Saturday, March 30, 2013

Commercial Burnout

Poor Gralen.  He's just walking down the street, whistling a happy tune, when he is witness to the bizarre spectacle of commercials coming to life right before his eyes.  And it affects him so much, seeing these people just up and break into advertising jingles, that he needs to see a psychiatrist.

I guess that is what you get when you watch too much tv as a kid.

I know this one is really hard to read, since I just seemed to cram the words into their text bubbles wherever they would fit, so I'd better do a play-by-play on what is going on:  First, Gralen is whistling, that's pretty evident.  Then he sees an old man, who after buying a bottle of Coke, breaks into the old 70's commercial and sings, "Coke adds life, to everything...."
This startles Gralen, who says, "Whew, people are crazy!"
He then witnesses a man buying a bottle of Pepsi from a little kiosk(and clerk) that looks a lot like the one that sold Coke. Hmmmm.
Anyway, the man breaks into song, and is joined by a bunch of other people(who knows where they came from) in singing the 70's Pepsi jingle, "Join the Pepsi people, feeling free, feeling free...."
This apparently is too much for even a talking dinosaur to handle, so in the last two panels, Gralen is discussing these incidents with his psychiatrist, saying "I don't know if it's real or if I'm seeing things, but they looked real...."  The psychiatrist is giving his best concerned face and saying "Hmmmm", while Gralen continues relaying the story in the last panel, where we see a shot of the sign on the door which confirms that Bill Shims is indeed a psychiatrist.   Gralen trails off saying, "And then a guy started...." and continues right off the page.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The State Of Television

Isn't this just the state of television today... and yesterday?!
It seems you can't watch anything anymore without there being a lot of "bleep bleeps".

In case this comic is hard to read:  The dialogue from the tv says:  "We now return to Scared Straight.  Note:  The crude language will be cut out."  Then "bleeps" and more "bleeps".  "We thank you for joining in with us for "Scared Straight."

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Comic Strip Spinoffs

I used to love watching bugs.  I could sit for hours and hours just watching them do what they do.  Just ask my mom.  She always said she never had to worry about me running off and getting lost because she could always find me, usually staring at an ant hill.

Ants were my favorite bugs.  I guess because they were always doing something, and usually in one spot, like at their anthill.  These next three comic strips represent my attempt to spinoff Gralen and Jeddy into another comic strip about an ant named Collamer.

The first one is what I guess you could call the "pilot" episode.  It is still called "Gralen and Jeddy" even though Gralen only makes a cameo appearance at the end.  And the main character of Collamer the ant isn't even in it, just some of his friends that I planned on using in future episodes, a fly and what I think was a dung beetle:



The first actual episode of Collamer which carried his name in the title dealt with what seemed to be a staple of a lot of my cartoons: Wordplay and the misunderstandings that can occur through language:



In testament to the non-stop activity of ants comes this final episode of Collamer.
There were only two "real" episodes of Collamer, if you don't count the pilot which didn't even have Collamer in it.  I don't remember why I didn't continue with Collamer.  It could be that Gralen and Jeddy were enough "work" for me, or it could be that... ants just aren't that funny and are better just stared at for long hours.
You'll notice some bleedthrough from the "other" episode of Collamer on the opposite side of the paper:

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Gralen and Jeddy - Politically Incorrect

Remember back in your youth when you could say things and everyone chalked it up to just being a kid and no one freaked out about how you might be offending someone and recommended intense therapy, tolerance training, and medication for you?  Though you may have gotten a swat on your behind or some soap in your mouth if you went too far.  If you grew up in the pre-1990's society(and some of the '80's) you probably remember times like that.

Well, I was a kid before all this PC nonsense started happening, and therein lies the rationale, and rationalization, for this episode of Gralen And Jeddy.
It is not very nice, the comment that Jessy makes.  In fact, it could be described as downright mean... if you said this in real life.  But then, that is why it is written for an amateur comic strip and said by a talking dinosaur.  It is not "really" real life.

It is just the flippant musings of a kid who must have been feeling extra rascally that day, and for one reason or another found it funny.  I still do find it kind of funny.

...Though it is kind of mean. ;)


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Brain the size of a pea....

Gralen and his wife Jenny's son Jessy wasn't too bright at times, as evidenced by these three episodes of "Gralen and Jeddy". 
Jessy seems to be having a hard time figuring out that words - and the people saying them - don't always mean what they say.



Suspense is "killing" me

Heart "attack"
"Bad" back