HappyGlyphs Comics

Comics on Kindle: 3 Knights in India

2012-01-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

After a lot of learning, I've finally launched 3 Knights in India, my graphic novel, as an ePub.

I bought books, searched the web, but as usual, ended up just doing it myself. It was much easier that way. Even at Amaon's publishing pages there was some misinformation that I needed to get past, just to move forward. If you follow 'the rules', per se, you can waste days wondering what you're doing wrong, when you're just taking a different path.

I first created my Wolfman of Beckenham, Kent as an eBook. At 8 pages, it was small enough to hammer out the basics of ePublishing. Then I did the two Inquiring Minds books, now both available exclusively at the Kindle store. I finally went back to 3 Knights in India. and resized the artwork for optimum viewing. After all this, I managed to bring my graphic novel down to 26 MB from 53MB, and it looks great.

I love real books... the kind with dust jackets that you keep odd bits of paper in as bookmarks, but publishing them can be a chore, and an expensive one at that. 3 Knights in India was made for color, but as it first ran in the India Post, and then was published as a graphic novel, it simply had to be a black and white endeavor. Now, however, with the Kindle App that allows you to read comics in color on any device, I was able to present 3 Knights in India more as it should have been.

Even if you have the graphic novel, this second edition has a lot of my original work now being shown in color, as well as some of the black and white art that I have colored exclusively for this edition, and I've even added some brand new stuff!

I'm very proud of this book, and at $6.99, it's a bargain. It took me 3 years to write the original, and it's a fun story. If you enjoy Knight and Day, then you will enjoy this book. It's Steve and Amy Knight, their daughter Iris, Oz the Ice Cream Man, and especially Sunny Day at her best, all coming together in whirlwind of an adventure that starts in New Jersey and ends up across the world in Bangalore, where everyone still manages to drive Steven crazy!

All's well that ends well, though, and there's more. Musings of mine from my own travels, a few recipes, and other fun stuff make this a unique graphic novel experience. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Where Ideas Come From, Revisited

2012-01-12T11:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a new The Inquiring Minds cartoon! The first independent cartoon in a while, since I've been working on the Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake. What prompted me to draw a new toon was, of course, the new eBooks that I've been working on (see last two posts). As a publisher, I need to keep the company moving and growing, and so, right now, I thought it was important to investigate this new venue, the eBook. I also need to finish the comic book, and get it into comic stores, but at this point that is still a long term venture.

Now, it occurred to me, halfway through drawing it, that the idea is similar to that seen in the wonderful movie UP, where Karl takes his house on a trip with the help of thousands of balloons. It also occurred to me that some wiseguy was going to point that out. :0)

First of all, creative people are going to come up with similar ideas all the time, and usually independently. Oh yes, there is idea theft, where people steal other people's work and claim it as their own, and more's the pity. I mean, if you can't come up with original work, you really should not be a cartoonist, or writer, or whatever. Me, I have more ideas than I could ever find the time to use them. Some of them are fantastic, and I wish I could drop everything and work on them. The point is, though, that the truly creative mind never rests, and for some of us we have little choice but to find outlets for that creativity.
More importantly, we don't need to steal ideas, since we already have too many.

Actually, where the above idea came from, and yes, it probably was before I saw UP, is kind of interesting. First off, let me explain that I have notebooks... lots of notebooks with ideas and sketches that eventually get lost to time as I move onto the next notebooks. Once in a while, when I am focusing on one project, like the Inquiring Minds, I go back through those notebooks and gather together ideas that I flagged as good, but hadn't used before. This idea was one of those... I have no idea at this point when I first came up with it.

The idea is probably as old as balloons themselves... I mean, who as a kid didn't dream of taking off into the skies if you bought one too many balloons from the balloon guy in the park? The truth is, though, this particular cartoon came from reading an article about art somewhere, where the author was talking about the deep meaning behind the art, and it was total BS. I mean, really... sometimes a painting is just a painting and a story is just a story.

And yes, great art and writing often does have multiple layers, which is why we can look at something for years and still learn from it. Sometimes it is deliberate, and the author tells a story that can be deciphered for those who want to look deeper, or the artist may lace their painting with symbolism. Sometimes, and more often than not, I guess, from being an artist myself, that meaning is subconscious. We are driven to create, and sometimes meanings come across that are not deliberate, but are there none the less. Sometimes we see it, sometimes it must be pointed out to us, and sometimes, it is really the viewer herself who is doing the interpreting.... seeing something that they need to see, or feel, in the work, and not at all what the creator intended.

That can be the beauty of art... the beauty that resides in the eye of the beholder. But when a critic starts going on and on about "what the artist is trying to say" and the artist isn't around anymore, well, that gets to be a bit too much.

So, angered by some idiot know it all, I created this idea. I was going to have all the balloons be famous cartoon characters, and have the wagon represent my career, and my desire to get syndicated... a desire that obviously has yet to 'get off the ground'. I was going to put the meaning into the cartoon, quite deliberately, and debunk it, as I'm doing now. :0)

I tossed the idea aside, for obvious reasons, but brought it back now on it's own merit. The Inquiring Minds is about childhood.... especially the hopes and dreams and excitement of being young enough to believe, if even for a second, that balloons can carry you into the sky.

Cheers, JOHN :0)
PS What I'm listening to? Andi Starr, of course. :0)

Publishing in the New World, Part 2

2012-01-07T18:16:00.000-05:00

So I've finished my first eBook, and it is now online and exclusive to the Amazon Kindle Store!

Don't worry, if you don't have a Kindle... the Kindle APP is free, and available for most tablets, personal computers, and other devices! Download the free App for your device, and you have instant access to eBooks such as The Inquiring Minds: Cattle X-ing! With one touch, you get a Free Sample, and with another click, the entire book in seconds... and for the low price of only $2.99!

As you may have read in the last post, creating this eBook wasn't easy, but now that it's done, a companion book will be available soon, The Inquiring Minds: Kiss My Spleezix, which will continue the adventures of Bobby, Albert, and Iris as they explore all things strange and unusual in their hometown of Three Craters Lake.

Soon to follow, I hope, will be the graphic novel 3 Knights in India. It's a huge eBook, though, with all those graphics, so I am wondering if it should be separated into at least two books? I hate to do that, though, although if I did the price for both would be equal to the price of the entire book.

Most eBooks are small, and easy to load, and read. The entire process is very different from creating a paper book, and putting it together should be easier since there is so little formatting, and page design and book layout are stripped away as well. All those skills we spent years learning are no longer necessary. Add graphics to the mix, though, and it's a whole nother ballgame. The book gets bigger... much bigger, and fighting the size versus resolution battle we fought when the web came about is back again. This, however, is just the beginning of the battle.

One of the earliest of The Inquiring Minds strips to be found in the new eBook, Cattle Xing.

There are books about creating eBooks, and several blogs, but much of it is basic stuff. There isn't much for the cartoonist, and even then, the industry is still growing. The challenges are awesome, and then, just when you think you're done, you now have to choose a place to make your eBook available, and then try to match your book to their standards. And then there's the forms to fill out, and the step by step process of what to do to succeed in publishing your eBook.

I spent an entire day following the Amazon stuff step by step, and got nowhere. Eventually, as in most things computer and web related, I tossed it all aside, and worked from scratch, and found a process that worked for me. Hopefully I'll remember it all when I have to do it again... and again.

Maybe I should write it all down? When I get the time....

For those curious, Paul asked at the facebook page if there is new material in these Inquiring Minds books. if you have any Inquiring Minds book, either Number 1, or Funny Papers, then you should have most of the material from the second book, and some from the first. What is new is about 40 dailies that haven't been seen on the web in a long time, so most of you will find the material new. And if you haven't read The Inquiring Minds, I highly recommend the print books, but the eBooks are portable, and can be read whereever you go with your tablet or other device.

I am thinking of adding something new to the second book, to reward those who buy the set. At $2.99 each, though, you're getting a bargain. :0)

If you buy them, please let me know how the book looks on different platforms. Tell me the device you are reading on, and how the strips look, if you can. I do recommend reading with the Kindle App on a large screen tablet, to get the strips in color,and at optimum size.

Thanks, JOHN :0)

Publishing in the New World

2011-12-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

The world is changing, and more rapidly than I think anyone could have guessed. There's a lot of talk about newspapers, and publishing in general, and where it's all going. As the new year approaches, I am unusually flustered, and quite frustrated, in investigating new venues for my company.

I'm talking about eBooks... electronic books that you can read on your iPad or comparable tablet, or on a eReader such as the Kindle or Nook. I love a good book that I can hold in my hand, and take to the beach, but I've been pulled into the eBook world as a matter of convenience, and just to check out what's new. In a matter of weeks I've already purchased several books in different formats... mostly for business, but some for fun. I am disappointed in the one thing I thought electronic publishing would bring me... books that I can no longer find in print. Apparently, there's a lot of the same books you can find on a bookstore shelf available in electronic format, but the entire history of publishing is still out there, waiting to be converted. There are some books that I just can't find anymore, at a decent price anyway, and I was really hoping to rediscover them in this new format.

I digress, As a publisher, I see a lot of potential in this relatively new format. Unfortunately, most of what I have done is comic strip related. After a LOT of investigation... reading everything I can find on the web, and just about every decent book I can find on the subject, it appears that eBooks are just not ready for image heavy books. There are a lot of roadblocks, and frankly, it's a lot more work to convert a comic book to an ePub or other eBook format. It has been done, and there are eComics out there, but everywhere I go I see stumbling blocks, and warnings.

I have created an ePub out of 3 Knights in India, and I have enjoyed tremendously revisiting this book! I have made a version that reads very well in Kindle, but not so well in Nook. Apparently, I will probably be better off either picking one or the other, or spending time creating two new books, one for each platform. Frankly, I've put a lot of work into this already. I'm warning all cartoonists to think before leaping into this new format of publishing. I've wasted a lot of time, and so far have not accomplished anything. The quality of eComics as they stand right now varies tremendously, and your eBook may not be accepted if the legibility is too low. Amazon has ridiculous guidelines set right now for images, and those guidelines are already aimed at the future! My images are much bigger than the asked for standard, but if I make them any smaller, then they become very difficult to read.

Amazon also has an added charge of 15 cents per megabyte for downloading the book, and that comes from the authors profits. As it stands now, if they were to accept the graphic novel, with well over a hundred large images, I would have to sell the book much higher than I'd like to get any profit at all. Not a good business plan, let me add, from experience, since selling Print on Demand is the same business plan. (Little profit for a lot of work)

So, a new year approaches, and I currently face nothing but frustration. I won't give up, after all the work I have put into it so far, but right now I am not happy. I am sure that one day, maybe soon, the industry may mature enough so that all the roadblocks I'm facing now will disappear, When that time comes, however, the market will be flooded, and it will be all that harder to be seen in the crowd.

Think twice, cartoonists! Maybe a small comic book can be done, but the world just isn't ready for an eGraphic Novel. I've done the research, and if the answers are out there, those in the know aren't ready to share yet.

Happy New Year! JOHN :0)

PS What I'm listening to? Andi Starr, Leaving the White Line

A Singleness of Purpose

2011-12-20T17:40:00.000-05:00

Not veryone's as lucky as Oz, but he has

definitely succeeded through a singleness of purpose.

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying "You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."

And there's the rub: finding that one thing you want to do, and sticking with it. Having one goal helps you to have the strong focus needed to succeed, and also helps you to define yourself.

For me, that one goal has been newspaper syndication for a long time. That field is changing, howevcr, and the syndicates have been quiet. I've sent material to them and haven't even recieved a reply from some. Doesn't look promising, and it's sad because here I am, a professional, hard working, and dedicated cartoonist who would do everything I can to help me, and my syndicate, succeed in a changing world.

Well, until they come to their senses, I must adapt, and have been. I continue to learn new things, and to improve my artistic skills, and to grow my business. However, that business has had to be very diverse, from cartooning, to publishing, to fine art illustration. Not exactly a singleness of purpose, but fun!

When someone asks what I do, saying I'm a cartoonist usually gets the reply "Cool!". Saying I'm a cartoonist slash illustrator slash publisher usually gets a glazing over of the eyes. And trying to keep your audience with an explanation usually leaves you alone with a drink in your hand, wondering why the guy you were just talking to has suddenly found an extreme interest in the Swedish stewardess across the room.

Still, I am lucky to have a job that I enjoy so much. Or jobs, I should say. And having a job where you are doing something different every day or week can be very stimulating, and very educational, and keeps you from ever getting bored.

If one of my cartoons, or stories, or any creative endeavor ever takes off, then you can be sure that I'll put everything into it. Giving a hundred and ten percent will be the order of the day. Until then, I'll do whatever project has the most audience interest, and the most potential to help me, and my business, grow. Unfortunately, that means I don't get to draw a cartoon every day, or post new material regularly; the stuff you have to do to grow and keep an audience. So my audience comes and goes and comes back again, with a core group who seem to stick with me.

And to those of you who do stick around? A very sound Thank You! I'll continue to do my best to entertain you, and bring a little laughter and art to the world... and put that 110% into all that I do. :0)

A very happy Holiday season to you all, and a marvelous new year to come! JOHN :0)

On my iPod? Andi Starr: the world will follow. Very appropriate music for the person who strives to succeed inchasing their dreams. :0)

Diversification: Everybody's Doing It.

2011-12-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time I thought it was funny to walk into a Music/Vacuum Cleaner Repair shop, and look at CDs while surrounded by broken vacuum cleaners. I guess the owner had a talent, and a love for music, and couldn't decide which to follow. Today, you walk into a bookstore, and there are toys, coffee, CDs and DVDs, etc. Walk into a coffee shop and there's assorted snacks, CDs, mugs and other stuff. In today's economy, it makes sense to have a variety of items to sell, since once you get the customer in the shop, you want him or her to buy something, anything. Every store is a variety store these days.

The same applies to online stores. Amazon and Target have thousands of items to buy, from food to clothing to books, so you can do a lot of shopping with them. This blog is all about running a small business, though, and we especially need to think about diversifying. But how much, and when are just two of many questions. I've talked about Cost of Goods Sold before, and inventory, and these require a lot of thought before you go buying stuff with intent to sell. And don't forget shipping. The big stores can afford to offer free or discounted shipping, where such an offer from a small business can kill any thought of a profit.

Every cartoonist out there wants to sell not only their books, but t-shirts, mugs etc. Merchandising is where the bucks are, even for the big name cartoonists. This is where Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes fame had his biggest disagreement with the Syndicates, who wanted to merchandise his strip, but he felt it would compromise the strip's integrity and charm. Which leads us to our Hot Topics for today:
Should we diversify?
If so, when?
And how much?

So should you? Probably. Eventually. If you've just started putting cartoons on the web, it's a bit too soon to try selling t-shirts. Wait until you build a loyal audience, and you have some genuine interest in your stuff. If you're running your business as a real business, and not a hobby, then those t-shirts will sit around a while, and you cannot deduct the price of them until you actually sell them. Please read my earlier posts about Cost of Goods Sold, Pricing, and Inventory.

Print on Demand online shops allow you to put your image on just about anything these days, but I would choose a few items wisely, and focus on them. Quality over quantity, without exhausting your audience with too much to see.

Which brings us to a point that I've discussed before about publishing, that applies to merchandise. Print on Demand is expensive. If you price your merchandise too high, you won't likely sell it. Price competitively, and you make no profit. This brings us back to that earlier point about quality over quantity. Choose an item, like a t-shirt, and look around for quality shirts at a good price. More than likely you can even save by buying in bulk, but again, watch out how much you buy, because you may have them awhile. You can do this with anything, of course, although to get truly competitive prices, you really need to order a lot. Be sure you have that supportive audience.

Finally, don't forget the bottom line. You cannot deduct the cost of items you buy to sell until you actually sell them. The more you offer, the more inventory you have, which takes up space, and costs money that you do not get back until the merchandise is sold. And to sell it takes time to set up a shop, to get the word out, and requires advertising.

So make sure you're really ready to take that next step into diversifying your online shop. If you want to become a retail type store, that could work for some people, but make that your business plan. If you're an artist, cartoonist, writer, or other creative, then it may be easier to sell your books or art through a place like Lulu, or set yourself up with a printer, get a few thousand copies of your book, and really focus on selling it. It's simple to have a link or two on a blog or website. It's a whole other enchilada to actually have an online shop with changing and growing merchandise.

For the right person or group, though, that online shop can keep customer interest, spread sales out throughout the year, and create focus for your advertising.

With that in mind, please consider visiting my online shop where we now offer many fine things, from books to t-shirts, and artwork and more. :0)

And did I mention that we're currently offering FREE SHIPPING for the next week or so?

Happy Holidays! JOHN :0)

Pricing

2011-11-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

One of the most challenging tasks as an artist running a business is to set the right price, whether it be for a service, or an item for sale. Let's take this from the top, shall we?

As an artist, you have the choice to either create work for the pure pleasure of it, or to create work for profit as well as the (hopefully) pure pleasure of it. Let's face it... in this day and age, we find ourselves short on time, so creating art for fun is something I for one can't find the time for... I have a hard enough time finding the time to do my paying work! I have dozens of projects just waiting in the wings for some free time to show up... projects that I know I would enjoy doing, but, with bills to pay, simply can't justify spending the time on. So I find artistic projects that I can enjoy doing and get paid for, from my freelancing work to my comics and artwork.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to brand myself as HappyGlyphs Comics, and somehow keep everything under one roof. This leads to trouble, though, since branding becomes a business and business comes with lots of paperwork. The good news is that if you truly have a business, many of your expenses are tax deductible, which helps justify doing that artwork we enjoy doing.

However, as I've discussed in an earlier post, you can't deduct the cost of your goods (artwork, books, etc) until you actually sell them. So, we have a couple of things to address: the initial price of goods, and a later discount on those goods.

First of all, you technically sell things to make a profit. Any artist out there who has tried this is smirking right now, because let's face it... to get anywhere in this biz, many of us have had to work for free, or give stuff away, to get our names out there. Once established, you can then try for that 'profit' stuff we've all heard about. Selling services is one thing we can do, and selling stuff is the other. But selling stuff usually involves an initial buying of stuff, such as paying for our art to be made as prints or into books or on t-shirts. "How hard can this be?" you ask me. "Just add a little extra to what you paid for the t-shirts, and that's your profit."

Not that easy. You have to remember that your audience has an idea of what things should cost. They are not going to pay ten dollars for your comic book, or thirty dollars for your t-shirt. You have to price competitively, which is why it is very difficult to run a small business using sites like Cafe Press or Lulu, two of the sites that I like, or the many other similar companies out there.

Your first problem is that, unless you are buying hundreds or thousands of items, you are going to be paying premium prices, prices that may already rival what your competition is selling. For example, have you priced out the cost of a color comic book? If you are going Print on Demand, the cost of a small comic can be 3 or 4 dollars, the price that Marvel sells Spiderman for. (and yes, Marvel is your competitor!) To make a profit, you are now asking your audience to pay more for your comic than they would for an established favorite like Spiderman. This can work if you have lots of people out there that love your work, but remember, they have to find it first, and if it's on the web, they may have to pay shipping on top of that. You're off to a rocky start already.

Now let's say that you've gone to a real printer, and printed a hundred comics all at a decent price so that you can make a profit and keep your audience happy. A year goes by and you have a box of 80 comics sitting around, and you can't even deduct the price of those books yet, since they haven't sold. Now you have to think about a sale.

At which point do you decide to sacrifice a profit just to reduce inventory and get that Cost of Goods Sold back? Well, that's up to you. If you have new books coming out, then selling the old one at discount may be a good way to build up an audience. If those books have been in your closet a few years now, then it's definitely time to reduce the price. It's painful, but that's reality. Even Disney has bargain bins, and remember... people love a bargain. You may go a long way to improving customer satisfaction if that customer feels good about getting a bargain from you.

If you're just starting out in a small business, or considering it, this post may be disturbing. And that's the best gift I can give you. I don't want to discourage anyone, and frankly, us artistic types do what we have to, not what people tell us, but I promise you that unless you are some kind of world wonder, you will not succeed if you don't work smart. Think before you act, and research, and most of all, start small. Build up that audience before you go and try selling stuff. Show us what you got, first, and if we like it, we'll ask for merchandise.

There's a lot more we can discuss on this topic, so if I haven't covered something, please ask. I'm always happy to answer (most) questions. :0)

And since we're on the subject, have I mentioned that I've upgraded the shop, and have many fine items for sale?

Take care, JOHN :0)

Ghost Pirates Update

2011-11-03T17:42:00.000-04:00

I really should write a blog about priorities, since you may be wondering how I choose what to work on and when. For instance, it's been a while since I've mentioned the Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, and with good reason. I've been quite busy with other projects, and although I've been working on Ghost Pirates, I'm witholding the new material so that it doesn't spoil the ending. Most of the story has been free online, but now that I'm putting together the final comic book, we don't want spoilers.

Also, as some of you may recall, Ghost Pirates started out as part of The Inquiring Minds comic strip, and so was not in comic book format. You'd think I would have learned from 3 Knights in India, but no, I didn't. More about that in my upcoming post about priorities.

Anyway, much of the early material from Ghost Pirates has been reformatted, digitally remastered, and in some cases redrawn. I've also added new material to enhance the story or improve the layout, and have created my own 'handwriting' font to make the text consistent throughout. Quite a lot of work, I must say, which explains the lack of recent updates.

