Forecasting the Next Change to Missionary Work

Recently, the Church announced a major change to missionary work: missionaries can now call home every P-Day. A couple of mont
hs ago, sister missionaries were permitted to wear dress slacks. I have no idea what the next major change to missionary work is, but I'm pretty sure it's not what the missionary in today's gag thinks it is.

Nobody's Home

As a missionary, I'd get this all the time. I was never so snarky to respond the way Elder Van Dyke does in this strip. As you can imagine, drawing this one was very cathartic.

(Incidentally, a similar joke appeared in the hugely successful Despicable Me movie. Would it surprise you to know that the co-writers of that movie are Latter-day Saints? Perhaps they were addressing some pent up frustrations from their tracting days too.)

Sab-bath

Tuck this one away and use it the next time your child gives you any lip about getting ready for Sunday.

Cheap Buck for the Artist

Welcome back to regular broadcasting. Let's see where we are with Elder Van Dyke and his companion. Is it too early to shill for my book again?

The Winner of the Tournament of Champions

Well, that was fun. After all of that, the winner of the tournament turned out to be the number one seed. It kind of feels anticlimactic--like the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl or something.

Still, there is a reason that particular gag was ranked first. I'm quite sure there has never been a joke of mine that was shared more widely than that one. I'm still proud of it.

Thank you, everyone, who helped celebrate ten years of this silly website. Over that time I've posted over 1,000 comic strips and single panel gags!* There is no way I would have made it this far without your support and comments. (Seriously, I live for the comments.) Thank you.

There were over 350 votes cast in the tournament. I took each of those (even those who claimed a particular match up was too close to vote) and added them to a spreadsheet where I ran a random number generator to determine the three winners of the drawing. Congratulations to Chamberlin, Emily P, and Kathy Farrier. Please send me an email at arie@mormoncartoonist.com with your address and I'll drop your copy of Mission Daze into the mail.

If you didn't win and would still like a copy of the book, follow this link. If you send me an email after ordering the book, I'd be happy to dedicate it to whoever you'd like.

Starting Monday, the blog will return to it's regular Monday/Thursday schedule. Thanks for indulging me these past three weeks.

*This is like a year's worth of work for my friend fellow cartoonist Kevin Beckstrom, who also has a book of missionary gags available for purchase.

Tournament of Champions: Finals!

After three weeks, you've whittled down my sixteen favorite gags to this: a winner takes all match up to decide which comic is the best one ever published on this website.

One Seed. Maybe it was meant that these two gags should meet. After all, the only reason we know the Brother of Jared's name was because of a baby blessing. During the early days of the Church, brother Reynolds Cahoon asked Joseph Smith if he wouldn't mind blessing and naming his newborn baby. Joseph obliged and named the boy Mahonri Moriancumer, explaining that the Lord revealed to him that this was the name of the Brother of Jared.

Ten Seed. The moral of the above story is clear: never let a prophet name your son. (See also Isaiah and his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz).

Cast your vote now. Voting will close tonight at midnight (mountain standard time, as always). Come back tomorrow where I'll unveil the winner of the tournament and the three winners of a copy of Mission Daze.

Tournament of Champions: Final Four-Day Two

The end is in sight, folks!

Ten Seed. As a newly married, I read a message from President James E. Faust where he commented that with every baby blessing he gave, he blessed the baby with a sense of humor. His reasoning was that life would be so much the more endurable with that trait. I liked the counsel so much, I made sure to include that in the subsequent blessings for my children.

Eleven Seed. I really like the way my genie turned out. He sure looks a lot better than this guy.

Cast your vote for this match up as well as yesterday's match up by 12 midnight mountain standard time tonight. And then come back tomorrow to vote on which joke will be crowned champion!

Tournament of Champions: Final Four-Day One

And just like that we are down to four.

One Seed. Of the two brothers, Jared definitely was the less consequential. It was his brother that conversed with the Lord and led the people from Babel to the promised land. Yet due to a quirky form of government, Jared got a people named after him, while his brother didn't even warren a proper name in the scriptural record.

Four Seed. I am endlessly fascinated by Church art. Did you know that Harry Anderson was a Seventh-day Adventist who the Church contracted to paint a series of Bible paintings? Or that Minerva Teichert painted her series of Book of Mormon paintings as the result of a spiritual impression and later donated the whole lot of them to BYU?

Look lively. You've got two days to vote on the four semifinalist, of which the second two are coming tomorrow.

