the dregs #45

this episode was drawn in late june 2010 and, like many of my joke ideas, it's an old one. i probably thought of this joke about a year ago so i'm glad i finally got to use it! like all the other "old ideas", it was the wording that didn't seem to be that funny. the punch line didn't have any "punch" and the delivery was too forced and wordy. sometimes it just takes stepping back from an idea for a year for it to work again.

the science project on hiatus

i just wanted to make a formal post about The Science Project and its continuing absence from near future postings. for the record, it is not over. right now, i'm working on publishing a small collection of Dregs episodes for sale and distribution, but i will pick back up with the SP when i have the time again.

thanks for your concerns and love for a truly fun part of my life.

john

a long anticipated episode - the dregs #44

hey, everybody. first off, sorry for the hiatus, but between going on vacation, my birthday, and preparing for a cartoon contest, i hadn't been working on anything new. if you were wondering about the contest, i had entered the "america's next great cartoonist" run by the washington post. if you guessed that i didn't win, you'd be guessing right. honestly, i wasn't surprised at the outcome because of two reasons - 1. the dimensions of the single panel entries needed to be 3.5" x 3". the dregs are wider than tall, so my entries might have been disqualified immediately. 2. my sense of humor doesn't seem to be something that meshed with the judges, but i'm judging simply by what made the 10 final cartoons. but whatever the reason, i'm ok with it. that's not to say that i'm not disappointed by losing the opportunity, but it's ok.

that being said, this new episode is one that i'd been trying to tweak the dialogue on for some time. it was originally a back-and-forth with onions, but it sounded forced. in true "me" fashion, it clicked right after i finished the pencil work so i had to redraw a good portion of it. i'm glad it worked out the way it did, because it's much better this way.

hope you like it!

oh! don't forget to vote for "america's next great cartoonist" at http://postfun.washingtonpost.com/post/entry/americas-next-great-cartoonist-vote

the science project #56

this episode titled "mock trial", was drawn in late april 2010. the title was ripped off from Arrested Development's "Mock Trial with Judge Reinhold" because it was the first thing that popped in my head and i couldn't stop laughing. by the way, if you haven't seen all three seasons of AD, please do so. it's the best sitcom to come out in the last decade.

as you can see, the judge from "porn court" is back, this time sentencing someone to death. the idea came from a news article about a week ago about a man choosing the firing squad over lethal injection in utah. the fact that that article came out so quickly after another article about a man in ohio inmate on death row arguing that his allergy to anesthesia should halt his execution by lethal injection. they killed him anyway about a week or two ago and it's funny. good try though, buddy.

john

the dregs #43

this episode was drawn in late april 2010. it was an older joke and i don't know why i hadn't used it until now.

i like the perspective of this one, being behind peg. i don't think i've ever really shown what she looks like from behind (that's a good thing), and at this point in the strip, i doubt there is anyone who wouldn't know that was her. earlier on, however, i can see there being some confusion. i admit having problems with the foreshortening of sal's left arm. his forearms and hands are already so big, it looked really strange making them bigger to show they were in front of him. i think the staggering of the boxes helped.

john

the dregs #42

this episode was drawn in mid april. it's a joke that was delivered by a friend of mine, oddly enough the husband of a woman that gave me a joke i used a few weeks ago. or i guess it's not that odd when you think about it. anyway, about a month ago i had gone to eat with some friends for a birthday. we ate a suckling pig, part of which was the head. the chef put together a "head plate" for us consisting of the eyes, ears, brains, jowls, nape, tongue, snout, and skin. it may sound gross, folks, but it was fantastic. regardless, i tried brains for the first time that night and made a comment about it on facebook. aaron delivered the punchline. i just tweaked it.

the only thing that really bugged me about this episode was trying to draw sal at a backward angle. it took a while, but i think it looks pretty good. yay.

nerd alert... well, i'm heading off to the chicago C2E2 in an hour or so. anything i should look to pick up?

the science project #55

this episode called "law & order: adult video unit" was drawn in late march 2010. the story behind this one is simple. i watch a LOT of law & order. seriously. lennie briscoe is my main man. but in between the 3 back to back weekly episodes, there are several commercials for the tv show "bones" in which david borneanaz says "the dna's a match" while emily deschanel corrects him and gives him a nerdy/pseudo sexy glare. after seeing this commercial at least 10 times a day every day, the similarity between the two acronyms became glaringly obvious. actually, coming up with a clever title for this one was the most difficult part.