I now have about 26 pages completely finished and am working on completing the book. Originally it was to be 32 pages, with advertisements, a letters page, and a page for Fan Art, but it now looks like it could run longer than that. I'm wondering if I should make it a two part series, or a larger comic book? What do you think? Any opinions?

As for the letters page and Fan Art pages, I already have one nice piece from a fellow artist. I'll have to dig through my fan mail to see what applies to The Inquiring Minds, but meanwhile, take a chance to read through the archives, and send a letter in. Who knows, it may get published? :0)

And any cartoonists out there who'd like to have a shot at the Fan Art page, send me a small drawing of The Inquiring Minds, doing something pirate ride related. Of course, how and what gets published are completely at my discretion, and the only compensation would be a copy of the comic book when published, and depends on space left in the final issue.
I'm really proud and excited to have another long term project coming close to completion! Of course, that's just the art and writing... lots more to go, including some exciting news, I hope. :0)

Thanks, JOHN :0)

MId Ohio Con 2011

2011-10-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

This year, Wizard World took over the Mid Ohio Con, so it was supposed to be a whole 'nother show. And it was... in a way.

Last year was a nice, fun show, but I didn't do as well as expected, or as well as I had at the Baltimore Comic Con. I came again since it promised to be a different experience, but I could have done better... at least sales-wise. The thing is, you have to look at the intangibles, such as meeting nice people, and enjoying the show itself, seeing friends, and seeing who stops at your booth, what they look at, and learning a bit about your audience.

I met some great people... some of them very nice, interesting, and talkative, but few were what I would consider my 'audience'. Future audience, perhaps, but like last year, there was very little at this show that mentioned comic strips. Movies, toys, comic books, yes, but comic strips, no. Tom Batuik of Funky Winkerbean was there, which was a plus, but I didn't get a chance to get over his way. It would have been nice to talk to him about comic strips, if he were willing.

It just isn't Comic Con without Stormtroopers. :0)

And there were few people who seemed to be looking for 'something different'. There may have been, in Artist's Alley, but I wasn't in Artist's Alley this year, and more's the pity. I had a Small Press booth, but I wasn't in a Small Press area... a few people even asked "What are you doing in this area?".

The people who did stop by to talk or buy something I feel stumbled upon me, which is quite possible since I was surrounded by a guy selling t-shirts, a guy selling toys, and a guy selling old comic books. Thankfully I was able to get the attention of some great people. but I feel like some people didn't make it down my alley, or if they did, they moved down it too fast, or were captivated by the t-shirts. I did see several people who I felt definitely would have liked my material, but they never even saw it as they went by.

So am I over analysing things? Perhaps, but hey, if you want to sell something, especially in this economy, it pays to know a little psychology. And yes, perhaps the economy did affect things. I mostly sold only the small money items, such as my comic books. This was the first time ever I didn't sell several of the big books.

Don't. Blink.

So did I have a terrible time? No, not at all. I did, however, spend all my earnings on Fantastic Four collections, but hey, I got some great deals. And I did meet some wonderful people, like the kid above in the Weeping Angel costume. Most of the people in costumes seem like nice folk, and fun, and most of the people who bought my stuff were friendly and articulate. I had a lot of fun, at times, but those times when no one stopped by were dreadful. All shows have slow times, but today was really slow.

If I had written this yesterday morning, it would be all praise and exclamation points. After all, I finally sold out of The Inquiring Minds #1, and The Inquiring Minds: Funny Pages #1 did very well. In fact, most of the people who stopped by were kids with their parents.

I'll have to think long and hard about next year. I do have big plans for HappyGlyphs, and depending how things go, I may have to do a lot of shows to support those plans.

We'll see! JOHN :0)

Public Speaking: Expect the Unexpected!

2011-09-28T12:52:00.000-04:00

Today's lesson? Be prepared! Unless you're really really good at winging it. :0)

This morning I was supposed to be talking to a class of second graders about cartooning. I knew I was going, but have been so busy that I hadn't given it any thought at all... until this morning. Mistake number one.

I've done quite a bit of public speaking, and I've spoken to classes and groups about cartooning, so it's not brand new to me. I have certain things I bring along, handouts, activities, and I know there'll always be a place to draw on, so I figure if worse comes to worse, I'll wing it. It's just a small room of kids, right?

So, I sit down with an hour left before I have to leave, and go searching my computer for the handouts to print. I found one, but not the one I wanted. So, I started printing the activity page while creating a coloring page. And that's when my computer started dying. It's moments like these when I understand why people hate PC's so much... and Windows Vista is one of the worse.

Now I have 5 minutes until I'm late, and I've finally managed to print out the activity, the coloring page, and pack up selections of my books and comics and freelance work, grab some give-aways, grab the camera, and get to the school as fast as legally possible. I find my way to the classroom and there is a swarm of activity! Weren't they expecting me?

Oh yes, they were. Except that the teacher had told another teacher who told another teacher... and this morning they all decided their classes should see what I have to say. FOUR classes of second graders! A huge group of kids who all have something important to say and share and questions to ask and.... oh boy.

I'll be honest: I love kids. But they also terrify me. No, not terrifying like zombies, but kids tend to be... honest. Brutally honest. And the questions they ask? I used to coach girl's soccer, and let me tell you how tough that was, to get a word in, for one. "Didn't you wear that shirt yesterday?" "How old are those shoes?" "How's my hair?"

So, I entered this noisy classroom as if it was a shark tank, and I had no cage to hide in. I settled in, got a drawing board, and hid my give-aways because there were just too many kids, and I don't ever want to disappoint a single child. I looked into the audience, and just started talking. I figured that was better than standing there looking stunned, and it was.

It turns out that that group of sharks was actually a room full of cuddly bunny rabbits! The kids were so sweet, so much fun, and as always, had so many very intelligent questions! There is never enough time to talk with kids about cartooning, let me tell you!

I showed them my books, talked about working, answered questions, and did a few drawings in between, to keep the flow going, and it was a wonderful experience. We ended by me doing a drawing of my Alien, and the kids telling me what to add to it. Again, it was so much fun!

The kids had to go to lunch, but so many held back to ask questions, and I even got a few hugs! That was a surprise... I usually just high-five, because isn't that what kids do?

So, a potentially terrifying experience became a wonderful moment which I will always treasure.

A final word of advice? Don't pass out bookmarks at lunchtime, because you will definitely get in trouble with the cafeteria lady!

JOHN :0)

Another Haunting Tribute!

2011-09-20T12:10:00.001-04:00

Some time ago, a young lady I know, who relates very much to my character Iris from The Inquiring Minds, approached me with an idea. She was proud that she had faced her fears, and finally went on the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney World, and loved it! She then had her mom take a photo of her in front of The Mansion, posing as a hitchhiker. What a cool idea, and she deserves all the credit for it!

Now, she's been adamant that Iris is based on her, and has requested that I put her in a comic strip. After seeing the photo of her in front of the Haunted Mansion, and letting it simmer in my mind a bit, I decided to draw Iris in the same pose. After all, I'm in the midst of writing and drawing the Knight and Day Family Vacation, in which the Knights go to Disney World. So, the illustration works for me, and at the same gives this young lady the proof she required that her and Iris are twin souls.

I am very happy to present the original art to her, to reward her inspiration, and very cool idea.

The illustration was based on her photograph, and then turned into a postcard, which I then made into a Knight and Day panel. This is, quite fittingly, my 13th Knight and Day panel! Don't you just love coincidences like that?
All the best, JOHN :0)

PS On my iPod? Hugh Laurie, Let Them Talk
PSS How fitting that Iris appear in a tribute to the Haunted Mansion, since her fellow Inquiring Minds, Bobby and Albert, appeared in a haunting tribute last year! (Available as a fine print in our shop)

The Big 300!

2011-09-15T19:30:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is my birthday... and no, I'm not turning 300, but I find it serendipitous that I get to draw my 300th Knight and Day daily strip to honor the occassion. Or vice versa! Because honestly, this is a HUGE milestone for me.

Yeah, I know... 300 strips is just a year in the life of a syndicated cartoonist, but I don't get paid to do this. For me, it's a true labor of love, accomplished in what little spare time I have, with the occassional fan mail or book sale to spur me on. This is a very big. very proud moment for me, especially when I put these 300 strips next to the other Knight and Day cartoons I have drawn... panels and Sunday cartoons, and of course the many pages of my Knight and Day graphic novel, 3 Knights in India. And then there's the many Sunday and daily cartoons (as well as illustrations) of The Inquiring Minds, and the hundreds of comic strips drawn before these two strips that make up my book Once Upon a Times...

Truly a big day for me, looking back at all that I've accomplished to date. Looking back at my comics, to me, is like looking at a scrap book of my life... funny moments that I think others will relate to, embarrassing moments that I'm sure others will laugh with, and drawings of places that I've lived and visited. Every moment was special, and so immortalised in ink on paper.

Last year at this time, I celebrated my birthday in Disney World, and it was awesome that most of the Cast Members in the park were so nice and cheery, wishing me a Happy Birthday everywhere I went, and sometimes even singing. So, even though I'm skipping ahead a bit in the current storyline, it seems fitting that my 300th strip celebrate that special time.

Thank you for sharing this proud moment with me! JOHN :0)

Knight Family Vacation Page

2011-09-14T22:32:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note to say that I've moved all the Knight and Day vacation strips to their own page at the website. This way you can read them all at once, and in order, and it's easier for me to update.

http://www.happyglyphs.com/vacation.html

A new Knight and Day was just added, and believe it or not, but the Knight's are finally leaving! Well, they're in the car, anyway. :0)

While you're there, check out the rest of the site and see what's new.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

September 11, 2001

2011-09-09T10:04:00.001-04:00

I was taking a break from cartooning when the events of September 11, 2001 occured. Those events brought me back, and reintroduced The Inquiring Minds. It's hard for an artist to watch the world around him change, without responding in some way. This was my response.

I lived close enough to the city to see the smoke rising from the horizon, and the army helicopters flying overhead on alert. Everything changed, and so I tried to capture that feeling through the eyes of my young characters.

Internal Logic in the Comic Strip Universe

2011-08-09T15:28:00.000-04:00

I draw my comic strips the old fashioned way, in pen and ink. Oh, I use the computer for a lot of stuff, but there's nothing better then laying down panels on a piece of good bristol, and then working on filling them. To me, and probably lots of other Cartoonists, each panel is a window into another universe... a universe of my own creation.

And like any other universe, the ones we create must have rules... laws of physics, internal logic, continuity; whatever it takes to create a world that makes sense to a reader, while that reader is in that world. Truly, you can do anything you want. Cats can talk, pigs can fly: whatever you want, as long as it is entertaining to someone. :0)

Now, the universe in Knight and Day is fairly small. Currently I have 3 main characters, and about 6 supporting characters (can you name them all?) and several others who are mentioned or make the rare appearance, if you've read all the strips. The name of the strip is Knight and Day, though, so I always focus on Steven and Amy, in particular Steven, since he's loosely my doppleganger. (Don't you love when you can fit words like Doppleganger into a conversation?)

Anyways, Steven is an alternate reality version of myself, if you go by the comic strip as an other universe theory. As such, when I write strips, I sometimes reject them when I realise it is Amy and Iris talking, with no sign of Steven. That's why you may see Steven sticking his head into the last panel, just to make an appearance. So Steven being in the strip is a rule I work by, when creating.

Or do I? :0)

Apparently, even Cartoonists are fallible, and I was surprised at how many strips have snuck by me that don't feature Steven! In my defense, the strips usually feature Amy, talking about Steven. I guess, in my mind, talking about him is the same as having him there, and at least he is somewhat involved in the strip. There are a few where he is not involved, but those are 'unofficial' strips, and seen by relatively few. They'll appear in a future book, but when writing them I must have subconsciously known 'the rule', and so pushed them aside.

Now, I must go finish the strip I'm working on. I think I'll post that in the previous post. :0)

Knight Family Comic Strip Vacation: Florida Road Trip! [updated! (6)]

2011-08-05T21:48:00.011-04:00

Okay, I've mentioned before that as I currently create Knight and Day, it is with a second comic strip collection in mind. Like "Take Me Away From All This!", the next collection will basically cover a year or so in the lives of the Knight family. However, due to surprises in life (see previous posts), that story is not always created in a linear fashion.

So, in this blog, I am introducing the Knight's forthcoming road trip, starting with the first strip that actually leads into the future storylines dealing with Snowie and her kittens. Before Iris can have a cat, she needs to 'want' a cat. Get it? :0)

Either way, all my strips are designed to be enjoyed independently, but once you know the characters better, it's fun to see how things change, and watch their lives change and grow.

Question: Should I post all of the vacation strips here, on this page, and hope you come back to visit? Or post them as they come up, and put them all together later? Well, let me know what you prefer, and we'll see what works out for the best. [For now, I'll post them here for ease, as well as at the Knight and Day page of our website, where they may be easier to read.]

By the way, to see the inspiration for this trip, please read my previous post.
Meanwhile, all great adventures must start somewhere, so here it is; the planting of the seed. JOHN :0)

PS Comic strip vacations are nothing new to Knight and Day. If you haven't read Take Me Away From All This!!, the first Knight and Day collection, you've missed Steve and Amy's trips to Niagara Falls, England and France, and of course, Oz in Thailand, And the Knight and Day Graphic Novel 3 Knights in India features a bit of traveling as well. :0)

Recharging the Batteries

2011-07-22T16:28:00.000-04:00

Grumpy Little Orange. :0)

Last week sometime, I woke up and decided to take a vacation. Oh, I had thought about it, but sometimes thinking leads to all sorts of rationalizations like affordability, time, etc. And planning. There are some who plan every detail, and there are some who wing it, and I wung it. Much against anyone's better judgement, I began driving about 7:30 at night, heading for Florida... a mere 15 hours or so away!

Normally an overnight drive would send shudders down my spine, being safety conscious and all, but honestly, a part of me really wanted to watch the sun rise. No idea why, but seeing dawn break is something we should all do now and then, especially with the shore nearby, and fun times ahead.

Happily, the journey went safely, and thus began a week of alternating adventure and relaxation, with a focus on new experience. I'm a huge advocate of doing new things to recharge the batteries and stimulate the brain, whether trying new foods or seeing a new place, or both.

Success! My first evening in Florida I was enjoying the sunset over a beautiful lake, and about to walk out onto a pier when I spotted something in the shallows beside me... what looked like a toy alligator. While marvelling at how life-like it was, said alligator started moving towards me! Now I've seen gators before, but none in the wild, none a few feet from me, and none so close to pedestrians and puppies all enjoying the park. And this guy actually moved towards me with no fear in its eyes!

Alligator looks mean!

Next I visited Mt. Dora for the first time, a nice little place on a lake that looks like a town in the Caribean. I watched the Independence Day fireworks, and planned on going back, but unfortunately wasn't able to find the time.

Day 3 found me in Disney World, a place that always stimulates the creative juices! And although I've been there before, I was easily able to find new things to do. Usually I stay in the park resorts, and take advantage of the free bussing to and from the parks, which is beyond priceless. This time I decided to schlup it and actually drive in and park, which involves a lot of traffic, parking two miles away, and then fighting for space on the trams where we then took the ferry across the lake and then stood in a ticket line for tickets and then hiked to the entrance and by then was too tired to move! Then again, it was a hot and humid day, but next time, a resort stay is definitely called for.

Nice edible design on my dessert plate at Tony's in the Magic Kingdom

I had a chance at a truly unique experience, which was seeing the final space shuttle launch live! My choice of this week for Florida was influenced by the launch, although I wasn't sure if I wanted to attempt to go to the launch site itself. First off, I knew it would be crowded, and second, there are sometimes delays in these launches. Unfortunately, time moved quickly, and where I was located was a great place to see the shuttle take off in the distance... usually. After a very hot and humid few days, the night before I was in Downtown Disney in a true deluge of rain. The morning of the launch found it still drizzling, and of course cloudy, so although I should have seen the launch, I couldn't. It was just too overcast! Well, some things you just can't control.

On the way home, not wanting to face that dreaded drive, I stopped for the night in Hilton Head, South Carolina, another place I always wanted to visit, and pretty much the last shore stop on the way home. This not only split my drive up, but I spent a wonderful evening and morning on the beach, in the ocean, and at a gorgeous hotel. It was muggy there as well, but Hilton Head Island is definitely on the 'Must Return To' list.

Storm brewing over the beach at Hilton Head

So, am I rested and rejuvenated after my impromptu Holiday?? Hell no. I'm exhausted, and my To-do list is twice as long as before!

But you know what? I'd do it again in a minute. You don't forget a trip like that, and yeah, I'm sure to get a lot more out of it, once I've rested and had time to look back. Maybe even some ideas for cartoons??

No maybes about it. :0)

Time to think about the next trip. JOHN :0)

A True Honor

2011-07-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

I am honored to do a magazine cover twice a year for the same company for several years now, and each cover somehow turns out better than I imagined. This shouldn't be a surprise, since a) I work my butt off spending usually three weeks on each cover, not counting research, and b) I try to top myself each time. This may sound simple, but honestly, until the cover is done, I have no idea if the end result will be what I hope for.

Then again, I don't stop until I'm truly happy with a piece, and pray that this point will come BEFORE the art has to go to the printers!

With a magazine cover, a painting, a cartoon... I usually work until I feel the piece is 'alive'. I juggle all the elements using whatever instincts and knowledge I have developed over the years about design and color theory, until the art is dynamic. To me, fine art is something that captures your attention, and makes you take a second look, and pulls you in although you don't necessarily know why.

Anyhow, my latest cover was a special piece... a tribute to the fastest passenger ship known to man, the SS United States. The ship was launched in the 1950's and was featured on many a travel poster. So, having a love of those glamorous old travel posters myself, I set out to design my own. Sadly, when deadlines loom, it is possible for any artist to panic, and this I did. I rushed a design, hoping it would turn into something, but a very important lesson for any designer is this: think before you start. It's always best to have a clear design in mind, and to work out the kinks in thumbnail sketches before you begin your final work.
If I had been working with real paint, like I originally intended, instead of digitally, I would have been in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, I was able to take a deep breath, admit my mistake, and scrapped it all to start over.
Not the best thing to do with a deadline looming and a week or two of work under your belt!

Fortunately, I was working digitally, and was creating a two page spread. By taking all of those elements and putting them together on one page, I had a much more exciting design. I then changed the angles and viewpoint to make it much more dynamic and exciting... a true tribute to such a fascinating ship!

More fortunately, my clients loved the final image, enough to make posters of the work to give as gifts to their clients.

Having someone give your art as a gift to someone else, especially on this scale, is a true honor, and one that makes all the struggle to be an artist worthwhile. Of course, these moments are few and far between, but the next one keeps us working away, and doing our best. And that is what we should always aim for; our best.
Cheers, JOHN :0)

Photos: Above, the line art view of the illustration as seen in Adobe Illustrator. I usually work from scanned sketches, to Adobe Illustrator, and then finish in Adobe Photoshop.
Second, the final artwork as shown on the printed posters. Note that I 'aged' the illustration to make it look like a poster that's been around for the last 50 years.

Keeping it straight: continuity

2011-06-16T11:56:00.003-04:00

I've talked recently about how adding Snowie to Knight and Day has caused me a bit of a flurry in the writing department. I had planned on introducing the idea of Iris wanting a cat into the strip, but hadn't gotten around to it. And while I was writing, rewriting, and pondering, real life handed me Snowie!

However, doing a comic strip the way I do can cause other continuity glitches, problems, etc. Ultimately, my goal is to be syndicated, and have the strip presented daily in a newspaper, then collect those strips later for book collections. Currently, I am not syndicated, which means most of my cartoon income comes from book and art sales, which is not enough to make the comic strip a full time job. This also means that I am creating strips to be seen by an Editor first, an audience second. This means that you, my friendly audience, don't get to see new strips every day, or even every week when my freelance work piles up. I also spend most of my time doing gag a day strips, where there IS an overall continuity, but it runs mainly in the background. You'd need to read a few weeks worth of strips to see how they all fit together.

As confident as I am in my work, I do realise that the syndicates may have lapses of error, where they may not see the potential of myself and my comic strips, and how well we could do working together. Which leads me to plan B.

And here is my advice... always have a plan B! When pursuing a goal like syndication, or trying to find yourself as an artist, you can get lost in the many directions that you can go. Trying to find the one path to focus on is not easy, and not always practical. So, to make your life easier, choose projects that pay, first, keeping in mind that those pieces will go into your portfolio, and also improve your artistic skills, and dealing with client skills. Second, choose projects that if you can't use them in one place, use them in another.

For example, I work with Knight and Day since A) the strip has been very popular with people who have read it, and B) given time, I will have enough material to publish another book. My first book is still popular, so creating another comic strip collection makes perfect sense.

Of course, if syndicated, things may change, but as it stands, all these strips I have been doing will go into another Knight and Day comic strip collection, which I am already creating. It's a blast seeing it come together, but that word continuity comes in again. First, there's continuity with the seasons, so that summer strips must come together, and winter strips are all together, and now the Snowie storyline must be fit in to make perfect sense with the overall book. Like Take Me Away From All This!!, this next book will read like a year out of the life of Steven and Amy Knight, so although most strips stand alone, altogether they will create a perfect 'whole', where we will see the characters grow and change and see just how much can happen to a family in a year's time.

I'm looking forward to it, but meanwhile, as the book comes together, I now have a timeline where each strip must fit into.

