Dog Blog

I am still in recovery mode to be sure but I could not in good conscience go another day without posting this fantastic video! Many of you may know of “A PimpNamedSlickback” from the cartoon show “The Boondocks” but it may surprise many of you to know he had a relative that was happy to hang out in the Dogtoon Room at the Steampunk Worlds Fair this past weekend. and we where happy to get some of his Countly wisdom

I think it only appropriate to write about the monarch of the Cowell household on this lazy sunday, which also happens to be Mothers day.  I am lucky enough to be the first born in my family, this also means I was the first experiment in mothering that my mother undertook. I can’t imagine I was too easy to manage, but my parents thought “hey why not try it again” and wam pow I had a sister. (This might have had something to do with me saying how much I wanted a brother or a sister, … silly me.) So now my mom has two crazy kids, oh and a career as a teacher, oh and husband who is just as goofy as the kids, (most times) My mother didn’t stop there either, running and winning a spot on the local school committee for many of my formative years “overworked” was my mothers usual running speed.

My mother was a 4th grade teacher, with a usual classroom count of 30 kids she dealt with everyday and the two at home its safe to say she never really “got away” where as most career moms could go to an office,filled with peers and sit, my mother worked with kids all day then came home to make us dinner (on the nights my father didn’t take over the kitchen ) manage my sister and I as best she could even with how hard we could make that process.  But through it all my mother managed to keep an elegance about her, and in all the years I have never doubted that she loved me and my sister. Every morning when she would leave; well before my sister and I were even down the stairs, she would stand at the foot of the stairs and yell up to us “I only know one thing,” and Natalie and I would yell back from our various stages of getting dressed. “I love you” every morning with out fail. And that’s my mom, steadfast, solid, grounded in a personal ritual as sacred to her as the sacraments and as devoted to her family as anyone could imagine. To this day I will claim my mother as the person who can push my buttons the fastest and the most often. But no amount of annoyance could take away the fact that my mother cares for me more then herself, more then her own needs, and sacrificed so much so that I could be the person I am today. so to that I only have one thing to say,

mom, I only know one thing!

I love you!

P.S and if you put a picture on facebook I would have a nice photo of you to use here, for real mom no one is going to steal your identity if you post a photo! why have a facebook if you wont even post on it??! GAH!!

Introductions! This comic features one character I have been waiting to show off for SUCH a long time. When I started drawing cartoons I thought “what do I draw myself as?” because to a 5th grader cartoons have to be animals, animals with alliteration! You know, your Bugs Bunny’s your Screwy Squirrels, Your Donald Duck’s So knowing few animals start with D I went with the clear cut front runner, the Dog, thus begini’th Dogtoon, a cartoon Dog. I told you that so I could tell you this; I have a sister named Natalie, and though I love her dearly, in 5th grade she was as much my nemesis as my compatriot. SO my cartoon version of me needed someone to play off of. A Tom to my delightful Jerry. and since I felt I had to stick with the rules of the animal kingdom and since her name rhymed with “Cat” There was “Nat the Cat” the perfect lovable antagonist for my drawings. For years any and all gifts or cards to my sister had a Nat the Cat on them, so this character has been around for a long time for my family. When I started the comic strip I really wanted to  add this character in but I needed the right time to do it. This was the PERFECT time! as I have stated before in this blog, I know my sister was bent out of shape with my two trips to DisneyWorld and her lack of going. So it seemed only natural to start off the comic with a bit of a rivalry since thats what I used to draw as a kid for us.  But this character will most assuredly be showing up more and more in the strip.

As for the art, I am loving my inking pens more and more, next step is to get a real light table, the light under the glass desk is getting hard to deal with. I really love the way the comic looks colored so much more, it really gives a sense of completion to it, in looking over the old inks I really feel they look not finished. I know committing to all color updates is a huge workload and right now I cant say for sure I wont need to switch back to just inks for a few updates, but I really am striving for it to be more color.  I mean, that intro frame of Nat the Cat would not have looked as good in black and white! just wouldn’t have!

well thats all from me!

till next time!

