Sister Missionaries at the Grocery Store

I don't pretend that today's gag is particularly great, but I'm really quite proud of the watermelons and apples in this picture. They look good enough to eat.*

*In my opinion, the bread looks pretty good too.

The Pinewood Derby Gag

Not to hype this up too much but in my cartooning career, I've been published in three of the four Church magazines (I'm still trying to figure out how to get the Ensign to publish a Where's Waldo type scene in the front or back cover of one of it's issues); I've had four books of mine published that have sold dozens of copies(!); and I've got this blog where handful of my closest internet friends (that's you!) check out my work twice a week and somehow manage not to post mean things. And then there is today's comic--the fruition of almost a decade's worth of effort. Yep, I'm pretty excited! Here it is...

Why the New Era published this gag while rejecting my other pinewood derby gags, I suspect, is because this comic found humor in the event from a different angle than the trite "dad made son's car." That or this comic had more mustaches than any other I've ever drawn.

At any rate, please leave your letters of congratulations in the comment section below.

For the Strength of Youth

I don't have much to say about this rejected New Era gag except that I am quite pleased with the belly I drew on the Young Men's leader. It's about as good a stomach as I've ever drawn.

Scout Camps and Real Estate

Within the New Era's "Extra Smile" page there is definitely a pecking order. Val Chadwick Bagley--he of the numerous lift-the-flap books--usually gets the prime real estate on the page while the rest of the cartoonists' work fills in around his.

(I don't begrudge him for it. Bagley is really quite good. So good, in fact, that should he ask, I'd probably have to forfeit my domain name to him.)

Anyway, I'm proud of this gag because for one month it vaulted me to the location on the "Extra Smile" page usually reserved for Bagley.