However, I've written several books now, and many cartoons, both with Knight and Day as well as The Inquiring Minds, of which Iris Knight is a part of. So NOW I have to worry about what I write in a different way... the strips have to fit the continuity already established in my first books and comic books!

I think it's time I took the time to make a time line... which may save some time in the long run. :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

Cats and Continuity (updated)

2011-04-20T16:40:00.003-04:00

So my last two posts have dealt with the newest addition to my home, and how I deal with such matters in my comic strip. I'm talking, of course, about Snowie the cat, who has complicated my life tremendously, and yet has given me loads of comic strip material by joining the cast of Knight and Day.

I also mentioned how fortuitous her arrival was, since I was actually in the early planning stages of introducing the idea of Iris wanting a cat. Of course, once I started asking for advice on facebook, everyone wanted Snowie in the strip, and so she was, the very next day. The only problem with that was, with people enjoying the strips, I felt obligated to do more. However, a cat like Snowie can't just magically appear in a comic strip. Besides, she deserves an introduction, and her own little storyline, doesn't she?

And so I find myself going back and forth between brand new strips featuring Snowie and brand new strips introducing the idea of Snowie, and then Snowie herself. Not to mention the backlog of other strips written and waiting to be drawn! So please bear with me. I'll post Snowie strips at the website, and on facebook, and post some pre Snowie strips here. Soon, I hope, I will have filled in the gaps, and will either post the storyline on a special webpage, or save it for the next comic strip collection.

Hopefully for you, the reader, each strip stands alone, and yet fits into the overall continuity. Kind of like reading someone's journal by flipping back and forth through the pages looking for juicy stuff. :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

Art Preceding Life, and Vice Versa!

2011-04-06T15:51:00.006-04:00

[updated: all strips added]

I posted last about Snowie, the latest addition to the Knight and Day comic strip. When she arrived at my doorstep, I asked for advice from my facebook friends, and immediately got requests for her to join the strip. Who am I to argue, I thought, and Snowie joined the cast.

Now, at this moment in time I happen to be extremely busy, what with the taxes, and a new freelance project, so I drew some Snowie toons from life, and what was happening. Then, recently, I sat down with my project notebook to see my To Do list. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw that I was kind of heading in this direction on my own. :0)

Yeah, I know... it's hard to surprise yourself, but hey, I said I've been busy! And besides, my project notebook is full of scribblings, sketches, and thoughts... many of which may never become cartoons. Still, it was funny to find a page of notes for Knight and Day, all dealing with Iris wanting a cat, and getting... something different. Funny, and useful!

This actually solves my problem of continuity, by giving me a transition from pre-Snowie to Snowie. Eventually there will be another Knight and Day collection which, generally, follows my drawing order, but sometimes involves strips being shifted around for a variety of reasons, mainly that they make better reading in a new order. Also, truth be told, I sometimes draw strips 'out of order', either because I need to draw a certain strip first so I can establish the scene visually, or just because one strip seems more fun to draw and I don't want to wait.

So, anyway, here are a few of those pre-Snowie strips. Once we get these told, we can go back to telling Snowie's story.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS By the way, if there is anything you particularly want me to write about, feel free to let me know. I sometimes wonder if I should do more basic Cartooning posts, or more advanced? Meanwhile, I'll try to keep a good mix. :0)

Art Imitating Life: Snowie

2011-03-23T13:58:00.002-04:00

They say that Life imitates Art, but for a cartoonist, Art so often comes from real life. It’s the ‘write what you know’ theory. In this case, a hungry white cat showed up on our doorstep one night and turned our lives upside down. It was immediately expected, by those following the story on facebook, that this blizzard of fur had to appear in Knight and Day.

Oddly enough, I once had a cat very much like Snowie, and it was always my intention to have Snowball appear in my comic strip one day. As nice as that would have been, it just didn’t feel right when Knight and Day rolled around. However, you can see her in a few of my earliest comic strips, in my book Once Upon a Times....

Now, however, I can pay homage to both cats at the same time, and get inspiration from both real life and from happy memories.

A star is born. :0)

JOHN :0)
PS On my iPod? Sarah Brightman, La Luna

Cartooning 101: The Basics

2011-03-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

My drawing table, littered with tracing paper. Well, littered, anyway! Time to clean...

When I was taking cartooning classes, there was one important lesson that our teacher imparted to us, over and over: use tracing paper to sketch. Why? Because it's relatively cheap, and if you make a mistake, you can toss it. So many people are afraid to make a mistake, so don't draw at all, choosing to stare at the blank page instead, awaiting inspiration. This violates another very important lesson they teach you in cartooning school, which is to draw as much as you can! Later on, while taking graphic design classes, my instructor also was a big fan of tracing paper. In a large composition, you may sketch a character or something really nice, but not like another part. So... you trace over the good part, or cut that out, and use it to redraw the scene. Heck, you can make 5 or 6 sketches of the same scene and cut and past the best bits, for a great rough sketch.

Today's Knight and Day, done first on tracing paper, then inked on the lightbox, then fixed, cleaned,
and shaded on the computer in photoshop. Some strips are higher maintenance than others. :0)

They say that George Herriman (Krazy Kat) could sit down and start inking, without any sketching or anything. Looking at the compositions of his Sunday pages, I find that really hard to believe. I'm sure he sketched thumbnails at the least, but even if he didn't, I recommend highly creating a few sketches before setting out to do any final artwork. I, for one, can sometimes sit down and work away perfectly, but there are other times when I flounder across the paper, and nothing seems to go right. In that case, a tight sketch is a life saver, which I can throw on the light box, and ink over. At least then I'll make less mistakes. :0)

Even if you've moved to the computer for life, you should still sketch. Any decent draw or paint program should give you layers, so always sketch on one layer first, then draw on another layer above it. Well, not always... there is something to be said for spontaneity. It all depends upon your style, and how loose you allow yourself to be.

The important thing is, of course, to not leave that paper blank. :0)

Cheers, JOHN :0)

In Which I Make a Cool Pirate Video

2011-03-10T10:36:00.004-05:00

While I'm holding off on cartoon news for the moment, I just had to share with you a cool little video I put together the other day.

Okay, so some of you are aware that I am slightly obsessed with Disney's so called 'dark' rides... an obsession that precedes even my first visit to the parks. You see, long before there were Legos and snap-together kits, there was the model kit. A kit that, no matter what the box said, required quite a bit of skill to put together and paint. And I just love working with my hands!

Some of my many happy childhood memories involve putting together Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean model kits with zap/action! The one I remember most is Condemned to Chains Forever, in which a pirate skeleton fights an eternal battle with an alligator that's trying to chew on his leg. It's no wonder the comic book I'm working on is titled The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, is it?

So, a few years later I have managed to get the same model kit, complete in it's box. And now it will take me years to find the time to actually build it and build it right. However, I had ten minutes free one Saturday morning, so over coffee I carefully removed the pieces from their sprues, and, like any good model builder, fit them together before any attempt at gluing. And being the show person that I am, I just had to video the attempt, and ad some animation to it. :0)

Please enjoy!

PS As I kid I ripped the box open and started painting and gluing haphazardly until I had a sloppy mess that little resembled the picture on the box. And I loved every minute of it. :0)

PSS If enough of you clamor to see more, I'll be forced to find the time to play, er... work towards making another video in this series. Please? :0)

On my iPod? Ariene Brunet, "Le pied dans ma bulle" Nice!

Aiming High

2011-02-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, my advice to you was if you want to get your name out there, if you want to make a living with your art, you have to have things in circulation. Today we set up websites and place drawings on a facebook page, but there are at least a million others doing the same thing. The world is changing, but the previous way of doing things is still best, and that means mailing stuff out. Illustrators should have postcards out to magazines, and Cartoonists should have stuff out to the Syndicates.

My career took off when I made it a habit of always having something in the mail, or in transit to somewhere, whether it was cartoon submissions to a magazine, or a short story, or comics to the syndicates. Of course, once my freelance work took off, I didn't have time to follow these goals, but at the same time I didn't need to. I was working, and sometimes making money, and that was where I needed to be.

However, my goal has always been newspaper syndication, and so I finally returned to that quest. The industry is in a state of flux, but for me, that is where I need to be, and where I am sure my particular audience is. For me, catching the brass ring of syndication will give me the focus I need. In the years since my last submissions to the syndicates, I have been busy with my freelance career, but always cartooning at the same time. As you know, one project is The Inquiring Minds comic book, The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake. Loosely based on my comic strip, and begun in comic strip format, it is not something the syndicates would look for, being a storyline for one. Since it is definitely a comic book project, I need to treat it like one. HappyGlyphs can publish it, of course, but to get it into the comic book stores requires a lot of time and capital, and is a risky venture that requires complete dedication. And so that project is on hold for now.

I have also been working on my comic strip Knight and Day, and managed to complete my graphic novel 3 Knights in India, again, loosely based on the comic strip, but not syndication material. Oddly enough, though, the graphic novel was serialised in the India Post, a weekly newspaper serving the Indian community, so for a while I did see my work in the papers, and was proud of that. Still, syndication being my goal, I set aside time and created a new package of Knight and Day. Some of these strips can be seen at HappyGlyphs.com and others at the HappyGlyphs Comics Fan Page on facebook. Others will remain with me until A) I get syndicated, or B) failing that, I complete the strip on my own, and publish my second Knight and Day comic strip collection.

Another vertical comic strip: I love the freedom all that extra vertical space allows!

I worked hard to create strong strips that demonstrated well who my characters are, and created a package of material that I am really proud of. Now, I just have to wait and see how the market is, and what mood the syndicates are in. Once upon a time Knight and Day came very close to getting syndicated. Bad timing made that dream fall through, but now it's an all new strip, and a different world, so we'll see what happens.

I've worked hard for this, and will work even harder if syndicated, Wish me luck! Sometimes a little luck can give you the edge you need. :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

On my iPod? Nothing! Ack! Can't decide what mood I'm in today. :0)

The More Things Change... the Life of Vincent Van Gogh

2011-01-26T14:19:00.001-05:00

I love biographies, especially those of Artists and Cartoonists. For Christmas, all I wanted was the complete letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo... not a biography, per se, but a very intimate and personal look at the life of a great Artist, life in the late 1800's, and more. The letters cover the years between 1872 and 1890, and were written in Holland, Belgium, England, and France... fairly far away in space, and lifetimes away in time. A history lesson, you may think, with nothing applicable to the life of an Artist in this modern age? You'd be wrong. As far as human nature goes, the more things change, the more so many things really do stay the same.

It's been a while since I've really studied painting and Painters. I stare at every interesting piece of art I see, and take from it what I can, but I haven't done a lot of studying outside of drawing. As I've seen recently, though, the work of Vincent Van Gogh is everywhere! I just noticed the other day that I have one of his sunflowers on an oven mitt I bought a decade ago, and I see his name and his art in so many places, from vodka bottles to schoolroom walls. I'll admit, though, that my recent fascination with the man came from that spectacular episode of Doctor Who, where Amy Pond and the Doctor meet Vincent and help brighten one of his days. So, you see, Ma? Television really can be educational and inspiring. :0)

Before I go further, let's clarify a few things. If all you know about Vincent is the crap they teach in schools, then forget that and pick up any book on the man, which should immediately clarify things. To think of Vincent Van Gogh as a crazy person who cut off his ear and gave it to a hooker is a gross misjustice, and totally disrespectful of the man himself. I've heard variations on that above statement from various people I've spoken to recently, and it took me 5 minutes of reading to see that everything in that statement is misconstrued and taken out of context. Oh, no doubt that Vincent had problems... for which we should be respectful. Life with any kind of illness can be very difficult, and what we should consider is how he managed to accomplish so much by overcoming his difficulties.

Seen on the wall of the local pizza joint.

So what does any of this have to do with today's Artist, especially today's Cartoonist? Well, quite a lot. Vincent's journey to becoming one of the greatest Painters ever mirrors the journey of so many people today who are trying to find themselves as Artists.

I read a lot of blogs, articles, biographies, etc about Cartoonists today, and taken altogether a pattern of similarities emerges. A person goes through many odd jobs before finally finding themselves in art. A person lives hand to mouth trying to feed him or herself, while trying to make it as an Artist. An Artist works hard, mostly in isolation, proud of what they are accomplishing, but not sure how it will be received, how good it is, is it good at all? Worries about money, being looked down upon by people with 'real' jobs, wanting your family to be proud of you, wanting at all costs to succeed for so many reasons...

All of this is in Vincent's letters, in detail. Even more like today's Artist, he looks for commercial art while studying to do the type of art he really wants to do. He considers working as a magazine illustrator, but is frustrated by having to deal with Editors and to show his portfolio time after time. He takes on 'freelance' assignments. He considers making his own prints and seeing if he can sell them. He considers teaming up with other Artists in various types of collaborations. He even considers self publishing! I am sure that all of this will seem very familiar to anyone considering making a living today as an Artist.

The struggle is familiar, and relevant. In raw detail he describes his life, and his choices. Sometimes we don't have choices today or then... we need to eat, we need shelter, and we need art supplies. Vincent often chose art supplies over food, although he tried not to compromise on shelter. Not a bed or stove or anything, but always concerned with a studio with proper lighting.

Seen in the local liquor store.

Poor suffering soul that he was, though, Vincent had one thing that many do not have: someone who believed in him. He often said that his brother Theo would have been a great painter if he chose to be, and sometimes tried to push him in that direction. But Theo chose a 'real' job, and made real money, and sent Vincent money every month of his life for food, shelter, and art supplies. Later on for hospital bills. This small but steady income gave Vincent the opportunity to study pure art, and not to compromise. To experiment with materials, and to have a studio with proper lighting. It also gave him a small amount of guilt, which probably drove him to work as hard as he did. Vincent drew or painted or studied whenever his health permitted. At the end he was doing a painting a day, and each was awesome, from landscapes to portraits to his Starry Night.

And so the lessons of then become the lessons of now. Do you want to be an Artist? Do you want to make money as an Artist, or spend a lifetime trying to do so? The answer is simple, but very difficult. You've got to work at it, every day. Preferably full time, with someone to support you, because let's face it... part time art will take years to get anywhere. By working to support yourself, you are draining yourself from the energy needed to make art, and stressing yourself. Of course, depending on others can be stressful in itself. But you do need the determination to keep working at it, and to try new things, and to know when a new direction is wasting time. You need to learn the techniques of your trade, and how to use the tools, from T-square to computer. And you need a dedicated work space.

Seen on the wall of a local elementary school.

Most of all, BE an Artist. Be professional, be ready for opportunity, and make your own opportunity. Give yourself assignments until real assignments come your way. If you know what you want to do, then you're halfway to your goal. If you want to illustrate children's books, then do that. make your own books, or illustrate someone else's, but learn what it takes to do the job and do it. Designing greeting cards is great, especially if it pays, but if you want to illustrate kid's books, then make sure you're developing a style that shows that. Comic books, graphic novels, comic strips, greeting cards.... if you know what you want to do, then focus. Focus, and, given time, you should reach some level of success.

If you don't know what to do, then try everything. Learn different things, and try to get paying art jobs so that you can continue learning. Freelancing does not often pay well, but the experience gained is invaluable. Learning to work with others, to listen to others, to do work on demand... all these things helps one grow.

Vincent of course, didn't do most of these things. He just drew every day, then painted every day, and studied every day, until it all became something unique within him. He wasn't afraid to say "this is too much", or "this guy doesn't work hard enough", or "this work lacks soul or passion". And he wasn't afraid to follow his own path. He ventured into the realm of abstraction, and used color for it's own sake, and not necessarily how it was seen. And because of that, created a path that so many Artists and Art Forms followed after him.

It was never easy, but he believed in himself, and his brother believed in him, and eventually his Sister in Law believed in him. Fortunately, Vincent saw some of the praise in his work in his lifetime. He also saw many scoff, laugh, and put him down, but he knew that one day they would all come around. It takes time to appreciate something new and radical, he admitted, but he knew he had something good.

Unfortunately, he left this world before seeing those people 'come around'. It took awhile, but his Sister in Law got the vindication they all needed, when Vincent's work finally became appreciated by the world at large.

So, believe in yourself. Follow your heart.

It may not always be easy, but if you work at it, you'll eventually get somewhere. That journey is something you just can't predict, though, nor the destination.

So good luck to you! JOHN :0)

PS On my iPod? Calm of Zero, Acoustic Sessions #1

PSS I'm working on a painting myself, now, but cartooning comes first. More on all that later. :0)

Getting it done.

2011-01-20T11:43:00.001-05:00

It's a new year, and that busy Holiday season is over, and it's time to get back into the action.
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, because frankly, to succeed in anything, you have to have resolve each and every day... which is not always easy. So with that in mind, I am tackling my to-do list, and finishing things that need to get done!

First off, I've been wanting to submit a comic strip to the Syndicates again, so am finishing that package of Knight and Day material. I know times a ticking, but to submit anything to anyone, you should always submit your best, which means doing a lot of work and choosing the cream.
I'm also trying to finish a model boat I started last year, and doing some painting again. I'm not done the painting yet, but will post that here when I'm happy with it. I started it quite some time ago, as a gift for a friend, and it got put aside, and put aside.... well, too long. Painting takes time, but is different enough from Cartooning that different energies are involved, so perhaps I can do both concurrently.

Of course, that also means paint brushes to wash, as well as pens to maintain, and other tools. Which brings me to another resolution: Keep the studio clean!

I've probably mentioned this before, but if you want to be a professional Artist of any sort, you need a dedicated work space. Sitting on your bed with a sketchbook is great, but having a drawing table, or an easel, or a desk of any sort is essential. A place with only your most necessary tools arranged within reach, and a place that is clean. I think one of the best tools ANY Cartoonist can have is a box of baby wipes. Seriously! One cartoon can leave such a mess of pencil dust on the table, and ink on my triangles, and if I don't clean every day, then smudges appear on my drawings that don't go away easily, and which scan quite messily.

Please note that the spot on which I work is very clean. :0)

So, here are a few brand new Knight and Day's for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think, huh?

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS On my iPod? Aimee Mann, Lost in Space, and the soundtrack to an awesome tv show, Defying Gravity

Breaking the Rules

2010-11-17T14:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't submitted to the Syndicates in some time, now, but Syndication is still my goal. As such, I treat my Cartooning as if I were syndicated, and abide by the rules, and try to see things as not only my audience sees them, but as an Editor might. This means that I follow the conventions of a newspaper comic, and go by the inherent rules.

Now Cartoonists are a special breed, and we lke to play. One way I've seen Cartoonists play is with the 'sideways' strip... a daily comic strip (or even sunday) where you have to turn your head, or your newspaper, a complete 45 degrees to read the strip. See above.

Now, I've always hated these strips... often for the reason that the Cartoonist didn't always need to go sideways, but mostly just for the fact that we cater to the reader, and shouldn't make them turn their head just to read our comic strip.

Having said that, I was doodling in my sketchbook recently, and came up with an idea that needed some height to it. I tossed the idea aside when I realised that I just couldn't do the strip following the basic conventions of a newspaper strip. Unless... I went ::shudder::... sideways.

The idea stuck with me, until WOW!

Cartoonists have complained for years about the shrinking of our little rectangle that we get to draw in, and rightly so. I can't tell you how many times I've felt constrained by that rectangle. Of course, there's been just as many times when I'm glad it's there, because knowing your limits can help you to quickly make decisions.

Well, let me tell you something... that little rectangle takes on a whole new dimension when turned sideways! No wonder Cartoonists make their readers turn sideways! I felt so.... liberated... when I saw all this space, and so excited. Yes, excited! After years of Cartooning, it is always fun to try new things, and go in different directions. And this was fun! Instead of laying out each panel, I found myself layering my layout as I 'scrolled' down, to keep the focus in the right places... yes, places, not place. Multiple focus points with the two sets of word balloons create a sense of time in one panel! As you read downwards, time is actually moving, although the image is stationary!

I know... total geek moment, but hey... that's why I love Cartooning. There is so much to discover when you go outside the box... or turn that box sideways. :0)

Your turn! JOHN :0)

PS On my iPod today? The Who, Quadrophenia

Behind the Mask: My Interview with a Costumed Comic Con Character

2010-11-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

A Comic Con just would not be the same without those charismatic costumed characters that bravely parade through the shows, patiently posing for fan photos. As a creative type, I've often thought of making my own costume, and going out at Halloween or a comic con, and not let anyone see behind the mask. I think it takes a special kind of person to do so, though... someone brave, outgoing... perhaps an Actor or Actress? What motivates these people? Where do they find the courage?

So many questions piling up, that I just had to go out and ask somebody!

And that somebody was Jen Baker, the woman in my Mid Ohio Con post dressed as Felicia Hardy, The Black Cat. When Jen posed for the above photo, I took a moment to talk with her, and found her to be pretty cool about everything. I guess if you're the one in the costume, shyness is not an issue!

I'm honestly amazed at how patient most costumed folk can be at these shows, and how professional they are, and at how much fun they seem to be having! So, curious as a Cat myself, I asked Jen if she was willing to answer a few questions. And she did. :0)

John: "First off, Jen. Why do you do it? Why the costume?"

Jen: "It's every comic book enthusiasts dream to be like the heroes (or villains) that you see on the pages. Dressing like them brings you a bit closer to living out that dream."

John: "And what do you get out of this?"

