Thursday, June 28, 2012

Anatomy of a Gag

Sometimes a gag will come to me fully formed. Sometimes I'll get a spark of an idea that I will have to massage for a while until I like it enough to draw it. Sometimes I'll sketch out an idea that doesn't quite work, leave it alone for months or years, and then return to it with new eyes and find a way to make it work. (And most of the times, my ideas are so bad that end up discarding them forever without seeing the light of day.)

The gag above came fully formed and I liked it well enough to draw it when something unusual happened: I revisited a fully formed gag after it's completion. The result being that I came up with something new that I like much more. See if you don't agree below.
My problem with the original gag is the unlikelihood that a Cub Den would serve up something "green and mold" at a Blue and Gold Banquet. I mean, even the most disorganized Den would serve something better than that--like Little Caesars five buck pizza, for example.* But a Scout Troop, on a camp out, in a crock-pot: that I could totally see.

*I speak from experience. Little Caesars five buck pizza is exactly what our Den served a couple of years ago.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Bike Area 3

I don't know what Elder Van Dyke is complaining about, that is a very stylish helmet.

(Click here for this week's Deseret News featured strip.)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

How About Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater?

Today's gag is featured in this month's New Era.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Bike Area 2

More trouble with bikes.

(Here's today's comic strip featured in the Deseret News.)

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Enos Prays (and Prays and Prays and...)


This would have been a real concern, I'm sure.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Bike Area

When I was transferred into a bike area on my mission, I bragged to my new companion about my mountain biking prowess back home. I then proceeded to tumble over my handle bars through a little wooded area while traveling between our place and some apartment buildings we were going to tract. In my case, pride literally came before the fall.

(Here's this week's Deseret News comic strip.)

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Family Reunions

I got the idea for today's gag while spending quality time with most of my wife's family and most of my family over Spring Break a couple of months ago. (If anyone from either family asks, the inspiration came while we were with the other family.)

Monday, June 4, 2012

Another Place to Read My Work

A couple of weeks ago, deseretnews.com picked up this very comic strip. Every Monday, the website will publish another strip following Elder Van Dyke through his mission. With the Deseret News, I'm trying something slightly different than what I do here. I'm publishing the strips in somewhat chronological order.

You can check out the first three strips here, here, and here to read what happened when Alex Van Dyke first received his call. Then make lots of comments and share it with your friends. (I want to make sure they don't cancel the thing on account of lack of public interest.)

Now here's a strip for this website: