TENPAM celebration 5

 

Whoops, I'm out of chronological order. Firmly in my Garfield era by 2005, I started Tuna and Squeak!

At the time I thought purple eyeshadow with green eyes was very pretty. I got it backwards on the title pic here. Tuna's cheek fluff is derivative of Garfield's mom, who I also thought was really pretty.

 

I would just add a hyphen when I accidentally left gaps in the middle of words. I can still imagine, very clearly, Chow saying, "Mouse plus carrot equals eaten carrot." Though that may be hard to discern. You can see the garfield-ness of that very first arm, but Chow is modeled after Snoopy's brother. 4-10-05.

I liked to draw Tuna pointing, but she only had three fingers, and someone told me her gesture was a little bit rude. So I had to go back and add in a fourth finger. 4-11-05.

Don't hide in a washing machine. 4-11-05.

I messed up the moose drawing the first attempt, but look at that fancy panel 3 cherry! Look at the nose and hooves sticking out! I didn't know what mousse was. 5-7-05.

I had a giant foam puzzle with a bunch of fish. It had a zebra-turkey-lion-fish or whatever they're called. I think they're pretty cool.

The headphones are copied from a Peanuts animated special. Woodstock listens to music in his house before Snoopy destroys the house with his nose. I also learned about tapioca from Peanuts. 5-8-05.

This may actually be incomprehensible. So they're both reading. Tuna flops down backwards and the wind blows all the pages of Squeak over on him. They both absentmindedly say something related to what they're reading, and startle each other. 6-7-05.

I hadn't yet learned about arranging speech bubbles from right to left. 7-10-05

A year later, I decide to make one more Tuna and Squeak comic in which they actually hike. So I did in fact draw him in a pair of his hiking shorts. Pink, green, and gray camo. 11-3-06.

TENPAM celebration 4

The comics of 2006, PART TWO

Wordplay! This one probably worked better with just four panels because the plot sort of wanders. 6-14-06.

I think I was imagining a waterpark-style place, but specifically for cooling down (even if the girl is not impressed). I was channeling that feeling of walking into a grocery store with a/c. 8-28-06.

We had a flight attendant barbie outfit and I just loved the style. I drew a lot of characters in that blue aesthetic, including that particular pair of blue barbie shoes. They had a strap with a little bow printed on. 10-19-06.

We'd listen to the oldies station in the car, and I enjoyed the raindrops song. But for some reason, in my mind I attached it to Ned with the too short bed from Dr. Seuss. Anyway, I'm quite the inventor. Look at that thermos-shaped waterproof lanyard music player. Hmmm. These old comics are really revealing some of the strange things I assumed were real or normal as a kid. 11-1-06.

 

Salt needs salt. It was a real thing my friend said. I always thought those green noodles in the third panel looked delicious. 11-8-06.

Do not hire me to make frosting. I still think Adora would be a nice name. 1-5-07.

 

I had just learned all the sentence types in school and felt compelled to comic it up! 8-22-09.

Those last two comics are from 2007 and 2009, respectively. I'm including them here because they're the only standalone comics I found from those years. But that's not to say I wasn't drawing comics... stay tuned!

TENPAM celebration 3

 The comics of 2006, PART ONE. 

I did a lot of one-off comics this year. You can see they are becoming a bit more understandable, though many still lack a real punch line. I really start to lean into that standard nine-panel grid.

Hey, this one's pretty good!

We were learning about idioms in school, which is where I learned "it's all Greek to me." The girl's assignment is about philosophy to tie into the Greek theme. I spelled everything wrong on purpose for the character. I knew nothing about philosophy. The joke is that she's having such a hard time because she didn't do any research.

I think, for some reason, either I or my sister wound up saying, "You can't break a ham!" and I worked up a comic because it sounded funny. I also like the line, "I ain't got no mutton."

I took the time to draw each mini panel in the center panel. The blue girl's hair I was definitely copying from something, but I can't remember what. Possibly Elastigirl. 3-12-06.

The joke is... um, that a force of nature can... write its name? By blowing a pencil around? 4-24-06.

I did not watch tv growing up. I didn't know how it worked. Apparently I thought they aired "time-fillers" which just... filled any random spaces they had between programs? 4-28-06.

TENPAM celebration 2

 The following is a bunch of comics from "late 2004 probably" as my notes indicate. My mom had this gorgeous pack of skinny markers and I was allowed to draw with them after we watched a movie (the tv was in the same room as the markers, not in the living room with my general art supplies).

We had gotten a kid's pottery wheel. I thought it was so cool. In this comic, the cat gets spun around on it, but ultimately takes the clay to use on its own little cat-sized pottery wheel.

 

A flower cleans up her act but all she gets is transplanted. If you overwater plants, they go "blot."

Ah yes, "Murpup," a totally normal name for a dog. Our Christmas tree was a norfolk pine and the branches were pokey.

My standard comic setup was a grid of nine, but sometimes I did twelve. Or, if I needed more space, I'd cut one of the original panels into smaller boxes. I loved ice skating and drew it a lot.

Everything they do on tv happens for real. It's not special effects they really just hire a mountain lion to bite you for tv. So I thought, I guess. This poor guys gets dumped in a river, slammed into a cactus, embarrassed by his heart underwear, kicked by his horse, and bit by a mountain lion creature, and calls for his mommy. The life of an actor is tough.

This one doesn't really make sense but you can see I'm already fooling around with meta humor. She turns on her lightbulb to get an idea, the foot from a higher panel bonks her, and when she throws her head back to laugh she sees her past in the panels above. Not sure where the surfing on the usa came from.

My mom liked how dynamic the mom was calling "dinner" while leaning out through the window. The joke is that the girl is disappointed that she "only" made 8,929 jumps before having to stop.

When I finished my homework, I would dance around, singing, "I'm done with all my homework, cha! cha!" This girl stepped it up with silly glasses, and while my family expected it, this girl did it for her own amusement.

Ah, the old cyclical punchline. The cat will once again join the jump roper, until another sneeze inevitably tangles them up in a cloud of dust.

Don't trap butterflies? I think my attempted punchline was that the butterfly looked like it was on a hill of grass, but it turns out to be the baby's ice cream.

So we begin and end with a Christmas comic. I knew the tree had to be overpriced, but I didn't have a clear idea of what a Christmas tree actually cost. I overshot a little, but, after all, a good $9,688 is worth it.

TENPAM celebration 1

 That's right, folks! NPAM is turning 10! I can hardly believe it! This week, we'll get to see some deep cut NPAM history!

My first comics were Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes. I had the Peanuts Golden Celebration Treasury, and Revenge of the Baby-sat. I could probably recite many of those comics from memory. Next, I got into Garfield. Those little half-size volumes were so easy to find on the library shelf!  

I was already drawing a lot by 2001...

... and I was making comics by 2003! This one was probably drawn from life about the glamorous process of losing a tooth.

Odie and Garfield, 2003

June 19 - 24

 

June 12 - 17