Jen: "Dressing in costume really added to the comic convention experience! It's great when everyone recognizes you as one of your favorite characters. You almost feel like a movie star with so many people asking for pictures. It's also a great way to meet people because a costume is definitely a conversation starter."

John: "Do you make your own costumes?"

Jen: "This was actually my first attempt at making a costume. I bought the basic black bodysuit and just modified it with the white fur trim. The hardest part was the mask. I took about 3 or 4 days to make it, and it didn't turn out too shabby."

John: "Nice work... the mask is great! So when was your first time appearing in public in costume?"

Jen: "I wore the costume for Halloween this year. A few people thought I was supposed to be Lady Gaga! But a surprisingly large amount of people actually identified me as the Black Cat or Felicia Hardy."

John: "How did that come about, and were you more nervous or excited?"

Jen: "I felt a bit nervous at first stepping out in a skin tight costume. The initial jitters quickly faded though, and then it was all fun and excitement!"

John: "Are you into comics yourself? If so, reading or making them, or both?"

Jen: "I've been a comic book collector since I was about ten years old. Comics are one of my great passions in life..they just make me happy! I always thought it would be cool to be a comic book artist, and maybe one day I'll pursue that.

John: "What kind of comics do you enjoy the most? Are you Marvel, DC, Manga... ?"

Jen: "Marvel comics were certainly my first true love, and I still collect quite a bit from Marvel to this day. As I matured my tastes became more diverse. Some of my favorite titles throughout the years include The Walking Dead, Dawn, League of Extraordinary Gentelmen, Watchmen, and 30 Days of Night. I could really go on and on. I tend to follow certain artists too, so whatever they're working on, I buy it. Joseph Michael Linsner, Frank Cho, and J.H. Williams III, just to name a few, will always grab my attention!"

John: "And how do you stand on the issue that some claim that comics are aimed at young males only, and don't address female readers?"

Jen: "That may have been true years ago when women in comic books were mainly used for the 'cheesecake' factor. Currently, however, there are many strong female characters that girls can easily relate to and admire. Sure, there might not be as many girls as there are boys that like to read about superheroes in spandex costumes, but you can honestly find something for everybody in comic books. Vampires, history, religion, aliens...whatever your interest may be, there is comic book that caters to that interest! "

John: "Where do you go from here? A new costume, a new show? Anything else you'd like to add?"

Jen: "I'm already brewing up ideas for a costume or two for next year. I think I may have found a new hobby in costume making."

John: "Excellent! Another reason to look forward to next year's Mid Ohio Con. Thank you so much, Jen. It's been a real pleasure!"

Jen: "Sure thing!"

Mid Ohio Con 2010

2010-11-10T11:48:00.001-05:00

The Mid Ohio Con simply wasn't my show.

I'm not saying that I didn't have a nice time, but... well, let me explain. I've been to the San Diego comic con, and well, that's a show on it's own. I've been to other shows over the years, from small comic book shows to full blown comic conventions, and as an Artist/Creator/Publisher/Exhibitor I probably wouldn't go back to a comic book show because I mainly do comic strips, and material based on comic strips. I do not normally do superhero stuff, as much as I do like that kind of thing, and my artwork is not in that genre.

Call me a geek, but having Lord Vader and entourage march

past my booth was a totally cool moment!

Now, having said all that, the Mid Ohio Comic Con was more comic book show than convention. There was an awesome Costume Contest, to judge by the terrific costumed characters that paraded past my booth, and there was a tremendous amount of Star Wars material, but the rest was mainstream comic books, and tons of it. So much so that I was bored walking the floor after my first round through.

You may know from previous blogs that I've been to the Baltimore Comic Con the last two years, and I loved the energy of the Artist's alley, and the variety of stuff to see. I wasn't neccesarily 'in' to all that I saw, but the variety was wonderful. Here at Mid Ohio I didn't even see that much Manga! Two booths had some manga, and each had under a dozen books.... more like extras they had lying around. I also looked for graphic novels outside the superhero genre, and saw nothing by Chris Ware or any other big name I would have liked to pick up. I did see one copy of American Born Chinese, but nothing else by Gene Yang, or any other favorite Creator. So... the Mid Ohio Con was not my show... as an Exhibitor or as a Spectator.

Of course, there were a LOT of people having fun at the show, so remember, you're just reading one man's opinion. I was warned by other Cartoonists that Mid Ohio Con was very small, and not worth going to. Well, it was not small by any means. There were a lot of booths, and a lot of people walking around. There was a totally different crowd on Sunday than on Saturday, which I thought was unusual... apparently people chose to come for one day, instead of getting the weekend pass. Which may indicate that the show was smaller in the past.

I've seen a lot of Ghostbusters in my day, but this guy really stood out. :0)

Now, if you're local to Columbus, and love comic books, then this is definitely a fun event to attend. And there were a few celebrities from TV and movies, so there is a little more pop culture than I let on earlier. If you're an independent Creator, then it may be worth a shot, especially if you do superhero stuff. And of course there's always a fun time at shows like this... like a rock concert, there is an excitement that comes from a lot of people sharing a common interest and gathering together in one spot. I enjoyed myself, and met some great people, but I have to admit to disappointment at how many people walked by our booth without even looking to see what we had to offer.

I'll freely admit that a lot of women like my work, and so have been fortunate enough to be spotted by women who have been dragged to comic shows by their boyfriends. Some have even thanked me for offering something that 'they' can enjoy, which is an awesome feeling. At this show, though, the women who had been dragged to the show either talked on their cell phones the whole time, or ran by... possibly assuming that each booth was the same, which at this show is easy to understand.

I was very surprised at the lack of browsers! I mean, you're paying to be at an event, so why not look around? Baltimore Comic Con is a 'browsing' show, and that's why I enjoyed it both personally and as a businessman. Here, I was frustrated to watch folk run by without the slightest glance. Still, I don't believe in a hard sell, so what can you do?

I'll wait and see to determine if I'll go back next year. After the two Baltimore cons, my internet sales went up drastically. If sales go up in the next few weeks, then Mid Ohio Con just may see me back again.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS I've added a HappyGlyphs Flickr account! Check out the link at right for lots of pics, from my Studio to Events to Artwork. Lots of fun stuff to come. :0)

UPDATE: Looking through the program, I see there were some panels and other events that I did not know about over the weekend. Manning a booth means that you don't see everything, although at this show I thought I did. There were announcements of a sort, but no one could understand a word of any of them. There were also big names from the comic book industry, including Matt Wagner, who I would have liked to have chatted with professionally, and others that are quite popular.

Cartooning 101: The Process

2010-11-01T12:00:00.001-04:00

I do mostly Illustration work for a Client of mine, but I had started out doing cartoons for them, namely Safety Manuals in comic book form. Now, I am an Artist, so love creating in different media, and really enjoy the fact that I get paid to do so. However, as you may well know, I have a definite soft spot for cartooning.

Recently, in finishing the art for our bi-annual magazine, I was asked by the designers to come up with an illustration for dunnage. Dunnage is basically packing material used for large scale shipping... as in cargo ships. Technically, to those in the shipping business, dunnage may be interesting. Realistically, it is not. No one, as far as I know, has created fine art where the subject is dunnage.

Now, Artists need to eat, and buy art supplies, so most of us do not turn down any opportunity. However, on the subject of illustrating packing material, I told my Client honestly, that I saw no way to create art about dunnage, and make it interesting. I mean, the object of magazine art is to grab the Reader's attention as they're flipping through the pages, and make them stop long enough to appreciate the art and be inspired to read the article. I did not see that happening in this case.

So, from the figures accompanying this post, you are guessing that I came up with the brilliant idea of using a cartoon for this subject? Well, not right away. I actually did a bad thing, and changed the subject, ignored the request, and knowing that the deadline was passing quickly, figured the idea would be dropped, or forgotten. I do not recommend this technique to you! In my defense, we were past the deadline, and there were several other pieces to create. I was up every night from 1 to 4 in the morning for a week past the initial deadline, trying to finish enough art for the magazine to be it's best.

The subject of dunnage, however, returned. And returned. I couldn't blow it off forever, so it haunted me until it hit me one night, tossing an turning, the above idea for a cartoon. Many a creative person will tell you that a little alcohol and some tossing and turning in bed, mixed with the desperation of a deadline, can be inspiring.

Right. Another Yes-it-can-work-but-there-are-no-guarantees idea. Actually, a good night's sleep and a sober head should be great for ideas, but when the first deadline passes, and the second deadline passes, and you haven't slept for a week and you need a fine beer to relax, well.. sometimes you get lucky. You also get ideas like The Statue of David, A Blowup Doll, and a Traffic Cone, which can make you shudder in horror in the golden light of daytime.

Then again... I would never have come up with the Statue of David being packaged for shipping over a cup of coffee. And honestly, I like it. David is recognizable to most people, not because of the fine workmanship, but for his nudity, unfortunately, but still, recognizable is good. The blowup doll, and traffic cone are just funny, especially when mixed with a beach ball, a bucket, and some bags of garbage!

So, the process. Normally I would come up with a few ideas, but the great fear that my Client was going to make me illustrate dunnage made me crank this out on paper (figure 1) in 5 seconds flat, scan it, and email it within 45 seconds of completion. Lucky for me the Client liked it.

I then made a more detailed sketch (figure 2) which I then emailed to the Client. He had already given the go ahead, but trust me.... Clients are busy people, and you want to make sure that they know there is a blow up doll in your cartoon BEFORE the issue goes to print. Once you have the go ahead, you're safe. If the subject comes up later, you can pray that the words "But you said it was okay!" will save your job.

Finally, I ink the piece, adding a few extras like the rat, and scan it in. Color and cleanup on the computer, in Adobe Photoshop, and et voila! A creative solution to illustrating dunnage.

Now, I consider myself blessed and fortunate that I was able to create a cartoon for a serious magazine. Honestly, I wasn't sure my Client would allow such a thing, but here is a very important lesson!

It doesn't hurt to ask.

Half of my Career has come about from me making suggestions or offering alternatives to the status quo. And in this case I was able to come full circle, and revisit some beloved characters, by drawing a cartoon.

For me that was a thrill that you just can't pay for.

Thanks for reading, JOHN :0)

PS on my iPod, The Who, Who's Next. Why did it take me 29 years to buy this album?

2010 Festival of Cartoon Art, Part One

2010-10-18T19:38:00.000-04:00

Three years ago I was living in New Joisey, and heard about the Festival of Cartoon Art that was going to occur in Columbus, Ohio at the Cartoon Research Library. That's all I knew, except for the fact that as a Cartoonist I really wanted to be there. At the time I knew little about Ohio except that it was much farther along Rt. 80 than I had ever driven, and that I didn't want to drive 11 hours on my own! Boring!

Of course, I couldn't find anyone at such late notice who could, or would, go all the way to the mystical (or mythical) land of Ohio. And so... I sent my regrets, and missed out on what I can only guess was a wonderful time. It's an educated guess, though, because at the moment I am recovering from this year's Festival of Cartoon Art, and it was an amazing time! The festival was pretty much tailored to my tastes, needs, and wants, so of course it was great. :0)

Lunch with old friends and new!

Let me start out by saying that the festival seems tailored to the a select group of Cartoonists.... until you think about it. I'd say Syndicated Comic Strippers, but there were also Editorial Cartoonists, and some Underground types, and some comic book folk, and others such as Academics, fans, and people just thinking about cartoons and Cartoonists. If I had to find a denominator, though, I'd have to say that MOST of us appreciate and even love the origins of the American Comic Strip, and it's Heroes through the ages from George Herriman to Charles Schulz to Bill Watterson, and all folk in between. It IS a Festival of Cartoon Art, so Cartoon Art is what it's about.

So what better way to start the Festival than with a small gallery of original art from George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and his peers? The show proved to me two things that I already knew: that George Herriman was a wonderful Cartoonist, and that all original Krazy Kat art is owned by Patrick McDonnel and Bill Watterson! Well... I do have a Herriman original, but it's not a Krazy Kat. And I do suppose that if anyone was going to buy them up, those two I am sure will take care of them. And thankfully they do loan them out to museums and such for the rest of us to see. :0)

And see them you should! If you care anything at all about comic art, you need to study original art, and must see Herriman's art up close and personal like.

But back to the Festival! Day 1 consisted of three sessions of Academic presentations. Yes... I said Academic, and meant it. Comic Art is an American institution, and has been around over a hundred years now, and yes, some of us study it. Not as much as some of the speakers I observed, but study we do. Admittedly, some of the talks were a bit dry, and others? Well, let's just say they really should talk to some Cartoonists before publishing their papers. Until you've spent some time with a pen in one hand staring at a piece of paper and trying to work out the nuances of telling a story with words and pictures, you simply are not going to have the insight you need to understand the Creative Process of Comic Art. Honestly, we hone instincts, develop talents, and create our own unique processes that only another Cartoonist can understand.

This is not to say that the presentations were not enjoyable, and some of them did indeed teach me new things about my art. The third sessions were all about Krazy Kat, and led up to featured Speaker Michael Tisserand, and his talk Searching for George Herriman. Michael is writing a definitive biography on Herriman that I am really looking forward to reading, which is funny because one of my very favorite books is Krazy Kat: the Comic Art of George Herriman.

The first day concluded with a reception in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, which consisted of the above mentioned gallery of Herriman art, a cake for Krazy Kat's 100th birthday, and a really crowded room full of Cartoonists, food, and a Garfield statue sitting on a bench. There was also a board for Cartoonists to draw on, which was pretty much full by noon the next day.

Lynn Johnston sketching on one of the last empty spots on the Cartoonist Board.
Mine is the HappyGlyphs Sheep at the top right. :0)

More to come! I have a deadline to meet, so come back in a few days for more.

Meanwhile, for a full set of my fun fotos from the event, please see the HappyGlyphs Comics facebook page link below. There are 23 photos and counting, so far, with additional commentary.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238924&id=47228786049&ref=mf

JOHN :0)

Finding Inspiration in the Magical Kingdom

2010-10-08T11:40:00.000-04:00

I recently returned from another trip to Walt Disney World, and say what you will, but Disney still puts on a great show. A visit to the Disney parks can be very inspiring to any Artist, where Art of all kinds surrounds you. Of course, there are cartoons everywhere, but there's also the decorations, the color schemes, landscape, and their approach to problems. One such problem would be standing in line for your favorite rides, of course, and so each ride line has unique characteristics that fit the ride, and create an atmosphere of anticipation for that ride. There are signs, statues, artwork... anything to create that atmosphere, and keep you entertained while standing in the Florida heat.

The ceiling above the Tusker House buffet.
A fine example of Disney's attention to detail.

Of course, one thing an Artist needs to be is a business person. Even if you are fortunate enough to not have to do your own taxes or marketing, or any of the other endless tasks of running a business, you still need to understand your business, and how to make it better. Make no mistakes, being an Artist or Writer of any kind is a business if you want to keep doing what you are doing, and continue to grow an audience.

I bring this up because of one important business lesson; know your competition and learn from them. And yes, Disney is the competition of any Artist, Writer, TV Producer.... just about anything creative. And you can, and should, learn from them.

Disney is most known for it's customer service, which is very important to retaining business, and getting customers to come back. Now, unfortunately, I did not experience that Disney magic throughout my entire stay, as some Cast Members were actually quite rude or bothersome in some way. Normally I would focus on a bad experience like this, and honestly, there were several, which was quite surprising, as I've only had one previous 'bad encounter' in several previous visits. However, there are so many Cast Member encounters in a single day at the park or lodge, and so many of them were quite up to standard, and several were the above and beyond experience I hope for when I visit Disney.

My backyard at Animal Kingdom Lodge!
Yes, that's a giraffe, spotted while I drank my
morning coffee on the balcony.
Nice way to spend a birthday. :0)

I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge this time, which was a beautiful place, and quite awesome to behold. Vaulted Ceilings crafted to look like wood and rope, and vast windows overlooking a mini savannah where real zebras and once a giraffe wandered around. The pool as well was amazing, and the gift shop was massive. Customer Serevice here was very good, and I tested them quite thoroughly as my trip progressed, and unique problems surfaced. The people at Concierge, and behind the desk, were always very polite, very helpful, and up to solving those unique problems I had, which turned the trip from disaster to good time.

One problem I did have though was contacting the lodge by phone. For some reason, we couldn't call the restaurants to make reservations, which was very frustrating, and when we called the hotel, we were often passed from place to place until the connection was lost.

Which goes to show that even Disney makes mistakes. The lesson here, though, is that they have always strived to address problems, and solve them, and hopefully will continue to do so. I spent my Birthday in the park, and trust me, that could have gone either way. The experience was not always pleasant, due to the few rude Cast Members, but by the end of the day the balance was still in favor of 'good time', and so a good time was had. Especially for me, since I got to ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion several times each. :0)

My Waitress at Chefs Du France, in Epcot, surprised me
with this Birthday treat, and sang Happy Birthday in French. Tres bien!

One thing I do look for in the parks is books... on Art, Design, Imagineering... and this trip I was disappointed. In California Adventure there is an Animation Studio store that is loaded with books, and I looked for it's equivalent here in Florida. What I found was a store full of art and statues, and a handful of books. I mean, you can have a thousand books on your shelf, but how many statues can one have, or want?

I did find a nice looking book about the Art of the movie UP. It's beautiful, but surprisingly mostly pictures. i wanted to learn more about process... storyboards, character design, etc. Instead, I got a lot of people patting themselves on the back and talking about their awesome trip to South America. And for a very high price! However, let's be fair and say Art books are meant for coffee tables and casual browsing, and as an Art book it succeeds wildly. UP was a beautiful movie, and the book captures that beauty.

So? Today's lesson applies to each of you. Treat your customers as you would like to be treated, and then do more. Address any issues that may come up, whether it be product quality or shipping costs or whatever. And give the customer what they want, if you can. Listen to all criticism and work from there to solve any problems that may come up.

And most importantly, try to anticipate problems, and prevent them from happening. Being courteous, and listening to your customers costs you nothing, and yet can help you in ways that are hard to define. The rest of it is hard work, but that's business. My advice to anyone is make yourself big enough to afford good help!

Of course, that takes time. Meanwhile, always do your best, and put your best foot forward!

A recent Knight and Day.
A man can dream, can't he? :0)

More Knight and Day coming soon, including some more color Sunday strips! I've already added several new strips, and if you haven't seen them, please visit HappyGlyphs.com. I'm trying to improve the website again, so please let me know if you see anything I can do to make things better.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS And even though the savannah wasn't real, I have to admit it was pretty darn cool to sit on my balcony at night and see the hint of zebras walking through the trees!

Baltimore Comic Con 2010

2010-08-31T17:17:00.000-04:00

We had two tables at this year's Baltimore Comic Con, as you can see in the photo above, where we're all set up and ready to go. And things got really busy, really fast!

First off came Poison Ivy and her friend in the Slimer shirt. Nice folk, and a great start to the show. Let me say right now that I'm amazed with the people in costumes at this show. Many are quite creative, all seem very friendly and fun, and patient! I seriously doubt that I could be that patient with so many people stopping you every few seconds to ask you to pose for a photo. Yet pose they do, and with a smile. :0)

It is hard to say if this year's show was larger than last year's. The layout was a little different, and unfortunately I did not get to spend too much time away from my tables. The crowd seemed pretty big at first, but come lunchtime it all but disappeared, only to pick up again. There was a big autograph session, though, that pulled quite a lot of people of the floor, but other than that the day was pretty busy. I met some great creators, awesome fans, and generally nice folk, and sales were better than last year. By the end of the day I was quite happy.

A close-up of some of our merchandise.

Day 2, however, was another story. The morning had a different crowd, although I did have some great moments. One girl asked me to draw on a shoe, and another kid was so enthusiastic about my new comic book that I gave him a free sketch. A LOT of people seemed to enjoy the artwork this year, especially since I had the second table to display it. It was nice to see so many people stop for a laugh, and flattering, of course, when they bought a print.

The second table was very helpful in many ways, but expensive, especially when half of Sunday was full of dead time, where there were no people on the floor but us Creators. Now, I love the Baltimore Comic Con, and hope to go again, but the famous Costume contest, and the Art Auction, and several very interesting panels all took place upstairs, and required pre-registration. That means there were very few people walking the floor between 12 and 3:30. Honestly, that was painful. I did get to talk to some Creative people, and my friend Matt who came to help out, and things did pick up for an hour at the end, but hey... business is business. A few more sales would have made the trip more worthwhile. I almost wish the panels were evening events, or at least held at the end of the day.

The fine folk across the way! By the way, I bought the painting on the floor at right...
looks like Big Ben meets Harry Potter. :0)

Baltimore is the only show I've done so far, but from what I hear, it is a very friendly and accessible show. Personally I enjoy being able to talk to so many people, and frankly, every show should have an Artist's Alley like this one. It's almost like Diagon Ally, or some alien bazaar... with people selling everything from paintings and posters to T-shirts and skateboard decks, and everything in between. I hear some Artist Alleys only allow you to sell artwork, and not books or anything else. Here, though, it's very colorful and dynamic, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Highlights of the show, for me, were seeing old friends again, and making new friends. Seeing a Ghost Buster carrying a HappyGlyphs bright yellow bag was very cool, as was finally meeting Johanna Draper Carlson of ComicsWorthReading. And seeing people of all ages laugh or smile at my work is always very rewarding.

I'm still absorbing everything that happened, and trying to figure it all out. I have to see how things go before deciding what to do next year. First, though, I am going to attend a few other events and conventions, which I will tell you all about later. Looking over the photos from this show, though, it looks like we all had a great time! I know I did. :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

What I am listening to? A Fine Frenzy!

PS Ghost Buster photo by Matt Bucher. Thanks Matt!

New stuffs!

2010-08-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a while because I have been extremely busy creating a lot of new material, preparing for the convention season, and arranging for tons of new merchandise and art for all of us HappyGlyphs Comics fans! In this blog post, we'll try to catch up on these things.

First off, for upcoming conventions I have a new comic book, and some awesome collectible pins!

The Inquiring Minds "Funny Pages" is a full color comic strip collection in standard comic book format. Like The Inquiring Minds #1, this book collects some of the best of The Inquiring Minds Sunday and daily strips, all in full color. The new book has a lot of the same material as the first book (which is being phased out... no new copies will be printed). The standard comic book format allows for a lot more comics in fewer pages, and also some taller strips and artwork.

The collectible pins speak for themselves! If you collect pins at Disney parks, then you'll know exactly what you're getting here; cool pins you can stick to your hat, your jacket, or even a comic con lanyard. And best of all, they're pretty cheap. :0)

I am also expanding to a new range of artwork that is more affordable, but just as nice. The new art prints are decent quality, but cheaper than our Fine Art prints. Sales will determine which direction we will pursue in the future, or perhaps we'll continue to offer both options as well as original art.

So a new book, new art, and new collectible pins! A nice start, eh?

All of these will be available at the Baltimore Comic Con, the Columbus Comic Con, and hopefully others soon. We will also offer these at the HappyGlyphs Comics Shop at HappyGlyphs.com after the next site upgrade.

Now, I'm off to put all these new items into inventory! Paperwork never ends, does it? :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

PS And don't think I'm riding high on past laurels! Check out HappyGlyphs.com for lots of new Knight and Day strips, including color Sunday strips. :0)

Cartooning 101: Sunday Funnies

2010-07-13T12:17:00.000-04:00

This is for all you Cartoonists who have moments where they feel all thumbs. A bit of honesty, from someone who should know better by now. :0)

I haven't done all that many Knight and Day Sunday Strips, even though Knight and Day has been around a long time now, and has had several moments of success. The one thing I don't hear other Cartoonists mention is just how much more work a Sunday comic can be, and how much more difficult... especially when you draw dailies all the time. Sure, someone like Bill Watterson has mentioned that it took him the same amount of time to create a Sunday strip as it did to create 6 dailies, but I do not think he ever mentioned the reasons!

Yes, it's the same characters and sometimes similar situations, but a Sunday strip is larger, has more panels, is colored, and- at least in my case... the proportions are different! Yes, I draw at a different size, which means a new paradigm... squashing your instincts from drawing daily after daily, and getting yourself to fit different sized panels.

So? What to do?

When faced with a problem, the first thing you should do is... Face the Problem! Avoiding it doesn't make it go away, so when I returned to Knight and Day recently I decided to tackle not one, but two Sunday Strips in a row. This way the struggles with the first weren't wasted, and the paradigm shift was extended to the second strip making it that much easier... and blessedly faster!

So short post from me (bonus for you) and TWO, count them, two Sunday Strips from Knight and Day for you to enjoy.

Both show the reason for the title Knight and Day... the differences between the two main characters and how they see the world. And the nice thing about a Sunday Strip is there is more room for dialog, and hence more room for me to demonstrate their different views.

And even though I have a mess of dailies to draw, I just came out with another great Sunday idea, this time featuring their daughter Iris, of The Inquiring Minds fame.

Stay tooned for that, and as always, please let me know what you think! Your feedback means the world to me. JOHN :0)

On my iPod? "Uncorked", the new Live album from Al Stewart. Fantastic!

10 Years and Going Strong

2010-05-01T11:49:00.001-04:00

Today is Free Comic Book Day! It would also probably have been National Cartoonist's Day if Cinco de Mayo hadn't come along at the same time with its offers of drunken revelery, which someone held more appeal than offering best wishes to the Cartoonists who bring smiles to your faces. Today, though, is even more special to me... it marks the 10th Anniversary of my comic strip Knight and Day, and my first website.

So, basically, today is the 10th Anniversary of HappyGlyphs Comics. No, I didn't call it that back then, but that is when it all began. The HappyGlyphs Sheep was there, and Knight and Day debuted, so it works for me.

That's funny, I just posted my very first strip from back then, and sure enough it has the date on it. Proof positive. :0)

So, yes, it all began with that strip. Not the very first strip I drew of Knight and Day, but the one I thought would start the strip best in the public eye.

I think it is extremely appropriate that my latest book "Once Upon A Times..." debuted this year. That book, which is now available at the usual places, marks the 10 years I spent developing my skills as a Cartoonist, and shows all of the comic strips and Syndicate submissions that led up to Knight and Day. Knight and Day is such a great strip because of all that great stuff that came before, including precursors to Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds.

Yesterday's all new Knight and Day.

Very few people ever saw the strips in Once Upon A Times..., except for the people at the Syndicate offices, and a few friends. At the time, I hadn't known a lot about the web, or making a website, and so even though I experimented, it wasn't until Knight and Day was debuted that I became what would later be called a WebCartoonist.

Now it's ten years later, and a lot has happened in that time. Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds have both earned accolades, such as last year's Comic Strip Superstar contest and the much earlier Comic Strip Cutting Edge program. Both strips are still going strong, although my freelance career has had to come first. You'll be seeing a lot more of both strips this year, as I attempt to grow HappyGlyphs Comics to the next step. And hopefully we'll be wishing Steve and Amy a happy 10th Anniversary as well! The story is being written... :0)

Wish me luck, and please stay 'tooned!

JOHN :0)

On my iPod.... Defying Gravity... Possibly one of the greatest Sci Fi shows of all time. Not kidding. Check it out!

Dissecting Avatar

2010-04-29T09:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, chances are you've seen the movie Avatar by now. If you haven't, chances are you will if yo like Sci Fi movies, or just see all the summer blockbusters. There's a lot going on here, including some awesome special affects, so the movie is worth seeing. My question is: could it have been better?

First off there are a lot of premises we must dismiss, if you , like me, like to analyze things too much. As a writer and creator, I haven't had the opportunity to work on anything this large, with so many people involved. We all know that when Studio heads and money people get involved, they all like to give their opinions on how 'their' movies should be made. Having no creative or artistic sense does not stop them from calling the shots. With that in mind, I will not blame James Cameron for any of the movies shortcomings.

Any SciFi Geek is going to have similar initial concerns with this film. First off, we travel a few solar systems away (not too many because the journey only takes 6 years!) and what do we find? Humanoids that are next generation aliens from the original Star Trek series! Yes, 2 eyes, a nose, the whole bilateral symmetry thing. Just blue skin and a tail.... so Star Trek, huh? Now here is where a problem comes in. I only saw the film once, but it sure looked like every other creature on Pandora has 4 arms, two legs, and 4 eyes!! Why are the Pandorans so different, and so much like us? Well, Jean Luc Picard may suggest that once upon a time an alien race spread genetic seeds across the galaxy, or maybe some other outside force stepped in to change the evolution of the Pandorans.

Fine. You don't need to worry about genetics and evolution to enjoy this film, but these things give me pause. Next! On this planet we find an impossible element that we absolutely must have because it is very expensive! Okay, that's baby talk for what they should have pointed out instead, which is that this is a rock that obviously defies gravity! Now, it probably can never exist, but lets move beyond that as well. A rock like that would revolutionize the entire transport industry, including space travel. So yeah, it's special. Unfortunately, the largest deposit of it just happens to be beneath the home of our friendly indiginous species.

Okay, so if you've watched a handful of movies in the last 50 years, you've already seen this plot half a dozen times.   Nice Aliens live on land rich in resources, so bad military types come and push them off said land using excessive force. Now, the first 50 times we saw this plot we cheered the Writers for being so brave to show parallels with the conquest of the United States, and how, even after we pushed the natives onto reservations, we pushed them again when those reservations were found to have oil or anything else we wanted. As important as it is to remember History to avoid repeating it, well.... we've seen it before. And how do military types feel being portrayed as the bad guys in a film like this?

Okay, so let's move beyond the premise, plot, and background and go to the love story. Again, I honestly think they babied things too much, or left to much for us to assume. Like the floating rock, I think there should have been more emphasis on the fact that Jake has been in a wheel chair for a long time, and now, in his Avatar, can run, skip, and jump again. Yes, we do see this for 2 minutes in the film, but here we go again... young man meets young alien girl and falls in love.... not just with her but with her culture, people, and planet. These things happen, but would he really give up cheeseburgers and video games to live in the woods and talk to trees? Honestly? I think there should have been more emphasis on the time he spent with the tribe, getting to know them. There is a hint that he's met several other girls in the village, and it is said that he spent several months with these people, but we don't see this, and therefor don't understand just how much he's seen and heard and experienced. Sure, it must be cool as heck to ride flying reptiles and stuff, but there has to be more to it than that.

At the end, we get the hint that some humans will remain on Pandora, and so maybe Jake will still have a place to go when culture shock sets in and he really needs some earthing up, which will happen eventually. Heck, my third trip to India gave me moments of basket casing, where I needed 'normal' settings to just sit in and catch my breath... and I love India. Culture shock happens.

All right, so let's cut this short. As a Fairy Tale this works pretty well....a morality play thinly disguised as an alien world. There's enough familiar here that the audience gets what's going on without being overwhelmed by the alienness of it all. The special affects are incredibly awesome, and the night scenes of the forest alone are worth the price of admission. Truly this is state of the art, and I wish I had seen it on the big screen, instead of dvd. The dvd, by the way, has no extras. Long story...

This is a movie worth seeing just for the fun of a blockbuster film.   As a writer, yes, I would have done things differently. I would have aimed for a smarter film, but that's just me. Overall it was well acted, and beautifully done. Except for the bad guy. Couldn't we have had some back story, so we could understand why he's such a jackass? I mean, c'mon. Really? Why can't bad guys have more depth?

Cheers,    JOHN :0)

Press Release: Once Upon A Times... the Early Comic Strips of John Steventon

2010-04-08T10:26:00.001-04:00

Press Release: Once Upon A Times... the Early Comic Strips of John Steventon
For Immediate Release: April 10, 2010

John Steventon and HappyGlyphs Comics are very proud to announce a brand new comic strip collection, Once Upon A Times... the Early Comic Strips of John Steventon. As the title implies, this is a collection of John Steventon's early work. John is best known for his two comic strips Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds, and this book explores the origins and evolution of these two comic strips and the characters that reside within. "This book explores my growth as a Cartoonist," John says, "and follows my various attempts at newspaper Syndication. There is a lot of fun stuff for the casual reader, and a good deal of valuable information for anyone wanting to learn about the craft of Cartooning."

Basically, the book is made up of chapters defined by John's various attempts at newspaper syndication. Each chapter contains a new comic strip, and starts out with material submitted to Syndicate Editors. This includes plot synopsis, character sketches, and cover letters, as well as the strips themselves. Also included is John's thoughts on the strips, comments received from Editors, and other hard earned information as to why a strip wasn't picked up, and what could have been done better.

The strips are not the stinkers you may expect from a Cartoonist just starting out. "Actually," John says, "I left out my really early stuff, and my attempts at magazine cartooning. What is here, though, are the origins of my more popular characters, and their evolution through various looks and even name changes. Some of the early chapters may be a little rough, but I think the humour is very good, and surprisingly there's some nice art here." By rough, the Cartoonist explained that his early material doesn't follow the standards of the newspaper comics page. "I didn't use the character's names in every strip, and my first strip was an adventure that needed a bigger platform to tell its story than a comic strip. The reader may wonder what the heck is going on at times, but I do give a synopsis to get things started, and hopefully I can be forgiven for stumbling through my first attempts at Cartooning".

Over all, there is a nice progression to the book. As the Cartoonist learns from his mistakes, the strips get better and easier to follow, and will hopefully leave the reader wanting more. For that, the reader can turn to John's first book, Take Me Away From All This!!, a Knight and Day comic strip collection. Knight and Day was created immediately after the completion of the strips in Once Upon A Times..., and this new book serves as a delightful prequel to Knight and Day as well as The (new and improved) Inquiring Minds that soon followed.

Once Upon A Times... is a must for any fan of HappyGlyphs Comics, and anyone interested in developing a comic strip of their own. Once Upon A Times... will be available through HappyGlyphs Comics, and Lulu.com. Click the store name to visit that site.

Iris Knight, April 10, 2010

Fund Raising Update: incentives.

2010-02-21T14:22:00.001-05:00

Whether you know it or not, we are at war... war with a disease that is affecting more and more people every day. We lost Kage Baker last week, one of my favorite Authors, to cancer. I can list easily a dozen more people I know personally that have this horrible disease, or know someone who has lost someone to cancer, or are taking care of someone with a form of cancer. In fact, if you do not know someone with cancer, then you are a minority... one of the lucky few.

I hate this disease for what it does to people, and to our society. It takes from us the people we love, it robs us of great minds that could have done wonders if given more time, and it drains us... mentally, physically... I hate it. I'm not a Scientist or a Researcher or Doctor, so what can an Illustrator and Cartoonist do, who is tired of sitting by dong nothing? My answer is this fund raiser. I am hoping to raise money for the American Cancer Society, and I pray that they are going to take this money and do some good.

So far we have raised $260! Yay, us! That's not enough, of course, but it's a start. I have set a modest goal of $1000, with the hope of collecting more, and the fear of collecting less. Let me state right away that this fundraiser is not putting anything in my pocket. This is why I chose to go through FirstGiving.com and to donate through them to the American Cancer Society. It's all legit, and in the open. You can see how much is collected, and you can read how much goes to the American Cancer Society, and at their website you can see what they do with their money. Everything seems to be above board, as they say. :0)

Because I feel so strongly about this, and because of who I am, I have chosen to create special incentives for those of you who do donate through my site. HappyGlyphs Comics and I have created special artwork that you can see above for a Thank You card, and a very nice collectible pin featuring our mascot, the HappyGlyphs Sheep. The pin is exaclty like the pins you can get at Disney, except it features my sheep, instead of Goofy or Pluto. The same quality and collectibility, but different.

Hopefully these gifts will be enough to encourage you to donate to a worthy cause. No, you shouldn't be donating just to get gifts, but it is a great cause, and there are so many places you can donate, sowhy not here? And why shouldn't you be rewarded for taking your time and your money, and for helping those families who are ravaged by this disease. Yes, ravaged. If you haven't experienced cancer, you have no idea how bad it can be for the person suffering, and for their loved ones.

Please donate, if you can. Thanks, JOHN :0)

http://www.firstgiving.com/johnsteventon

PS How can I forget? When we reach $1000 in donations, I will put your names in my hat, and choose one lucky winner to win the original art for the Knight Family in Disneyland illustration you see above. Heck, here's a scan of the original art here. Ain't it pretty?

Kage Baker, Rest in Peace

2010-02-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

I have just learned that Kage Baker has passed away... from cancer, no less.

Kage will forever be one of my favorite Authors, and I wished I had taken the time to tell her how much her work has meant to me. We had corresponded a few times, and each time was wonderful... intelligent and funny, like her. Her being famous, though, I felt like I shouldn't 'bother' her, and so kept correspondence to a minimum. I wish now I hadn't, and in fact I was planning on writing to her soon. Damn my procrastination, and damn cancer.

If you are unfamiliar with her works, I highly recommend the Company series, in which a company discovers both time travel and immortality... but both have a catch. To make a long story short, they create immortal agents throughout time to save and preserve mankind's treasures, such as rescuing scrolls from Alexandria moments before the big fire. Heck, I can't tell you how wonderful these stories are, so don't listen to me... go check them out at your favorite bookstore or library, and pick one up if it gets your attention.

I would say start at the beginning, but In The Garden of Iden, her first of the stories, reviews have been mixed. It's a great story, and sets off a huge story arc with as many plot twists as real history. However, 'some' people say it reads like a harlequin romance. I didn't have that problem at all, and treasure that book as much as any other. My favorite immortals are Joseph and Lewis, so books featuring them are top of my list. Kage does have some short story collections bases on the series, so you may want to start there?

What can I say? I will miss her works, and regret not being able to correspond with her further. I'm sorry that I never met her, and will not have the chance now.

I hate cancer. Kage Baker is yet another reason to fight this horrid disease, and I will be pushing my fund raising for the American Cancer Society even harder now.

More on my fundraiser in a future post. I now am offering incentives, and a contest, for those who do donate. This disease affects so many, and now we are deprived of another great soul. The world is a much worse place without Kage Baker here.

JOHN

Cartooning 101: Props and Models

2010-01-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

I remember as a kid getting a new plastic model kit like the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes or MPC Pirates of the Caribbean model kit with Snap Action! I'd tear open the box, twist pieces from the sprues, start gluing the pieces together, and then read the instructions that say "never twist pieces off the sprue" and "don't glue piece a to piece b or your model will not work" and "paint these pieces before gluing". Well, fortunately I sometimes find a bit more patience now than I had in those days. :0)

No matter what kind of Cartooning or Art that you do, chances are there will come a time when you'll need a model or prop to help you draw or paint something. In the old days we kept a photo morgue of all kinds of people and objects in various poses and situations, and now of course we have the internet where gazillions of photos can be brought up at the touch of a key. Still, photos don't always do it for me. Sometimes you just can't find a certain angle, or a high enough resolution to work out a detail. A solid understanding of how an object is made is usually necessary to draw that object correctly, or having that object readily available for study.
{Update: I've added the above cartoon which I did a long time ago, just to illustrate what happens when you can't find good reference! I had to keep the boat way up front to hide details off screen, and ended up using an unatractive aluminum skiff. The boys definitely deserve better. :0) ]

Well, with The Inquiring Minds especially, I find myself needing to draw boats, and boats are tricky! All those curves and such... and yes, there are plenty of photos of boats online, but I've never been satisfied with any of them. You can buy toys, of course, cheaply, but sometimes toys take shortcuts, are not realistic, or just don't have the details you're looking for. So... I found a wooden model kit...a Do-it-yourself from bottom up model of a skiff, which honestly left me feeling like a dinghy at times. :0)

Midwest Products Co, Inc has a line of beautiful looking boats of all sorts. Now I have a lot of projects going on, but I just couldn't resist "The Skiff" all wood display model, with a skill level of 1. HA! Okay, it wasn't that bad, but there were times I thought I was crazy for attempting this. The instructions are actually very detailed, and mostly straightforward. There are a few places I took notes where they needed to be clearer, but overall the boat came together with a lot of patience, a little cursing, and a lot of gluing my fingers together.

No, it wasn't easy, but it was rewarding. Even though the wood split at one point, and wouldn't bend at another, I had the smarts to work things out... and hope that paint would cover anything else up. :0)

And since my boat is being used by The Inquiring Minds, a few scrapes and scuffs make it all the more realistic looking. Now.... if I could only think of a name? What would two young boys interested in adventure name their boat?

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Fundraising

2010-01-25T12:14:00.005-05:00

A diagnosis of cancer is a frightening life-changing event, and one that unfortunately occurs every day, quite possibly to someone you know. For the last couple of years I have seen more and more women suffering, and hopefully recovering, from breast cancer. I have also seen friends and family suffer different types of cancer. It is frightening, and affects the person with the disease and all those around them quite profoundly.

I don't know what to do about it. I'm not a researcher, and frankly not at liberty to donate much time or money myself. I want to do something, anything, to help people with cancer, so to start with, I have created a fund raising page, in which I hope to raise $1000 for the American Cancer Society. Hopefully we can do more than that, but let's be conservative. I chose the American Cancer Society because there are so many different kinds of cancer out there, and the society fights the disease on so many levels.

I'm not sure how my company HappyGlyphs Comics can help, but I am thinking of ideas. I can't afford to match gifts, but maybe I can gift those of you who donate, with either special artwork or a book. Any ideas? Please let me know. Meanwhile, I will try to think of something special to thank you for your donations.

Track my progress or make a donation yourself at my fundraising page:

http://www.firstgiving.com/johnsteventon

Thank you very much for your support, JOHN :0)

The Interview

2010-01-11T15:34:00.017-05:00

Since it is about time that the world learns what a great interview, and interviewer, I can be, today I've decided to interview myself. Pay close attention because in this interview you will learn everything that I want you to know about myself and HappyGlyphs Comics. Almost.

HappyGlyphs Comics (HG): So, John, let's start with a tough question. If I could only buy one of your books, which book should that be?

JOHN: Excellent question! Of course, the answer depends on taste, but I would probably recommend our flagship title, "Take Me Away From All This!!" This was my first book, and still sells consistently. Based on the first year of marriage, there's a lot of day to day humour that many people can relate to. And if you like that book, you can always run out and get the sequel "3 Knights in India."

HG: And what about The Inquiring Minds?

JOHN: Why? What did you hear?

HG: Um, nothing... except you've got a comic book coming out?

JOHN: Yes! The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake! The story is in production, and should debut in completion sometime next spring. You can download part one for free, of course, and read more at our homepage.

The Inquiring Minds have several projects in the works, including a card game, and a "Complete Inquiring Minds" which will be a full color book just loaded with comics. We also have right now a small collection of color comic strips simply called The Inquiring Minds #1, available for a low low price at our shop, and a ridiculously high price at our Lulu store.

HG: Why the difference?

