Forgive the delay...

The Inquiring Minds' Summer Adventure continues... although at a slightly slower pace than originally schedules. Have no fear, and a lot of patience, please, as I move into one of my busiest months. However, the recent delay had nothing to do with time, believe it or not.


The latest cartoon in The Inquiring Minds' Big Summer Adventure

When I first thought of this Big Summer Adventure, it was going to be a large Sunday cartoon. Only when I started thinking about Imagineering, and the Disney theme parks, did it occur to me to make this a long adventure. Once the idea struck, though, it poured forth like water from a spigot, and I wrote out about 20 comic strips, to tell the rough story. I say rough because part of the fun of Cartooning, and especially story telling, is letting your characters chip in, and take the story where THEY want it to!

One advantage to storytelling in a comic strip is you may find time to make changes, corrections, or additions as the story goes on. If you've been following along with The Inquiring Minds, you've already met the gang. Iris was supposed to come in later, but I later decided that I wanted to introduce her earlier in the story. That change suddenly upset some of the dynamics of the storyline as written, and suddenly some of the strips appeared weaker. What to do?

I could have drawn the 3 strips and posted them as is, keeping up with my self imposed deadlines, but I didn't think that would be right. I risk losing you, the audience, by not posting frequently, but at the same time, are you going to stick around if the strips are just 'okay'? I don't think so.

So it took me two days to rearrange strips, and rewrite strips, and I'm still not back on track yet! Yes, Cartooning is harder than it looks, folks, and believe it or not, but the writing is just as much work as the art. That's why Artist/Writer partners usually get a 50/50 cut of comic strip profits, unless one is lucky enough to be 'hot' at the moment.

So when you toon in for our latest toon, and it ain't there, please don't fret... just come back again later, or the next day. I promise that even though my schedule is getting heavy, I have a commitment to finishing up The Inquiring Minds' Big Summer Adventure THIS summer. :0)

And it's gonna be good!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

Will Somebody Please Read My @#$%! Webcomic?

Of course, the title could also read, Will Somebody Read My @#%$%! Blog, but that's another story.. or is it?

The World Wide Web of Wonder has so many pages to offer, and so many visitors to offer them to, but like the world's wealth, the distribution of visitors to websites is highly off balance. The philosophy of "If you build it, they will come" applied for about 12 seconds before the big boys shuffled in, and using their wealth and power in the real world, soon began sucking in visitors of the virtual realm.

Oh sure, there are many who have profited from the web, and others who reach many readers without profit, but how they do that remains a mystery to me, and, I suspect, many others. I've been skimming through other comic sites, and I see the question of reaching people being brought up quite often. Today there are more options than before, but the struggle continues. It's funny, but the biggest way people see to advertise themselves is to not just blog, but to get their names on other people's blogs, chat groups, forums, etc. in the hopes that people will like what they say there, and click on the links to their blog.

What this results in, of course, is a slew of people chatting across the web for the sole purpose of advertising themselves, which is frankly dishonest, and annoying. The better of these do so by honestly getting involved in discussions that interest them, and in doing so, present themselves to others with similar interests. The worst of these just show up, say 'read my blog', and annoyingly don't get involved in the conversation. In other words, they're using you, but don't feel the need to hide that!

So, this technique may work, but at what cost? It takes a lot of time to surf around for sites that are interesting enough, and longer still to get involved. I don't have that kind of time! That time could be better spent working, to provide original content for viewers to explore... IF they ever find me.

So what's my point? Read my @#$%#! webcomic, please. Currently, The Inquiring Minds are in the midst of their biggest adventure ever! So far, 8 strips have been produced in living color, and the story is rapidly unfolding. Here's the latest two...





See, you don't know what's going on, but your interested, right? So click this sentence to go to the main page, or click that pretty little ad on the sidebar... yeah, the one with the sheep and the stars... what, you didn't notice the sheep?

Click the ad, please. Read the comics, please. And then come back and tell me what you thought, please.

Thanks for visiting, JOHN :0)

And thanks to you who do visit this site, and take the time to comment. I really appreciate that! Many come, but if they don't comment, I don't know if they bothered reading the stuff that I take the time to write. By commenting, I know what interests you, and can accomodate the discussions more to your liking. Everyone wins! :0)

The Inquiring Minds Explained

Who are The Inquiring Minds? Well, they're two, sometimes three, kids who seek out all things strange and unusual in their hometown of Three Craters Lake. Actually, they seek fame and fortune through seeking out the strange and unusual, and they are one of my comic strips.

I'm not sure which came first, since both Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds both evolved from my earliest attempts at cartooning, but they've been around for some time now. Both of these strips were considered for syndication, but fate, and bad timing, led me in other directions. Still, they're good stuff, and worth pursuing in my spare time.

I've talked briefly on Syndication before, and it is something that I will once again pursue, when ready. I'm actually working on another comic strip, but for now, I'm not finished with The Inquiring Minds. The nice thing about NOT being syndicated, is that i can follow my own rules, as I kind of explained in my last post. I am working on a definitive collection of The Inquiring Minds, and to be honest, I have to say that it's a beauty. I love this book, and it is my masterpiece, so far. Full color, and packed with years of material, including my older strips that later evolved into The Inquiring Minds.

Because I am creating the book on my own, I am filling it with all sorts of material, and creating material with the book in mind. I have the freedom right now to draw each strip to a size that fits that strip the best. This explains why the last two strips are radically different in size. Since the new book will be 8.5 x 11 inches, I am using that full space when necessary, so I don't have to force the dialog.


Why should you care? Well, if you haven't read The Inquiring Minds before, consider their bragging rights. A strip has appeared in a PBS featured book about the Underground Railroad, and another strip appears in an 8th Grade literature textbook. Not bad for a part time strip, eh? (There are other accolades, but I have to save something for the book, eh?)

I'm still looking for other venues for the strip, and would love to have the strip appear in a monthly magazine. There's plenty of material, and I'd love to create more, for a magazine willing to showcase a great strip like this. Any offers? I'd love to hear from you Art Directors out there. :0) (Serious inquiries only, please. I've already dealt with one children's magazine whose Editor was VERY unprofessional.)



Meanwhile, stay tooned here and at www.HappyGlyphs.com for more of The Inquiring Minds. For a nice preview, we still have copies of our full color mini-comic for sale at the site, and a web preview at this page.

Cheers, JOHN ;0)

New Toon

I've been so busy lately, that I haven't had the time to draw any cartoons, which is pretty sad considering that I'm a Cartoonist. My Freelance career has taken me towards finer illustration, and my basic tooning skills have been getting rusty, so... I pushed all else aside and drew up the following. It's important to keep all of your skills sharp and up to date, and that's the excuse I'm sticking with.

Of course, I jumped back into things with a full page Sunday toon, instead of a nice little daily, but that's the way it goes. :0) I drew this at an unusually larger size for me, since the new book I am working on gives me the extra room to play. Sometimes choosing the size of a toon can be the hardest decision when you're a web cartoonist. When you're in the newspapers, you go with the size they give you, but on the web you have freedom to roam. I love books, though, so I always plan everything for print and web.

The inspiration for this came from my Travel Blog. I spoke of a day at the beach, and found myself looking for a cartoon about fishing. Couldn't find one, so I sent the Inquiring Minds down to the lake, and of course, they couldn't just go fishing. No... they had to make a big deal of things, as usual. :0)





Hope you like it! Cheers, JOHN :0)