Yes, I’m posting late again today. Blame the holidays and my workload. I am up to my armpits in a novel I’m rewriting, plus I started a new project last week called Very Scary Art. It’s a website devoted to children’s drawings of all things scary and spooky and it’s done in support of DonorsChoose.org. Stop by and take a look!
As for this week’s comic, yes, Irwin is not a rat who can handle his liquor. There are a few more of these strips, then we move on to other subjects. I can’t remember which subjects at the moment, but this party storyline does eventually end. When these cartoons first ran, a lot of folks didn’t like it. They prefered the single gag comics rather than an overarcing story that ran several episodes. All I can say is, I had to come up with two comic strips a week for the Collegiate Times, so I went with what I thought would work. I still think the comics are funny, even if others didn’t care for them. But then I drew them, so what do I know?
I’ve recently been reading Scary Go Round by John Allen, a very fun web comic about a little town called Tackleford in England. It’s a bizarre comic with all sorts of oddities like pretty but troubled women, wendigos, zombies, fish men and evil scientists. John Allen included his comments in each book about what he thought worked and didn’t work, and I was amazed to note that he also had storylines that he thought did not go over well with his fans. I had a hard time imagining it, because I thought each and every page was pure gold.
Cartoonists, like all artists, can be a very self-critical lot. We do the best we can, but we rely on an audience to let us know if we’ve succeeded or not. That’s both great and not so great, but either way, I’d still rather draw cartoons than get paid to work a day job.