JOHN: The cheaper copy we had printed ourselves, while the more expensive is a Print on Demand book. The more affordable copy is still very good quality, but we managed to eliminate some of the overhead. I did add some new material to the more expensive book just in case someone accidently buys it, and it is a little larger for those who need large print.

HG: So, please tell me more.

JOHN: All of my work is character oriented. For instance, I've heard people say about 3 Knights in India, "I'm not interested in India, so I'm not interested in the book." Well, tish tosh to that, I say. The book is about relationships... the people in our lives who basically drive us crazy, and yet make life so interesting... friends, lovers, parents, children, etc. The Knight family travels halfway around the world only to find themselves dealing with the same issues they had back home. All of this is set against the beautiful background of exotic India, with all of our favorite characters from "Take Me Away From All This!!".

HG: And The Inquiring Minds?

JOHN: The Inquiring Minds are childhood as it was, as it should be... pure adventure and fun... the innocence of children that makes everything seem possible to them. Of course, their adventures don't always lead anywhere, but hey, the journey is what it's all about. I love this strip, and I think that shows in the work.

HG: Anything else you'd like the world to know?

JOHN: Yes. HappyGlyphs Comics is a professional business, with a worldwide reputation. Yes, we self-publish, but not all self-publishers are the same. It gets tiring when people 'assume' you're working out of your Mother's basement, or associate self-publishing with vanity press. Everything this company does is professional. I have clients who are quite pleased with my work, and my work can be seen in many venues across the globe, from newspapers to magazines to textbooks, and more. The same quality that goes into my freelance work goes into any product with my name on it.

HG: Well, thank you! Anything else?

JOHN: Yes, but not too much. Let's leave a little mystery, shall we?

HG: Haha.

JOHN: I do have one history book out... a collection of photos and essays about the Stonhenge environs of the UK, and another book in the works about the Mound Builders of Ohio. And then there's John's Shorts... short graphic narratives that involve different characers and situations from my two main comic strips.

There are a lot of projects coming through the pipeline, but only one of me, so the key word for 2010 is 'focus'. :0)

Anything else can be learned in my blog, or at my site. If you haven't visited, then there is a lot of comic goodness for you to explore.

HG: Time for one more question: if you were'nt running HappyGlyphs Comics, what would you be doing?

JOHN: Another good one! It's no secret that I'd most likely be an Imagineer over at our competition, Disney. I'm a great troubleshooter, have a scientific background, and my artistic talents lay in many directions, from modeling to animation. If I wasn't working for myself, working side by side with the tremendous talent of Disney's Imagineers would be very rewarding, I believe.

HG: Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Steventon.

JOHN: Not at all! My pleasure. Please, have a mint. Would you like some coffee?

HG: Sure, and if you have any original art laying around?

JOHN: Okay, I'll give yo this one piece from The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, but only AFTER this interview comes out. I need to make sure I'm seen ina positive light.

HG: Absolutely!

End.

John Steventon is a professional Cartoonist, Illustrator, and overall creative person whose work can be seen worldwide in a variety of venues. You can learn more about him, his work, buy his books, or hire his talents at his official site, HappyGlyphs.com.

The Game of Life

2009-12-31T16:43:00.008-05:00

There are a lot of Artists on FaceBook... at least where I hang out. As an Artist, I looked into some of the very popular games on FaceBook like Pirates! and Castle Age, at first for the artwork, and then for the fun. And along the way I've made friends with other Artists who are also checking out the art and having fun! These games are very addictive, as you may know if you've tried them. But why?

First of all, the games reward you! Depending on the game, you perform quests to achieve certain goals, and when those goals are reached, you get Favor Points that you can spend on cool exclusive stuff that you can then use back in the game. There are random events that occur, where you might get cool stuff 'dropped' at random, and there are different layers of 'quests'. In Castle Age you can battle other players, battle monsters, perform heroic quests, and Demi-quests, and more, with each coming with their own requirements and rewards. That's right, you need to EARN the right to do certain quests, and by finishing a certain number of quests you can unlock monster fights and other stuff.

What's my point? Well, my point is that the games are fun, but also addictive. When you sit back to actually analyze the game, what are you actually accomplishing? Well, honestly, you're pushing a button and getting a treat. Just like a rat in a cage, or some poor monkey in an experiment. Yes, here we are, some may argue the pinnacle of evolution, and we're voluntarily acting like rats in a cage... and enjoying it!

But the game is fun, right, and there are levels of strategy, you argue, so for those two points we can say that gaming is good. But what have you got when the power is off, or your internet connection is gone? You're guessing 'nothing', right?

Wrong. You've got a pretty good business model for success!

Yes, you heard me. By taking what we learn from these games and applying them to real life, you might actually become more successful, and more fulfilled, for real!

Of course, the games are great because you know that as long as the program works, you will get a certain reward for certain behaviour, where as in real life, we don't get those guarantees. Still, what rewards we do get in life can't be taken away from us, and can lead to some rather awesome random events. :0)

So what the heck am I talking about? Suppose you want to be an Illustrator of Children's Books someday. To make that dream come true, you have to set yourself some goals, and pursue those goals until you earn some achievements, and eventually some rewards.

Goals should be something like, "Create 5 illustrations in 5 different styles", and "Create 10 illustrations in the same style". Aim for Achievements like "Send 25 submissions to 25 different Publishers" and go for the big ones like "Receive 5 replies from Publishers that are not photocopied rejections".

This last one has a great reward. You need to figure out why you are getting photocopied rejections in the first place. Did you follow the submission guideloines of the Publisher? No? Now you've earned a reward! Wisdom! Wisdom allows the bearer to submit at the very least professional looking submissions to publishers! Now you have levelled up! Your chances of getting a photocopied rejection letter have now dropped 20% or more.

Carry out this logic and you'll see that by setting goals and accomplishing them in a reasonable amount of time you will improve as an illustrator and become professional in the process. Extend your goals and achievements to running a business or getting an agent, and your chances of becoming successful have increased significantly. Of course, you still need talent, but if you can apply the discipline you have towards gaming to your art, well then! Good for you!

Of course, in a game, the computer automatically sets the clock, and doles out energy and tells you when to take the next step, so you sit there watching the clock, eager to take the next step.

To be a successful Artist, you've got to set the goals yourself, and watch the clock yourself, and make sure you take steps every day to achieve your goals. Heck, why not make that your New Year's resolution?

Hope 2010 is a great one! JOHN :0)

Pepper's Ghost Done Right!

2009-12-28T21:11:00.017-05:00

I hope none of you remembers my last attempt at showing you the Pepper's Ghost effect... the technique used in Disney's Haunted Mansion to show many of its ghosts, in particular the stunning scene of the Ballroom Ghosts dancing.

The technique is fairly simple, although care must be taken in set-up. Now, fortunately I have a real workshop in which to work... something between the Weta workshop and your Uncle's basement Ah, but it's not the size of the workshop, but what you do with it! In the Haunted Mansion, you ride above the ballroom in your DoomBuggy,and watch breathlessly as ghostly dancers glide across the floor below you. In reality, you are looking down into the ballroom through a very large clean piece of glass and the dancers are quite solid and dancing below you. With the right lighting, the dancers are reflected off of the glass in such a way so that they appear to be in the ballroom, and quite transparent!

Watch the video to see how I demonstrate this phenomenon, and then I will show you how it was done! Faint of heart, beware!

Catch your breath and remember, this was just a demonstration! No actual little plastic girls in pink coats were injured or even scared silly!

See in the photo at top how the 'ghost train' appears to come out of the tunnel through solid foam rock and straight through the little girl? Pan back (second photo) and the magic is revealed. High tech gadgetry and a steady nerve were required to reproduce this wonderful effect! But remember, I accomplish so much because I stand on the shoulders of Giants. ( Meaning, others did it first, I copied, but with my own twist)

Now, below is a quick photo of the workshop itself. Once the Imagineers at Disney see this video, I'll be sure to be snapped up into their inner circle, but don't worry, dear readers... I will always be here to entertain you.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Holiday Rush

2009-12-14T20:08:00.005-05:00

Artwork from my 2004 Holiday Card

It's that time of year again, and I'm hard at work... trying to get out my Holiday Cards! I thought writing and illustrating my own cards was tough, but now I have to sit down and write them out, put those little return address labels on, and address them.. sheesh! What a lot of work!

So why do I do it? A few years back it occurred to me that I was an Illustrator, and that creating my own card was something I should really do. THis was back when people actually sent cards to one another, via the US Postal Service, and not something that you clicked and forgot about.

I know... technology, customs... the world is changing, and it is exciting, but still... there's something to be said for receiving a bunch of cards in the mail, and finding creative ways to decorate your studio with them. And a good card is something you can keep for a long time, either in a scrap book, or as a bookmark, and you can enjoy it long past the time when the Holiday bills are just a memory.

And a good card, whether created by you, or hand chosen in a store, should mean a lot to the receiver; especially in this day and age. Yeah, we're oh so busy, and tired, so actually taking the time to write a card out, hopefully with a personal note ,or a family newsletter, should be truly appreciated!

Oddly enough, I really wanted to be the first one to send cards out this year, and surprise people by how early my cards were done. Honestly, I shouldn't have worried! Apparently, Holiday cards(okay, Christmas cards) have apparently gone out of vogue, and rather quickly. I can understand... honestly, I'm exhausted by the whole process each year. But I will miss this Holiday tradition when it is gone. I can remember my Mom grousing about how many cards she had to write each year, and I'm sure she can remember her own Mother kvetching about writing out cards. :0)

Still, I am a Cartoonist. That's what I do, and when I see cards from Walt Disney or Walt Kelly or other Cartoonists from days of yore, I love being part of that unique tradition of Artists sharing their art. I create these cards as a thank you to my audience, whether they realise that or not. (You should... I've reminded you guys enough!) It does fill me with pride to see a job well done, even though I've probably cursed during the last few days of creation. And I always get a few compliments on the cards... not a lot, but every comment is greatly appreciated!

This year, I've actually sold out of my excess stock, before I even finished sending them out! That's a good feeling, I can tell you, when people see something and immediately say "I have to have this!".

I just hope I have enough left over to send!

Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas! JOHN :0)

PS For more on my Holiday Cards, please read this old blog of mine: http://happyglyphs.blogspot.com/2006/02/cartooning-101-how-to-make-christmas.html

PSS if you would like one of this year's cards, if i have any left, that is, please sign up for our newsletter here, or send me a request with your address via email.

Disney's Princess and the Frog and Ultimate Disney Experience: a review

2009-11-30T09:10:00.011-05:00

I was fortunate to attend one of the hottest tickets in town... the premiere of Disney's The Princess and the Frog. The premiere ran in New York and Los Angeles, and online the tickets sold out long ago. Obviously, after the years of hype and controversy, many of us wanted to finally see the film. The result: an instant classic.

The songs, the animation, the story, the setting... all top notch. My ticket also came along with the "ultimate Disney experience", which I will also review. The experience consisted of a host of related events that took place at a separate location, including Meet the Princesses, Bayou Adventure, Learn to Draw from a Disney Animator, a peek at the Disney Archives, games, crafts, and more.

First off, I suppose only Disney would attempt to create an 'experience' out of a movie premiere... at least an experience in which one stands out in the cold two hours before showtime, gets hassled in line, and then has to walk three blocks away at movie's end to another location to complete the experience... in 90 minutes time! Confused? You won't be, after this blog. :0)

The movie premiered at the Ziegfeld theatre, and the ultimate experience was held at the Roseland Ballroom, three blocks away. When I arrived at the theatre, a little after five for the seven o'clock show, I asked innocently to the guy out front when a good time to come back for the show would be. He pointed behind me, and said "Now. I'm not kidding. We were swamped at the last show." Behind me were two lines already forming; one for the Royal Ticket holders, and one for the implied 'rabble'. I paid extra for Royal status, so got the Royal treatment. This included some purple beads with the movie logo on them, and the feeling that I was special because I was in the shorter line.

All this was great until they started harrassing us for our cameras. Yes, this was a Premiere, so we were lucky to see the movie a week before anyone else. God forbid we show the world pictures or video of the film that millions were going to see a week later. I mean, we could upset the apple cart quite severely, I suppose, although with a film this good, I am sure that any publicity will be good. I know, Disney is extremely cautious, and perhaps with good reason. Still, I don't think the fear of bootleg video warranted being threatened while I stood in line. They took people's cameras, put them in bags, and returned them to the people after the show. After the first wave, however, they started saying things like "We mean it! If we find you have a camera, then "insert threat here"." Some weren't so bad... I heard one guy offer a lady the chance to sign a waver instead of surrendering her camera, but they did take the camera in the end. The joke was, of course, that once we were in the theatre, the cell phones came out and people were taking photos left and right.

Enough of the complaining. Overall, the experience had the usual difficult moments, with standing in line too long here, standing in line too long there, and people around you complaining. However, the experience was enjoyable, and those uncomfortable moments were forgotten when the good times rolled around. The film was great, the Princesses were professional, and I got to take an Animation class with a top Disney Animator, which is always enjoyable. Our instructor was Anthony DeRosa, who was friendly, courteous, and fun, and incidently was an Animator on such films as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast! The class was great, although I find these classes to be rather fast-paced... and I'm a professional! I think Disney designs these classes to give people an idea of just how difficult it is to be an artist, but at the same time, the sense of urgency keeps people from fussing over their work and just drawing. It's fun, and I recommend anyone interested in art to take similar classes at Disneyland or World.

The rest of the experience was crowded, and full of wild children running amock, so I avoided the Bayou and craft areas. I did enjoy the archival material, such as Elizabeth Swann's dress from Pirates of the Caribbean, and props from movies like Narnia. The games seemed rather quiet, but I did not take the opportunity to check them out.

The evening ended with me realising that I had lost my tickets. I realised this when I was told that I couldn't recieve my free lithograph without the ticket, even though I had my wristband, purple beads, and an angry expression on my face. Eventually, after discussion with several managers of arying politeness, I recieved my lithograph. As an Artist, and art collector, I was looking forward to this. Sadly, I was disappointed. The lithograph had the muddy murkiness of an amatuer artist who doesn't know when to stop adding colors. Admittedly, it was a night scene taken from the film, but there were so many more beautiful moments they could have captured, or at least they could have captured this scene a little better.

But this does lead me to a very important realisation about this film: it has to be seen in its entirety, and in its medium of motion. I have not been impressed with any still ads I have seen for the film. The characters do not grab your attention at all until you see them on the big screen. It is the animation itself that truly brings this film to life, and makes it so magical. The characters must be seen in motion, and heard, and observed, and then they become so real and interesting. This particularly goes for Mama Odie, but can be said for any of them.

Again, despite the few glitches, the evening was fun, interesting, and worth traveling to New York for. The movie was the highlight, as it should be, but the experience had enough to interest everybody who attended it. And for those of you with kids? The Disney Princesses are wonderful, and always make your kids feel special.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS On a more personal note, I am a big fan of Disney's two great dark rides, the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean. The setting of the Princess and the Frog is New Orleans, of course, which fits right in there with those rides, and their location in Disneyland. I can't believe that noone at Disney has noticed this, and i really would have loved to see some 'tributes' in this movie. However, many elements were already there to remind one, from the stately manor houses to the meandering fireflies. Hopefully they will incorporate Princess into New Orleans square... without taking out any of our beloved places already there. :0)

Self Publishing 101: Book Sales

2009-11-13T12:34:00.005-05:00

I received an email today from a new self publisher, asking just when he could expect his first book sale. Well, that's a great question, but there is no standard answer. I will say this again and again... you have to get the word out. With over a billion websites out there, and nearly that many people trying to sell something, you have to a) have great product, and b) find a way for people to hear about that product.

The first mistake everyone makes is building a website, or opening an e-store, or joining a site that sells stuff, and then just sitting back and waiting for the people to trickle in and buy stuff. Hey, that could happen... but once Mom has bought your book, and your sister, and favorite Aunt, well, things will start to slow down.

Here's the first bit of knowledge to share... once you start a website, it takes time for your keywords and images to get into the search engines, so it will be weeks before people start to find you. Until then, only people you actually give the web address to will find you. Unless you pay big bucks to Google, you can expect to wait a few months for an audience to build up.

Bit o'knowledge #2: Yo haev to have fresh content to get those people coming back. Trust me on this one... when I take a break from cartooning to do freelance stuff, my audience finds something else to do.

If you are writing a book, then you may want to post teasers once in a while, or offer a free download of your first chapter. An Artist may want to create a series of work, promising more for visitors to come back to.

Still, the biggest thing, even today, is getting word out somewhere OFF the web. Web advertising is so intense right now, it is easy to ignore 99% of it, and that bit you can't ignore is usually so repulsive that you may even get off the web for a day or two. :0)

Scott Adams became big when he started adding his web address to his cartoons... in the newspapers. All the big cartoonists, writers, movie makers.. everyone has websites, but those sites are suplimentary to their main product. They offer something additional, and ways to buy, of course.

It is possible to grow your business being web only, but I'm sure that strictly web businesses still advertise and make appearances in the real world. They have to.

So... my advice? Advertise, blog, or go to conventions... anything and everything to get the word out. And yes, it will cost money, and lots of it, but that's what it takes to run any business. And most of that is tax deductible!

Just promise me one thing. Don't SPAM people, or throw your advertising in our faces. That's a great way to lose business forever.

More about Permission Advertising later.

Have a great one... JOHN :0)

PS the above cartoon has nothing to do with selling books... or does it? That's a new comic strip from Knight and Day. You can read more about them in their first two books available at www.HappyGlyphs.com or at my Lulu store. :0)

Fall Cleaning: A Treasure Trove of Comics

2009-10-25T12:01:00.005-04:00

For various reasons, I needed to do some research into my own career, and therefore dug through the hundreds (or more!) of original comic strips that I have drawn over the years. What a delight! It was great seeing strips that I haven't thought of in a while, and seeing the originals of some favorites, and totally awesome to find some strips that for some reason or another were never finished or published!

Okay, you're thinking that maybe they were rubbish, if I never got around to drawing or finishing them, and truth be told, I thought the same thing. Then again, you probably don't know me like I know myself. :0) I try to hide the fact that I make mistakes on occassion, and that I can't draw everything no matter how hard I try, and especially that I can sometimes get terribly disorganised... a state that is very hard to recover from.

So... if I didn't finish drawing a strip, it was probably because I got swamped with other projects, or was moving house, or something earth-shattering like that. It is entirely possible that I could have forgotten I was in the middle of a strip. Of course, it's also entirely possible that at the time I found the strip to be challenging, or that at that moment I did think it was rubbish. Who knows?

What I can say is that finding them now I really like them! Nostalgia? Possibly. Change of heart? Probably. I'll leave you to judge whether they are good or not. I've finished The Inquiring Minds strip and colored it, even though the original was a mess of smeared ink and random notes. The Sunday Knight and Day I just redrew it neater, but it is far from finished, but worth a read. The Knight and Day daily was finished, but never published for some reason. I truly think it was just lost in the shuffle. Then again, this was from a time when I was trying to figure out if I should pursue The Inquiring Minds, Knight and Day, or both. A tough time for me, mentally.

There was some other stuff, but these ar ethe strips I thought worth sharing, and I am pretty sure that there are no more 'lost' strips to share. Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds are now all caught up, discrepancies in number and continuity repaired, and all is well... except that I really need to find time to draw some new stuff and to finish The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake!

But, another big deadline looms, and there are last minute changes to the beautiful magazine cover I am illustrating, so new strips will have to wait a few more days. But they are coming! Promise. :0)

All the best, JOHN ;0)

Baltimore Comic-con 2009

2009-10-13T11:53:00.020-04:00

Just got back from the Baltimore Comic-con... my first time there as both visitor and exhibitor, although to be honest, as an exhibitor I spent nearly the entire time behind my table. It looked like a terrific show from where I was sitting!

Overall, it was an excellent learning experience. The first day started out slow, and moved to depressing, until it was explained to me that most of the crowd head for the freebies, the big names, and the mainstream stuff first, and then eventually migrate to the independents like myself. Good to know for a first time convention go-er! And it was true! The afternoon picked up quite nicely, and Sunday went very well. Made some great friends, both fans and pros, sold some books, and just had fun altogether. :0)

HappyGlyphs Comics will definitely be doing more shows next year, and we'll be back bigger than ever once we've implemented all that we learned inthe last few days!

Meanwhile, until the coffee hits, and my brain clears, here are some lovely photo high-lights from the show!

The very awesome Leanne and Rod... 2 great talents that work great together! Expect great things from these two!

Check them out at http://www.rodhannah.com/ and http://www.leannehannah.com/

This Lady in Red is an awesome artist and all around great lady. People like her make conventions fun. :0) I'll post name and link as soon as I track her down!

SuperFan Jen showing off the new HappyGlyphs Comics Bag, which made it's debut in Baltimore!

The littlest Art Lover, checking out our most popular print. :0)

The Awesome Matt, who went beyond the call of duty to help me survive 15 hours sitting behind a table!

"Who was that masked man?!" Inside this costume is a great guy who took the time to pose for hundreds of photos, and was nice to everyone who stopped him. And what a costume, huh?

See? Buy a book, get your picture taken, end up on the internet. Fun!

If you were at the show, and especially if you stopped by the table, please comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

The ABC's of 3D Movies...

