Cartooning – Page 100 – Prattling before the Pratfall

Cartoony Looney – 6

In 1988 I was in line for a take-out lunch at M.I.T., near where I worked, when I overheard an excited conversation about something strange that was happening with Internet-connected computers on campus. It turned out to be the infamous Robert Morris Worm incident. Another technical troublemaker I became aware of around that time was the notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick.

Until the Internet hit big my primary technical specialty was data communications and networking. There was a period of overlap and transition that I enjoyed very much, when statistical time-division multiplexors were replaced with Ethernet bridges, which in turn gave way to IP routers.

In 1991 I was working on my first Internet-related project, involving an implementation of the Telnet virtual terminal protocol. Working with IP-enabled communication servers from Gandalf, Xyplex, and Xylogics — none of which are still in business — I became very familiar with Telnet and something called raw TCP sockets. In those early, clunky days of online tech I could connect a dumb ASCII terminal or a DOS-PC running ProComm to a modem and dial into a comm server with Internet access to get online.

With all of that background in mind I drew this cartoon for the Comics Buyers Guide. Twenty-eight years ago, anticipating the possibility of identity theft, swatting, and an overreaction by law enforcement seemed extremely extreme. But now, not so much.

The little serial interface diagram of a null-modem cable was an in-joke to myself, showing wires getting crossed. The name Estes is a dig at Senator Estes Kefauver, who is infamous to those who know comic book history.

Cartoony Looney – 5

Not everybody I know is a fan of Bill Griffith’s Zippy, but I am, and Griffith has a point in today’s April Fool strip. It appears to have been drawn with Griffy’s left hand, which happens to be my drawing hand.

Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith, King Features Syndicate, April 1, 2019

Being a fatalist, I would go even further than Griffy, and say that editors have thrown in the towel on comic strips all together. Although a recent kerfuffle in the Boston Globe showed that it’s still too early to cut the comics page too deeply.

I admire everyone who has found a place in what’s left of syndicated cartooning, but that doesn’t mean I admire all of their work. Some cartoonists simply can’t draw. This post includes a couple of quickie cartoons that appeared in the Comic’s Buyer’s Guide so very long ago, when I was struggling to re-learn how to draw.

What really happened after Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny returned to Earth

Cartoony Looney – 4

Here is another one of the Calvin & Hobbes parody tributes I did. I was working towards doing a mash-up with Dennis the Menace, but never got there because — wouldn’t ya know it? — I became a dad.

I never got around to inking this installment of C&H, despite completing the pencils. My ideas about Carlyle being a “holy terror” — a favorite expression of my mother’s — were getting a little “out there.”

“Honey, do you think Carlyle bothers the neighbors very much?” “Oh, I’m sure they’d say something if there was a problem, dear.” “Why do you ask?”

Cartoony Looney – 3

This is something I drew — yikes! — 40 years ago when I was working for a small daily newspaper. It was my way of drawing in a style that somewhat resembled underground comics. I had not yet come up with the “Dog Rat” pen name.

I won’t bother telling the events that led to me deciding on a technology career and abandoning cartooning. But I didn’t let go of pencil and ink completely, because by the end of the 80’s I was an occasional contributor to the now-defunct publication The Comics Buyer’s Guide.

Edited by the late Don Thompson and his wife Maggie, a highly respected team in comic book circles, CBG was a welcome outlet for this frustrated wannabe cartoonist. I was surprised and pleased when this contribution, a parody of an ad campaign at the time, was accepted and published.

Most of my work for CBG was awful. My excuse to myself was I’d gotten married and bought a house, and my job was very demanding and it required a lot of traveling. The truth was I’d forgotten how to draw! But I had fun and I thought a few of the CBG pieces, like the one below, turned out all right. Except for the references to baseball cards and Hummels, this was semi-autobiographical.

Eventually I felt that I’d started to re-learn how to draw. I began working on an homage to Calvin & Hobbes called Carlyle & Hobson, named after two other philosophers.

Soon after that I became a father. Not only did I give up contributing to CBG, I stopped drawing and I even took several years off from running. There was no choice but to concentrate on the demands and responsibilities of real life.

“Can’t Catch Me! Can’t Catch Me!” “I Take it Back! I Take it Back!”

Cartoony Looney – 2

My attempt at a comic strip was called Jeanie Beanie. The cast of characters…

Beckle, aka “Feather Duster”

Wendell Wilton, aka “Blubber Buns”

Jeanie, aka “Bean Head”

The camcorder Beckle is holding gives away the vintage. Jeanie was named after my twin sister. The bird and the walrus were childhood characters I performed, called Ba-Bird and Wally. Walter Lantz had a Wally Walrus cartoon character that spoke in a Swedish — or was it Norwegian? — accent and had a broken tusk. Wally was mediocre at best, and somewhere around age 10 I felt I had a better idea for a walrus character.

The premise of the strip at first was the characters would run a bookstore. I eventually realized that, like Jon being a cartoonist in Garfield, the setup was unnecessary, so I abandoned that idea, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start at the beginning in the next post.

Cartoony Looney – 1

Crankshaft, by Tom Bakiuk and Dan Davis, North America Syndicate, March 27, 2019

Yesterday’s single-panel Crankshaft comic strip reminded me of something I drew over 20 years ago, after reading about the introduction of the DVD format and the first widescreen, flat panel TV’s. I’ll explain the premise behind my comic strip when I post some more examples.

I really admire the artwork in Crankshaft. Until a couple of years ago it was drawn by Chuck Ayers. Since ending his run on Crankshaft, the art has been handled by Dan Davis, working very closely to Ayers’ style. As you can see in this picture, Davis uses a computer drawing tablet. If I ever get my drawing arm and brain warmed up again, I will remain a pencil and ink guy.