Doug

Check out the Comic itself! HERE

As many of you with siblings can attest to, they can be the biggest pains in the butts known to man on occasion. Then again… we can be the biggest pains in the butts to them sometimes.. and isn’t that the BEST?!?! I have a Sister, and before I paint anything in this blog let me be clear, I love my sister! she is talented, funny and a joy to be around.. I mean you expected anything else with me for a big brother?

That said, I love to be a nudge! This comic is based on two separate acts, each one being to my mind funny as hell, the first being telling her I was going to Disney world, AGAIN! To be fiar tyhere is some history here that not many know, my little sister got gypped out of a trip when we were young because my grandmother who was planning on taking her had to go in for knee surgery, and yeah.. walking around Disney World with an 8 year old was not happening after that. You may ask, “Why not let your parents take her?” … to that I answer.. YEAH WHY NOT NANA?!?!  oh well.. never knowing why my sister had to resign herself to a youth of her big Brother getting to go play with Mickey in the land where dreams come true while she played with hand me down Barbies in a mud puddle in the dirt lot we called a back yard!… okay.. thats an over dramatization, but I’m sure thats how she felt!

Cut to this past Christmas, when it was planned that I would go on vacation to the land of dreams coming true! (cue the opening to Magic Kingdom music!) telling my family was a fun experience, that my sister was chronically LATE for, (those of you reading this that may know her will not find this odd at all!) So I waited till we walked into our first store to lean over her shoulder and whisper my vacation plans to her, which got the single best reaction to anything I could have wished for! My sister froze in place, yelled in rage, and just stood there with an angry slash confused face for several moments before claiming she was happy for me but full of too much rage to express it! This reaction was all I wanted for Christmas.  This was followed up with a gloating bratty phone call from Disney itself where I ended the call by just shouting “DISNEYDISNEYDISNEY” rapid fire for about a minuet.

You may ask, if the first paragraph here explains how sad it is my sister never made it there as of yet, while I get to enjoy my second trip to the Magic Kingdom, then why would I rub it in so much? .. well YOU must not be an older sibling! Sibling rivalry is a cutting thing in youth and a down right funny thing in adulthood.  Just like I would expect nothing less from her if she got to travel someplace I did not, I made sure to rub it in. I think  deep down she knows I would take her if i could, and that makes the bratty behavior totally acceptable. Before you go thinking that I was being too mean, my sister herself loved the voice mail.  So more to the point of the comic, I felt it needed to be added to the tail of Doug the Dog’s journey through the Magic Kingdom, Because what better way to start off a vacation then to rub your sisters noise in the fact you are on vacation!?

I love you sis! and Mickey said hi!

Scope the COMIC HERE

Many of you might not know the person Backslash is based on, it is a good friend of mine who I have lived with, worked with and had many fun adventures with. Through our friendship a playful rivalry came up possibly from us looking something alike and both wanting to establish ourselves as “the better one!” called “the twins” “good and evil” “the boys” by friends its clear to see we sometimes strived to define ourselves based on a superiority to the other. To that end something like what happened in this comic is not far from reality at all! My friend and I would prank each other on a regular basis and each one would lead to a bigger retaliation. It was great to bring it out in the characters based on us!

As for the art itself, I really had fun with this, I liked having full backgrounds, I loved the slow fade up as Backslash regains conciseness, and I really loved the flashback going to a black and white manga style. it was start to finish fun! This also marks my first 9 panel comic! Okay so some would say a black frame isn’t art… (me about ten comics ago.) so even then its still 8 panels and thats not to bad! I am a fan of this and I know no one else would catch this but Doug reading is my tip of the hat to Danger Mouse, my favorite cartoon as a wee little Doug, when ever he would drive or read or pilot his ship, to save on animation costs no doubt, his mouth would be covered so it was partial nose and eyes. So glad I got to add that in!

Also….. I loved drawing the past Backslash and Doug! hehe

Check out the COMIC HERE,