published 28. Sept 2009 in the Eastern Echo

This was the last straw... I actually published this one twice in a row. Once on September the 24th with no background, and again in its form above on the date listed there. I was feeling like dirt. It was time for a change, so I went into the OpCode Digression. I published OpCode: Wolfram for a several weeks before I got any good ideas from Smile & Wag! again.

Boss Pork's New Roomie

first published 17. Sept 2009 in the Eastern Echo

I was a little bit desparate to please my editor, so I came up with a joke that was somewhat contentious with my family. Yes, creepy, but it has a certain quirkiness to it that the editor was very pleased with.

first published 21. Sept 2009 in the Eastern Echo

The anti-climactic conclusion, typical of my predictable style. I think my editor wanted me to keep the pig a cannibal, but I just couldn't do it. So I wrapped the whole story up in two episodes.

FALL2009 Semester Kickoff Week, belated

first published 5. Sept 2009 in the Eastern Echo.

I'll be adding comments later, if I have the time and forethought to do so.

first published 9. Sept 2009 in the Eastern Echo

23 June 2009

Trouble with Homophones

Comic: Ramsey and Ewenice have a dire misunderstanding concerning the use of 'you' and 'ewe'

Even more funs with puns.

Well...enough said.

Published Wed 25 Mar 2009.

Japanese as a romantic language

Comic: a pathetic attempt to incorporate manga influence into my comic

As an anime fan, the first word I learned to recognize was "nani," which indicates the interjection: "What?!"

Other phrases we pick up fast are:

Bakana - "Impossible!"

Hai - "Yes sir!" or "Okay!" or "Affirmative!"

My best guess for the translation for "nani-yo" (yes, I admit I guessed) was "What are you doing?" or "How's it going?" I could be wrong.

Published in the Eastern Echo on 23 Mar 2009.

17 June 2009

Welcome to the Troupe, part II

Kate quickly switches the target of her insults and from Jonathan's efforts directly to Jonathan himself

This is the second part of the "Welcome to the Troupe" set. Kate can be cruel when she wants to be.

Published in the Eastern Echo, 20 Mar 2009.

Welcome to the Troupe, part I

Comic: Kate insults the efforts of Jonathan to court her with the assistance of Doctor Spot and Little Johnny

First published in the Eastern Echo on 18 Mar 2009

Jonathan has admired Kate Anthrope for a long time.

I don't recall at this moment if he's ever revealed that to her in the Echo prints. He has at least once, when Beowulf Hoffman learned of it and tried to hold it over his head. He was rejected outright, and things went on as they had.

This is likely to be a similar story.

15 June 2009

Invoice

Comic: Jonathan begins to worry about the boarding arrangements following the wedding to come until Doctor Spot and Little Johnny come up with a solution

I think this is the second comic that features Dr. Spot in her engagement collar. You can expect to see her in the original tie in following comic strips, but I'm planning to put her back in the engagement collar soon. Hopefully, she'll be wearing it permanently.

Published in the Eastern Echo, 16 Mar 2009.