2009-10-05T12:03:00.008-04:00

Okay, perhaps the title is misleading, but I wanted something catchy. :0)

I went to see the re-release of Toy Storys I & II yesterday, along with a preview of Toy Story III in 3D. Actually, all of the movies were in 3-d, which seems to be a 'fad' again, all these many years later since the first time 3-d became a fad.

A lot of the new movies are either coming out in 3D, or offering a choice of 3D... for an extra cost, of course. Movies are already expensive, but a 3D movie is even more so, which leads me to ask the question, "What do YOU think of 3D movies?"

[Sorry. Poll removed for being ornery]

Personally, I don't care much for them. With Toy Story, the movie is so well done that the figures are often nearly 3D without the 3D. Of course, you HAVE to wear the glasses, so without them, the film becomes blurry in bits, but in standard movie mode, the Toy Story movies are fantastic, so the 3D did not add any value to the movies. With the new Christmas Carol movie coming in 3D, there appear to be a lot of 3D gimmicks... where objects come toward you, or appear to float in front of you.... and these are just that. Gimmicks. Tricks that have been done, and done enough. A 'cute the first time' kind of deal, but not that exciting, really.

All I can think of is that a company like Disney is looking at the big picture, and that 3D is a sterp towards something else... Or maybe just technology for technolgy's sake, to further mankind's knowledge. I can also hope that this is not just a gimmick to edge a few more dollars from movie-goers, and I pray that this is not leading to Virtual Reality. God forbid we have to watch movies in 'immersive environments'! I mean, a small pair of smudgy glasses is bad enough, but if they ever bring out virtual reality movies, I'll have to say 'pass'.

I like going to the movies and watching them on the big screen, and with Pixar's technology, I can enjoy them completely, without the characters 'leaping' off the screen, or me having to miss something while I wipe a stray fingerprint from the left lens.

But that's just me. What do YOU think?

JOHN :0)

What I am listening to? Fish, Communion. Most excellent...
What am I reading? The new Dan Brown book, about symbols. Yawn....

Comic Strip Superstar

2009-09-28T15:18:00.003-04:00

In case you haven't heard, I received notification that I have advanced to Round 2 of the Comic Strip Superstar Contest, "an international search for the next popular comic strip artist, sponsored by Andrews McMeel Publishing and hosted by Amazon.com."

What this means is that from the maximum of 5000 entries worldwide, I am one of 250 chosen to advance to the next round. Now, Universal Press Syndicate will judge us and then the next chosen 50 will advance to Round 3. In this Round, professional Cartoonists such as Gary Trudeau and Lynn Johnston will narrow the list down to 10. Those 10 will then be posted on Amazon.com, where anyone registered with Amazon can vote. The Winner will get paid to develop their comic strip further, with the goal of being placed in newspapers world wide.

A big deal, but remember, I only made it to Round 2 so far, so wish me luck.

For your info, my entry consisted of The Inquiring Minds cartoons. I know, some of you may have preferred Knight and Day, but the contest called for previously unpublished work.

I'll keep you posted. The winners of the next round should be announced the day after the Baltimore Comic-con, October 12th.

We shall see... JOHN :0)

Return of Ghost Pirate Skeletons!

2009-09-08T19:01:00.003-04:00

Well, since I'm not on my way to California for the big 40th Anniversary party at Disney's Haunted Mansion, I may as well do some work, eh? And grumble. Lots of muttering and grumbling going on here over not getting to Disneyland for my birthday, and for the big 40th anniversary.

New studio, new clients, new cartoons! Here's the latest toon, from The Inquiring Minds in The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake!

There's also a new Knight and Day comic... the first in a loooong time, but not the last. Yo can see that at HappyGlyphs.com, or check out the previous blog where you can also see pics of my new and awesome studio!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

My New Studio

2009-09-03T15:57:00.010-04:00

All right, so it's not everything I've dreamed of (there's no closet), but I'm pretty happy with my new work place. HappyGlyphs Studios has a new home, where I can finally get back to work. :0)

Don't believe me? Check out the brand new Knight and Day cartoon.

Why a new Knight and Day toon when The Ghost Pirates of Three Craters Lake isn't done yet? All will be revealed, in time! Meanwhile, The Inquiring Minds will return to their Pirate adventure shortly, and we'll have some new Knight and Day stuff as well.

Also, we have a brand new Art Gallery, where you can purchase some of my best art as high quality giclee prints. Check that out here... www.HappyGlyphs.com/shop3.html

So, back to the studio... I finally have a place to hang my original artwork again,and most of my cartoons, comic strip collections, art, reference, and other important books are all in one place. And of course there's room for lots of toys!

I also have a new work shop, so expect more models and other projects sometime... probably after winter hits. :0)

Of course, now that I'm working again, the studio is already becoming a bit dishevelled! Oh well, I'll clean up a bit. Just a bit, though... all this chaos inspires creativity, don't ya know? :0)

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS What's on my iPod? Fish: Communion What an awesome Live Album! I've been listening to it non stop for a week now. :0)

Leggo my LEGOS!

2009-08-08T10:15:00.006-04:00

What's better than The Inquiring Minds? Could be LEGO Inquiring Minds!

This illustration was a lot of fun at first, but became a major endeavor. That's fine, because I wanted a nice portfolio piece to show off my Adobe Illustrator skills, but man! What a lot of work. OF course, I was in the process of moving at the time, so it might not have been so tough if I just sat down and worked on it, instead of working while packing my studio up. :0)

Anyways, this is yet another reason for the delay on The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, which shall return this week! Huzzah! This and another LEGO piece are featured in the next cartoon, as you'll see soon.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the illustration and feel free to comment on it, unlike my freinds at FaceBook who only seem to comment when someone posts a baby picture. I mean, c'mon, people! I worked hard on this! :0)

Meanwhile, I'm working on yet another book, and you can find snippets of that at my travel blog, The Travelling 'Toonist.

And oh yeah, the new HappyGlyphs Comics Website is just about ready, so check it out!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

The House on the Hill

2009-06-29T23:07:00.015-04:00

As a young lad, I grew up listening to stories about a certain haunted mansion... no, not THE Haunted Mansion, but the Harry Packer mansion in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. It was a spooky old place on the side of a very steep hill overlooking a very beautiful valley not far from where my father grew up.

You have heard of Mauch Chunk, haven't you? What do you mean you can't even pronounce it? How do you think I feel? My Dad grew up in Nesquehoning, so just learning how to spell and pronounce Mauch Chunk and Nesquehoning put me way ahead of the other kids at the spelling bee. :0)

ANYWAYS... Dad used to sneak into that spooky old place long before it became a Bed and Breakfast, and well after it was abandoned to the elements. Upon crawling through a basement window he said that the walls still had huge dusty wall hangings, and crumbling furniture, and apparently the world's first air conditioning unit, composed of an ice house and a big fan that blew cool air up into the house.

So, imagine my excitement when I read in an old Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoon that said that Disney's Haunted Mansion was modeled after the Harry Packer mansion! Coolness!

As I grew older, I realised that the Harry Packer mansion is one of two mansions on that hill in Mauch Chunk, and that The Mansions in Disney World and Disneyland were different, so it took a while for me to piece it all together. Yes, it was the Harry Packer mansion, and not the neighboring Asa Packer mansion The Mansion was modeled after, and it was the Disney World Mansion that was modeled after it. The original Disneyland Mansion was modeled after a place near Baltimore, MD.

Those familiar with Disney World's Mansion can see the resemblance... that fantastic turret on high, and those brick walls with that thick painted trim. Oh, it's not an exact match, but The Mansion in Florida was definitely inspired by the Harry Packer Mansion, and walking by it you can really see why. The Harry Packer mansion sits HIGH on that hill, and as you can see in some of the photos it looms over you. This is the idea the Imagineers wanted to capture when they created the two wings of Florida's Mansion that loom over visitors to Disney World.

I'm not going to go over all the architectural details, but the resemblance is strong not just in appearance but 'feel'. There's a lot of layers and details to the Packer Mansion, and even not in it's current overgrown state, it has a presence. Not seen in the photos is the tall leaning black iron gate that runs up the path to the mansion and all along it's front. Disney doesn't have that black gate, but it sure adds a spooky air to the place.

Today I saw some people talking outside, and lots of large lights around the place, and what appeared to be a van full of Actors. My guess is there is a commercial being filmed here, but who knows? Maybe Disney is revisiting the HP mansion? I did see some shovels leaning against a wall, and a creepy pumpkin standing beside them. Maybe this mansion is getting a Halloween make-over?

The Asa and Harry Packer mansions are neat places to visit, but after all these years of walking around outside, I still haven't been inside the place. My timing has been bad, but so far seeing the outside alone has been inspiring, and has certainly added to the magic of The Mansions at Disney, and to those stories from my childhood. As long as I remain outside, the inside is still quiet and covered with cobwebs, and long tall faded tapestries stil hang from the walls, and the crumbling furniture covered with dustcloths remain as ever ghostly images in the filtered light spilling through that broken basement window.

Cheers, and "hi" to my friends at DoomBuggies! JOHN :0)

Summer Blockbusters

2009-06-26T20:03:00.004-04:00

Since I'm losing my Optimum Account when I move, I've been taking advantage of the free movies, and enjoying the Summer Blockbusters so far. Here are some quick reviews of what I've seen so far, and will add more if I see 'em.

Land of the Lost ***1/2

I've reviewed this earlier, and may hav ebeen a bit harsh. As I mentioned, the potential for greatness was there, but they fell short. A few dumb moments really took away from an otherwise fun movie. Worth seeing for the fun of it.

Star Trek****1/2

Much better than I thought it would be. I mean, the original Star Trek series was so long ago, and seems hokey upon viewing these days. Then again, Next Generation looks a bit hokey by today's standards. Still, once the movie started, it was exciting to see certain events coming together that any Star Trek Fan will know about from the famous first episode all those years ago.

Once the story deviates, however, expectations go out the window as the characters remind us "We're in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.", and things are now very different.

As a stand alone movie it rocks... exciting, and fun, and a fair addition to the Star Trek legacy. I believe that even a non Star Trek fan can appreciate this movie for its self.

Night at The Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian ****1/2

I may be being generous with my 4 and a half stars, but I really enjoyed this movie. As Johanna Carlson mentioned in her review, Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart really stole the show. Her character's spunkiness, and outgoing spirit were great, as was her mix of vocabularly that nicely shows her from another time, but still fiting in. Other critics have said the movie was crowded with all of the old characters appearing in this movie with a whole host of new characters, but I do not see this as a negative. It just added to the zaniness of the movie that I'm sure kids especially, but many movie-goers will love.

Special affects were nice, and even though reality was stretched a bit, and the villian conquered quite suddenly and easily, there is much to appreciate here.

Hank Azaria was a nice surprise, as he played the villian with a bit of an unsuspected twist. I'm glad I came into this film without any foreknowledge of the plot. Other actors all added to the movie, and I even like Ben Stiller in these movies.

I am not a Ben Stiller fan in general, nor am I a Will Ferrel fan, but I can appreciate these actors when they do such good jobs as they do in these movies.

UP was really well done, as expected. Very enjoyable, and there's a lot more going on than you see in the commercials. Not as good as Wall-e, perhaps, but top notch. Great animation... I really like the retro feel to the movie, and the blend of exxagerated cartoon and realism.

Watchmen (on DVD): Very good. True to the graphic novel in many ways, and thankfully left out much of the disgusting, long-winded stuff. Also, thank goodness, they changed the ending which probably would have been too hard for many people to understand. Captures the spirit of the comic well, and the characters are well done.

Time Traveler's Wife: absolutely one of the best movies I have EVER seen. Not only true to the book, but it really brings to life the very best of the book in a wonderful way, and leaves out the few weird little bits of the book that I prayed they would leave out. The editing, filming, casting... everything is perfect about this film. Tragically sad, wonderfully beautiful. Beautiful is the best word to describe this movie. I loved it.

Still to see.... Terminator, Harry Potter, and others.

I've heard mixed reviews for Terminator... none of them good, but I really love the franchise, so have to see this. Who knows? maybe I'll be surprised?

I'm a bit tired of Harry Potter, but I loved reading each book for the first time, and I will probably enjoy this movie when I see it, and the old fun comes back.

I'll let you know, and please, let me know if youv've seen any of these.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Imagineering 101: Haunted Mansion SFX II

2009-06-16T17:48:00.006-04:00

I know... I'm a Cartoonist, so should be cartooning, but I had this sudden urge to reproduce the Pepper's ghost effect that makes the Haunted Mansion's Ballroom so very special... and haunting!

As you can see in the photo above, this was a very low budget stunt, cobbled together in my studio very quickly. I promise that one day I will do this much better.. and hopefully wil not be as embarrassed as I am now of the results. :0)

Here 'tis... live and in color;

So the dancing ghosts in The Mansion's ballroom are an illusion... another happy accident in which it is discovered that you can see images reflected off of glass while at the same time seeing objects through the glass. This effect actually goes back decades ago, and was a quite popular effect in the theatre.

So... if there is an award out there for Worst Movie Created by a Cartoonist, please be sur eto nominate me. :0) And if you liked this, you'll love the Haunted Statue demonstration I made last time, here.

And please forgive me for explaining the magic behind The Mansion, but I really don't think anything can take away from it's wonder.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

UPDATE: I actually have done this on a larger, better scale, so check it out, please! At this link.

Imagineering 101: Haunted Mansion SFX

2009-06-09T17:56:00.006-04:00

I love my work. I have two very different parts of one company, and each keeps me expanding my creative horizons. However, working for oneself can be nice, but working with other creatives can be very invigorating. For this reason, if I were to work for someone else, it would have to be as an Imagineer with Disney.

With this in mind, I'm going to demonstrate today one of the secrets of that wonderful experience, Disney's Haunted Mansion! Yes, I will reveal the secret of the haunted marble busts that watch visitors as they stroll, or ride, through the Mansion.

Before you ask, I don't think this will in any way spoil the experience for you. The Haunted Mansion is something one can enjoy over and over again, and while you are in there, you're too busy enjoying yourself to think, "oh, so THAT's how they do that!"

Here is a video clip I made, demonstrating the effect. Please enjoy it because it took 9 takes, and much of my patience, to create. :0)

Hope you saw that. So, the marble busts aren't marble busts after all! They are the negative, or reverse impressions of busts, turned around and lit from behind. The very subtle shadowing created by the back-lighting creates the illusion that the busts are three dimensional objects, and the shadows moving as you move create the illusion of movement. (say THAT three times fast!)

To make this work, the 'cast' of the 'bust' must be realistic, as seen in the first photo, and deep enough to capture the details of the face. Keep in mind that in the photo below, you are seeing an optical illusion... the face is actually facing away from you, but the light and shadows make a convincing 3-d appearance. The photos are all taken at different angles, but the face is still, so really does seem to be moving. The video shows this best, though... what appears to be a ghostly skull moving around and turning to face you!

A very convincing optical illusion, eh? By the way, today's model came from a paint it yourself plaque that came with a Pirates of the Caribbean model kit I got as a kid. Nothing like keeping it in the family. :0)

Hope you enjoyed today's lesson. Please check our homepage for my current comic experience, The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, in which The Inquiring Minds create their own haunted Pirate Ride!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Land of the Lost, the movie: a Review

2009-06-06T21:19:00.010-04:00

The best thing about the new movie Land of the Lost is the fact that they've been showing the original tv series on SciFi channel, and some episodes can be found on Hulu.com. I know... that doesn't say a lot for the movie, does it?

I actually enjoyed the movie, or at least most of it. The video clip above sold me on it: it's brilliant, funny, and well edited... 3 things that the movie itself is a bit short on. The movie had the potential for greatness, and though it does have its moments, somewhere along the line they took what could have been a blockbuster family movie, and decided to dumb it down to a typical potty humour movie we expect from many Saturday Night Live Alumni. Anyone named Jethro who managed to grajiate the 6th grade will love this movie. Will Ferrel fans will probably love this movie. Fans, like me, of the original tv series will like this movie, and go away wishing the creators would have had more consideration for us.

What went wrong? Well, those of us who grew up on this show, and who were heavily influenced by its imagination and creativity, are labeled as Baby Boomers. The Creators of this movie obviously decided to aim this movie at us Boomers, 'adults', and dumbed it down to adult level, and therefore left out the huge potential of the kid market. They also forgot the fact that us 'boomers' love to share our glorious childhoods with our kids, who were deprived of that glory.

On to the review.

The Land of the Lost was a brilliant television show in the 70's that had us kids glued to the tv set every Saturday morning. Although a bit goofy looking back at it, it still stands up as a great show. Hidden within were many messages like 'do your chores' and 'be honest and fair', but that was all subliminal. We loved the dinosaurs, and the lizard people, and even the primitive Pakuni, and all the wonderful weirdness that occured in a pocket universe that can only be accessed through transdimensional portals in time and space. Yeah, that's right... pocket universes, alternate realities and dimensions... advanced physics in a 70's show made for children. And it was great.

The Marshall family... Rick, a Dad who cared for his kids, and taught them the values of self reliance and hard work, and his two kids Will and Holly, who fought all the time, fall into this strange pocket universe and spend several years trying to find their way out. Meanwhile, they explore ancient civilisations, missing links, degenerate lizard people, aliens, alternate and future versions of themselves, and many others passing through the Land of the Lost.

The Movie is loosely based on the show, and pays homage to it. Right off the bat, though, we're dissapointed to learn via the Internet that the original Will and Holly Marshall were in the movie and then cut out at the last minute. Strike one.

Then there's Will Ferrell. Strike Two.

Okay, so I'm not a Will Ferrell fan, and I blame him for whatever faults this movie has. His famous ego, and his 12-year-old-boyish potty humour, dumb this movie down a bit too much. Silliness I can stand, but not stupidity.

I actually watched the Bewitched remake, another tv show turned movie starring Will Ferrel, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was hard to get past his other stuff and watch Bewitched, but I did and was convinced that Ferrel could actually do grown up stuff like Jack Black or Jim Carey before him. Apparently that didn't last. He is actually a good choice for the job, so I have to blame the writers a bit as well, although the parts I did not enjoy seem tailor made for him.

Any writer worth his weight in salt knows that in fiction you need to keep your audience with you. There is about a ten minute segment of the movie that involves a 'trippy' scene in which the three 'men' ingest a hallucinogenic substance and act uncomfortably weird. There seems to be no point to this scene other than a funny moment when a giant crab falls into a steam pit and gets cooked before their hungry eyes. A nice scene for the movie, but the lead up is enough to make you get up and walk out. It's long, pointless, and stupid, and worst of all takes you out of the action except for a brief scene in which Holly wanders off alone and gets captured. Why this smart sensible girl wanders off, alone, in a strange place, is beyond me, and not the best plot element by today's standards.

The actors who played Will and Holly played their parts well. The actor who played the missing link Chakka could have been better. The special effects were downright brilliant, and very convincing. See the video clip above for some great scenery and fantastic dinosaur animation.

The clip shows that with some decent editing the movie could have been better. Personally, though, I think with a different focus this movie could have been awesome. Why ignore the family element of the movie? I mean, even Terminator:Salvation has a line of kid's toys, and I can't imagine anyone taking their kids to see that! As a family movie, you can sell more tickets, have movie tie-in toys at McDonalds, and action figures and books, and oh so much marketing stuff that any kid, and many a grown up, would enjoy. More importantly, though, you could have had a better movie.

In this movie, Rick Marshall is supposed to be a brilliant 'scientist' with multiple disciplines, but for the most part is portrayed as a loser. Somehow he created this amazing device, and convinced Holly that his theories are sound, but this is all very hard to believe. Sure, there are some humorous moments, but why couldn't he be a brilliant scientist and father, who has created an ingenius device but is ridiculed for the subject matter of time travel and multiple dimensions? Why couldn't it be his kids who convince him to try it out and thus get the family stuck in the Land of the Lost. Better yet, the kids could activate the device, and either take him with them, or he has to rescue them. We would then be in a position to explore this 'dumping ground of multiple universes', instead of it just being in the background.

Well, I can go on and on.... obviously. :0) This review is long enough, so I will say go see the movie if you're looking for some summer fun. Keep your expectations low enough, and you'll enjoy the good parts all the better. You may want to keep the kids at home, though... there's a good bit of language and situations that are just not for them.

JOHN :0)

PS I'd love to hear what YOU think. :0)

And you can see the original shows at this link until November 2009

Walt and Skeezix: 1925 1926, A Review

2009-05-19T17:47:00.006-04:00

I came across this book the other day, and found it full of both biographical tidbits and historical stuff from the early days of Cartooning, so on a whim bought it. I say on a whim, but in actuality I picked it up, flipped through it, and repeated that process several times. In retrospect, that's the way I've picked up most of my favorite books... they pick me.

The cover art has a warmth of color that can only be found in vintage comic strips. Take a well done comic strip, print it in four colors on newsprint, and let it sit for several decades, and magic happens. The soft yellow of the paper enhances the colors in such a way that the appeal to an Artist such as myself. I felt the same way about my favorite biography of George Herriman. The art pulled at me, and without even reading any strips, I eventually purchased the book, and took it home. There it sat for a few days until i found the time to pick it up.

I'm really glad I did.

This is actually the third book in the series. I thought it was the second, and that I'd only have to run out and get one other, but no... now I've got to find enough money for two more books, because after having read this one, I want so much to go back and see how the story developed. And yes, it is a story. Reading a comic strip in the newspapers can be a good bit of fun that lasts a few seconds, maybe a day if it's particularly good, but some strips just rally work well as a book. Walt and Skeezix are the characters from Gasoline Alley. You've probably heard of Gasoline Alley, although honestly I haven't seen the strip outside of professional books and journals, and even then, you usually see the gorgeous color Sunday strips. I had no idea what to expect, and that may have helped, actually.

The book started out with great stuff.... biographical information on Cartoonist Frank King, and then a wonderful look at the strip's merchandise over the years. Nostalgia, history, Americana... good fun for me!

Then the strips... a very slow start as I wrapped my mind around strips written for a generation long ago. This is America before the great Depression, and it is captured really well. The strips at first appear muddy, until one realises that they were probably printed even larger than we see in this book. This was also the Comic's heyday, when Creators had space to play, and were true artists. The strips are also longer, with more words, and not necessarily a strong gag. Sometimes the 'gags' are very subtle, and again, we must realise that these were written in a day before television, before the Moon landing, before iPods and all the gadgetry we have today.

In Frank King's America, even the town mechanic has a servant, and this is one point which makes me wonder: is the portrayal of African American servants considered too much for today's audience? True, the appearance and way of speaking are very innapropriate by today's standards... the maids appear to be in black face, and their mannerisms are often made fun of. To be honest, though, Rachel the Maid was the first character to grow on me in this book. The Author does not portray her as a stereotype, but instead she is a very real character, and the first in this book to be rounded out. She is warm, smart, and funny in her own way, and a darn hard worker. Some may be offended, but in Rachel and Mandy we are seeing a very different life for African Americans... a big step up from slavery to paid servants, but they face their struggles with a quiet dignity, and don't complain about their lot in life. As Walt says often concerning his adopted son, "Skeezix couldn't get along without Rachel", who helped raise him.

What is most interesting in this book, in light of today's troubles, is the land speculation, boom, and bubble burst of Florida in the twenties. It's almost comforting to see that this has all happened before, and that maybe we'll get through this economic nightmare we are currently in. In this book there is much humour in the land speculation of Florida, where buildings go up overnight, and paupers on Tuesday are Millionares by Friday. Land becomes so valuable that swamps are drained and islands are made just so more people could buy more land that they could then sell later. Amongst all this sudden and inflated wealth come rumours that the bubble is about to burst, and even then, the buying and selling continue. I'm curious if all this leads, or helps lead to, the great depression a few years later?

The strips grew on me, as I mentioned, until I got heavily involved in the characters, and couldn't wait to see what happened next. The book became ver hard to put down, actually, which was a big surprise. It really did creap up on me, and suck me in. The story is basically Walt being a confirmed batchelor, raising a child who was left on his doorstep, while falling in love with a lovely young widow. At the same time, his married friends tell him to maintain his batchelorhood, all the time laughing at his naivete. He's convinved that getting married will be the best thing, and that everyone should get married. What's most amusing is the portrayal of the widow Phyliss who seems so conniving and devious! She openly admits to roping Walt in, and throughout the two years of strips 'plays' him like a cheap fiddle. It's almost enough to make one dislike her heavily, but somehow she redeams herself by being down to earth at times, and King convinces us that she truly loves Walt. She just can't help 'moulding' him. Oy...

The early American stuff is great as well. People openly dumping their garbage in the vacant lot in town, and cars that are so simple to repair, and the RFD, a Rural Free Delivery system that aided the post office in providing mail to small rural towns. A really fascinating look at times long gone... a simpler, less harried life.

I could go on, but this post is getting way too long... All I can say is that this book is heartily recommended to comic strip fans, and those interested in the early 1900's, especially the grat Cartoonists of the time.

I cannot wait to read book one... when I can raise the dough, of course. :0)

JOHN :0)

Walt and Skeezix is published by Drawn & Quarterly Publications. This volume contains extra material by Chris Ware, Jeet Heer, and Tom Samuelson.

The Ghost Pirate Skeleton Update!

2009-05-07T14:14:00.007-04:00

Yes, I'm still working on The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, a The Inquiring Minds adventure. It may not seem like it, but I am in the process of moving, I've got the art for a magazine to finish, including a terrific cover which I shall post here sometime, and I'm still converting the comic strip part of the story into comic book pages. I've discussed this latter part before, at this post, but wanted to give an update with page 2.

First, the originals, here and above...

Nothing wrong with them, but they are too wide to just slide into comic book format, which is one of the ultimate end uses for this project. Since I'm remodeling these to fit the new page size, I may as well go over the writing, and tweek things a bit to remove the 'stops' you get at the end of each strip, and make the story flow better.

Here is the result:

A little better flow, and a bit more artwork. The original storyline will be printed as is in the forthcoming eventually Complete Inquiring Minds, and the comic book version should come out by Fall, if all goes well.

And if the Publisher I submitted this to ever gets back to me, maybe you'll be seeing this in a comic book store by you. :0)

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Free Comic Book Day 2009

2009-05-02T15:55:00.006-04:00

It's Free Comic Book day again! Yay!! That time of year we go to the local comic shop and check out what the comic companies are giving away this year, and if it's worth the trip. :0)

Still, remember, that your local comic shop owner is paying for those books, so while you're at the shop, please take some time to look around, and maybe actually buy something while there. Believe me, it's good for the community to support local shops, especially shops that are not giant chain stores.

Huh? You wanna know what HappyGlyphs Comics is offering this year?

Well, right now, nuttin. I'm moving my studio, and everything else right now, so things are on hold. However, HappyGlyphs placed it's offering early this year. In the spirit of Free Comic Book Day, you can download Part 1 of The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake for FREE at the following link: http://www.lulu.com/content/5081890. That is, if you haven't downloaded it already. :0)

The Ghost Pirates will return shortly, as well as some awesome new projects in the works.

And HappyGlyphs Comics is now offering Mini Comics! Just a buck for a nice quality little book with a beautiful color cover. That's The Wolfman of Beckenham, Kent, of course, with more coming soon. Check out all our comics at this link here: http://www.happyglyphs.com/shop.html

See? We may not be proficient, but we are persistent!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

A Bit of History

2009-04-20T10:41:00.007-04:00

I opened a local newspaper the other day, and had a "whoa!" moment when I thought I saw my old house pictured! Rapidly flipping through the paper again, I found the photo and saw the headline "Country Comfort in Lake Hiawatha, 1930's". Well, my last house was in Lake Hiawatha, and it was a Log Cabin as pictured, but I thought the Realtor told me the house went back to the 50's. They weren't sure, though, and to be honest, sometimes Realtors don't always want the buyer to have all the facts. :0)

Anyways... that sure looks like my old home, and if it's not, it's the same model. Compare the two photos. Mine had siding put over the original logs, but I did see them while doing some work on the outside. I also know that the fireplace was added later, so that's no worry. The triangular bits on the roof are similar, but switched, and the steps come down on the opposite side, but those could have been changed later, since I know work was done on both of those.

Chances are it's just a similar house, but it does look like a corner property like mine was, since there appears to be a vehicle in the background to the right. All in all, great fun for a history buff like myself, and exciting to see what my little Lake Cottage looked like once upon a time.

Times have changed though, considering the house was on Lake Shore drive, but there's no longer a lake! Originally, these properties were built as lake homes... cheap little vacation houses for people visiting the lake in the summertime. Later they became permanent homes, and fireplaces, furnaces, and other extras were built on and added. Honestly, considering New Jersey's harsh winters, it's a miracle any of the old log cabins are still standing!

Okay, so the photo is probably not my house, but what a nice surprise it was to see it in the newspaper. And speaking of history, I did find some interesting artifacts while digging in the garden! And old forged wrench and a quarter dating back to 1976! Won't the fine folks at Wyre Archeology be jealous of that! :0)

Addendum: Not only was this a former residence of mine, but the house was also featured in "Take Me Away From All This!!", a Knight and Day comic strip collection, as seen here:

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Injustice!!

2009-04-16T10:13:00.009-04:00

Hello,

I'm kind of upset about this, and want to share. If you're reading this, then chances are you already have our flagship book, Take me Away From All This!! It's a great book, and still our best seller, but the problem is that I'm not the one selling the book, or getting the meager profits!!

Some of you may remember the excitement of the book being published some time back by a company called PageFree Publishing. At the time, I was grateful to the company, but as time went on, I outgrew my need for them, and began self-pubishing my books. And to be honest, I didn't feel like I was getting honest royalty reports from them, and had seen others complaining about the company. I sent them a cease and desist notice some time back, which they acknowledged receiving.

As time passed, though, I kept seeing the book being offered for sale at ebay and at many online bookstores, and I emailed PageFree to stop selling the book. The problem is, they are a Print on Demand company, and so allow online booksellers the opportunity to list books that they do not actually have in inventory, and then print the books and ship them when ordered. Recently, I have seen more and more online sellers offering MY book, and I have actually heard from several people who say they bought the book, and I know for a fact that they didn't buy it from me.

I, and happyGlyphs Comics, are selling a new, improved and updated version, for a similar price as the old one. Cheaper, actually, since I charge less shipping, and the quality is actually better, as I've been told by a comic book shop owner. Lulu.com is the only other authorized seller of the book.

I ask, and urge, you to please let me know if you have bought the version in the last few years that says PageFree Publishing on it. If you are an online books seller, and you are receiving the book from PageFree, then you are an unwilling accomplace to a crime. I am being robbed. Probably not a lot of money, but every sale is important to me, for many reasons, and there is of course the sense of justice. PageFree has no right, and has had no right, to sell my book.

And for those of you looking to self publish, I urge extreme caution in dealing with any print on demand company that charges you to print your book. You cannot trust that you will be treated fairly or get accurate royalty statements. Maybe some are honest, but try to get references before working with anyone you don't know.... a good recommendation for any business transaction, I suppose.

I try to trust people first, and judge later by their actions... and unfortunately I get screwed for that. It's a shame that dishonesty is part of the business world, but what can you do?

I can, and will, pursue legal action if this goes on. I can also give the warning out to those who want to self publish, and I can also ask you all NOT to support thieves.

Take Me Away From All This!! is a great book. I want you to read it, and have a copy of your own to treasure always. But please... help support a starving artist instead of an (alleged) crook.

Thanks! JOHN :0)

PS Wanna know a secret? Besides having a bunch of new cartoons, and better quality, the second Edition of the book has an altered cover. There is a third stripe on the sock falling out of the laundry basket!! Shh... don't tell anyone! :0)

Guest Artist at the NJ Comic Book Show

2009-04-03T08:53:00.010-04:00

So I was the guest Artist at the NJ Comic Book Show a week or so ago. I needed to practice my sales skills, but wish I was more prepared. It's been a long while since I went to a comic book show, as apposed to a convention or other type show, and I was kind of busy that weekend so only put a few hours into prepping.

IF I had more time to plan, I might have done better, but not by much. As it was, though, the economy and the crowd made it a difficult place for me to get the word out about HappyGlyph Comics. For one, the entire crowd at this show were looking for cheap, specific copies of old Marvel and DC superhero books. Those who came with lists to fill were an immediate write-off, and those only interested in superhero comics, and big name titles like X-men, were also hopeless to attract.

I had a tough day ahead of me, being the only apple in a crowd of oranges, but let me add that the host of the show, and many of the Dealers, were really nice, decent people. I made some new friends, and even ran into an old friend from way back. That helped a bit, but the economy was another brick wall I had to face.

The dealer next to me was offering some great books for only a quarter, even when people were telling him they'd pay a lot more for them, and some people were buying them up to sell elsewhere! Many dealers had dollar books or less, so even discounting my comics to a dollar was just chasing the market. (Please note in the top photo my hastily put together sign for dollar comics... you have to go with the flow!)

I did make some sales, though, even the bigger books, against all odds. Unfortunately, I ended up spending a lot myself on some great deals. :0) Quite a few browsers picked up the freebies I offered.... postcards and stickers, so I did get the word out, which is sometimes the most important thing. I definitely saw an increase in website hits, so the day was a success. :0)

Overall it was a fun day, even though everyone was moping about the economy, and rightly so. Still, for a small show, there was quite a crowd, especially in the early afternoon. It was also good practice for doing a comic-con. A comic-con, especially one like Baltimore or San Diego, will have a much bigger crowd of people looking for something different, and willing to give us independents a chance.

Experience is a great teacher, so I'm looking forward to getting out there again sometime! Cheers, JOHN :0)

You Maniacs!

2009-03-18T16:52:00.008-04:00

So much is going on right now in my life, that I am still in the re-creating phase... recreating my website, my business, and my self. As part of the process, and in order to keep (relatively) sane, I am making time to have some fun. This idea came to me, and I loved it enough to pursue.

Albert, of The Inquiring Minds, pays tribute to one of our favorite movies by re-enacting this classic scene from Planet of the Apes! I really hope that you enjoy it.

This print, of course, is available at Zazzle and Cafe Press for those of you who like the print and would like to support HappyGlyphs Comics. This should also be available soon directly through our new website. If you want to order directly through HappyGlyphs.com, please drop us a line and we will arrange it.

Thanks so much!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS Here's another Planet of the Apes tribute from my book, "Take Me Away From All This!!".

Downtime... please stand by...

2009-03-02T13:01:00.011-05:00

As part of my 're-creating', we are updating and upgrading the business, starting with HappyGlyphs.com.

We are migrating to a new and better server, so you may experience a lot of white boxes with red 'x's in them. Please stand by.

It is weird doing this in the middle of The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, but it had to be done since we were constantly running out of hosting space, having had the archives of two comic strips and a graphic novel in the system.

HappyGlyphs will now have unlimited space and bandwidth, and some nicer features which will give us all a nicer, easier way of doing things.

New strips are coming, a much better website is coming, and since I cannot send out a newsletter at the moment, all updates will be at this page for the meantime.

Hopefully we will be back in business by tomorrow(Tuesday) March 3rd.

Cheers, and wish me luck! JOHN :0)

PS Please enjoy these ancient comic strips I found from when I was first creating Knight and Day. 'Yikes' for the art, but the jokes are still good. :0) And if you like these, Steve and Amy's amusing and wonderful story can be found in my first book, "Take Me Away From All This!!"... an honest look at those first days of marriage. Remember, these were the practice strips... the strips in the book are much better, and tell the first year of Steve and Amy's marriage, with all the ups and downs of sharing space, and chores, and the fights, and making up, and even house hunting, job loss, and yes, a pregnancy. All very good stuff! Just ask anyone who's read the book. :0)

Re-creating

2009-02-22T15:12:00.012-05:00

A great mouse once expounded upon the idea of 'recreation' being a re-creating of one's self... a chance to take a break from the usual and to explore other venues just for fun, and hopefully in the process reinvent oneself or expand one's creativity. Taking a vacation is a good example, or just getting out of a rut by doing something different. That laboratory mouse named Brain knew what he was talking about!

With this in mind, I have taken a break from The Inquiring Minds in The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake. Yes, it is very risky to take a break in the middle of an adventure because readers may not have the patience to wait. On the other hand, since I have not found a publisher yet for the project, taking some recreation time can help me to assure that the story is the best it can be.

Facebook is having a comic con next month, and I am planning on attending a convention in physical space this year, so my thoughts turned to creating some fun promotional pieces. The first is the drawing above, of The Inquiring Minds as my favorite superhero group, the Fantastic Four.

The second is a piece I drew of The Inquiring Minds to celebrate this year being the 40th anniversary of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride... an amazing achievement of creativity and engineering. This piece should be appearing soon at the Fan Gallery page of DoomBuggies.com, a fantastic site created by Jeff Baham in tribute to the Haunted Mansion ride. I'm very happy with it.

If you are on Facebook, you can join our group at the facebook comic con, or check out the special things I have set up for the convention, such as the video in my last post. At Facebook I currently have two videos of me sketching, and plan more. The second video shows how I came up with the idea for the above-mentioned Haunted Mansion illustration, and it's a talkie! Yes, you can hear me laugh nervously and tell bad jokes while I draw in blair witch quality graphics. :0)

There is a lot going on right now, including an entire overhaul of our website, and how we do business. The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake will return soon, though, so stay tooned!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Almost Live!

2009-02-16T17:09:00.006-05:00

For the few of you NOT on Facebook, I am going to share with you something from my Guest Table at the Facebook Comic Con. No, the con hasn't happened yet, but I'm already loading lots of fun stuff at my Table for you to see, including real videos of me sketching to give it that 'appearing live at a convention' feel.

This is my first attempt at videoing while sketching, so there is a bit of the Blair Witch feel to it. And I was so nervous that I let the camera wander, I dropped my pencil, and forgot to draw eyes on a sheep. Good thing this isn't live, cause who knows how I'd embarrass myself.

You can see more at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52936480965, if you are a facebook member. The rest of you may now show your pity by clicking a link at the right there, and checking out more of my stuff, and maybe buying a book to support a starving artist. :0)

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS I've uploaded a second, bigger, better, longer video at the Facebook Comic con page, and this one is with real sound! Yes, lame jokes to go with the the sketching... and this one is a tribute to The Haunted Mansion, as well!

It's Like Starting Over...

2009-02-03T14:27:00.006-05:00

I began Cartooning quite some time ago: the Earth had long cooled, life thrived in the oceans, looked up, and moved out onto the land to try crawling and walking. Sometime after that I took crayon to paper, floor and wall to search for meaning in line and circle. You would think, in all that time, I'd know what I was doing by now!

Let's look at my recent storyline, The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake, featuring The Inquiring Minds. You know... my Big Summer Adventure? (looks at calendar, and out window where snow is falling, and shrugs what can I say?) Anyways, I feel strongly that my art has improvbed since then, and I have grown as a person. Sure, you say, it HAS been awhile since you started that. Hush, I say. I'm doing my best.

Anyways, with all the forethought of a teenage boy on his first date,I started Ghost PIrates as a comic strip, and like 3 Knights in India before it, it evolved rapidly into a comic book. You know... tall art, not wide like a comic strip. Different format and hard to reconcile. Okay, so The Inquiring Minds started out as a comic strip, and I still dream of being a comic stripper (watch it!) so it was natural to begin that way. However, it seems that a nice long storyline needs a comic book format to tell it right, and besides, you have a lot more room for art and dialogue.

So, what to do? I learned my lesson with 3 Knights in India... you can't just take some comic strips, cut them up, and rearrange them in comic book format. Well, you CAN, but you have to be really careful not to get too cocky, and to pay attention to page order and how the book will come out. One little mistake, and a reviewer like Johanna Draper Carlson will let you have it between the teeth! (Those who read her first review of the 3 Knights comic book will know what I'm talking about). Anyway, thanks to fine reviewers like Johanna (see link at right for comics worth reading), people like me get the feedback we need to become better craftspeople.

The result, I will have to go back to the early pages of the comic that you see in my free download of the first part of the story, and redraw, reformat, and sometimes rewrite to make this a top notch comic book.

After all, it's the end product that counts, right? And besides, as I've blogged earlier, I always leave the end of a story slightly open to account for evolution of the storyline. This way, by going back, I can fit the beginning to match the ending even better, if necessary.

So here is the first strip, remade into the first page. More to come, as well as brand new material.

Cheers, JOHN ":0)

PS The above page isn't finished yet, actually. I am thinking of creating my own font for all my comics, and I might tweak the top Logo a bit when I can.

Public Speaking...

2009-01-27T12:01:00.011-05:00

Or... I believe that children are our future. :0)

Okay, so I was invited to speak at a local school about my career as a Cartoonist. Apparently, one of the third grade classes had read one of my books out loud and loved it. That book was The inquiring Minds #1, a full color comic strip collection.

Excited, and a bit nervous, I put down my full load of work and headed out into the snow completely unprepared to face not one, but two classes of third graders. It was very unusual for me to be unprepared, but I happened to have a deadline on a project, and I had thought school was cancelled because of the snow.

Anyway, I got there with minutes to spare, signed in, and immediately went to the wrong classroom, on the wrong wing of the school. Breaking land speed records, and hoping there were no Hall Monitors about, I made it just in time to the correct classroom, as the teacher was just introducing me. I walked in with my box of books and swag, and saw dozens of little faces staring up at me from the floor where they were sitting. I had a little white marker board to draw on, but the swarm of children were up against it, so I ended up sketching while standing behind the board and looking down it, much to the amusement of the class.

So, I began to speak, and found myself incredibly outnumbered and up against the wall as the barrage of questions never ended. :0)

Still, their enthusiasm was wonderful, and most of the questions were pretty good, although they mostly wanted to hear about and see The Inquiring Minds. I had to draw all the characters for them, which was nice, but remember I had to almost draw upside down since I was standing behind the drawing board, which caused quite a few giggles.

After that, I was asked to draw everything from a hotdog (which made some kids hungry) to the Titanic (including Jack and Rose saying "king of the world"). I also passed out HappyGlyphs stickers, half of which immediately got attached to shirt fronts, providing me with a full day's bit of advertising for sure.

Overall it was an exhausting experience, but I'm sure after some recuperation time I will come to see it as the joyous experience it really was. Seriously, it was really nice to see so many people actually interested in my work, and they really were a great bunch of kids, who can't be faulted for their over enthusiasm. I mean, can you imagine if they just sat there?

If only I was allowed to sell some books. :0) I would have made a mint!

Hopefully they'll all go home to their parents and tell them all about HappyGlyphs.com. :0)

Cheers, JOHN :0)

PS I received a delightful package of cartoons from the kids, as thanks for speaking to them. Since I haven't revealed the school, I think it safe to publish some fan art here with names removed to protect the innocent.