Tournament of Champions: Round Two-Day Four

It's a match up of underdogs as the 11 seed fresh off an upset of the six seed takes on the 14 seed (which crushed the three seed). Let's find out which of these two gags will advance to the final four!

Eleven Seed. I wonder just how many places left in the world don't have peanut butter. Even Slovenia, where I served 20 plus years ago, started carrying peanut butter about four months before I went home.

Fourteen Seed. Believe it or not, neither of these talk openings is my biggest pet peeve. That honor (?) would have to go to the old "For those of you who don't know me..." line. I mean, were you not paying attention to the member of the bishopric who announced you just moments ago? Not to mention the fact that your name is printed in the program. (I'm sounding like a grumpy old man, aren't I?)

Voting for the second round closes tonight at midnight mountain standard time. Be sure to cast your vote for this or any of the other three second round match ups before then, then tune in tomorrow for the final four.

Tournament of Champions: Round Two-Day Three

Today's match up centers around the arts. Specifically Latter-day Saint fine arts verses 19th century Gothic fiction.

Four Seed. I'm a cartoonist. I draw exaggerated figures all the time. I still struggled to make my Nephite match Friberg's dimensions.

Five Seed. Technically, Frankenstein and his bride never married. She rejected him and he destroyed the lab and the two of them in a fit of mournful rage. They're kind of like horror's Romeo and Juliet.

Phew, we made it through another week of this ridiculous exercise. Two down and one to go. Come back Monday for the stretch run. Remember to include your name with your votes to qualify for the Mission Daze drawing.

Tournament of Champions: Round Two-Day Two

Moving right along.

Two Seed. If I could do this over, I'd probably have added a couple more children to the snow family.

Ten Seed. Our first upset of the tournament (but not the last one).

Cast your votes for this and any other round two match ups. See you tomorrow.

Tournament of Champions: Round Two-Day One

Thanks to everyone who voted during the first round of the Tournament of Champions. The response was better than I could have ever hoped for.

For the next four workdays, we'll be voting to decide which comics move on to the final four! Remember to leave your name with your vote so that you can be entered into the drawing for a free copy of Mission Daze.

One Seed. I really enjoyed seeing how much variation there was in the voting. Each comic strip in the tournament received a number of votes. Even the sacrificial lamb 16 seed kept it respectable--with 1/3 of the votes cast in that particular race.

Eight Seed. Preschool beat the first day of school (with 64% of the votes). I briefly toyed with the idea of expanding this idea into some sort of children's book. The problem was (outside of the irreverent nature of the thing) developing some sort of conflict to the story.

See you tomorrow.

Tournament of Champions Day Eight

This is it! The last pairing in the first round. Let's finish this off!

Six Seed. Back when I first published this gag, twitter was still a nice little place for silly jokes and brief messages. Now it's a cesspool of putdowns and insults. Hopefully, that doesn't hurt this joke too much. (First published September 13, 2012)

Eleven Seed. Silly missionary: Always wish for infinite more wishes! (First published January 9, 2014)

Polls close for all first round match ups 12 AM MST, so cast your vote for this and every other post in the Tournament of Champions. Tune in tomorrow for the beginning of round two!

Tournament of Champions Day Seven

Here's your next match up:

Five Seed. Over the years I've done over a dozen Transylvania Central Mission gags featuring Elders Hammer and King. Their first comic is still my favorite. (First published October 27, 2011)

Twelve Seed. Growing up in the 1980s, He Man was a big part of my childhood which made drawing this comic particularly fun. (First published March 29, 2018)

Cast your vote in the comment section. Don't forget to include your name if you'd like to be entered into the Mission Daze drawing. Check back tomorrow as we finish up the first round in preparation for the elite eight.

Tournament of Champions Day Six

Let's finish the week with another tough match up. Thanks for humoring me, everyone!

Three Seed. Over the years I've done a couple of google searches on this gag. It's so simple that I have a hard time believing that some other cartoonist hasn't already done it. So far, I haven't found evidence that someone else came up with it first. (First published January 2, 2014)

Fourteen Seed. Someone really needs to use this at the beginning of their sacrament meeting talk. I'm sure the more sophisticated portion of the crowd would appreciate it. (Added bonus: it's another real life bishopric!) (First published February 19, 2015)

Be sure to cast your vote in the comment section with your name included. Come back next week for the conclusion of round one and the start of round two!