lil-doodles

[lil-doodles]

A few updates for Dead Cat Comix, which, if you don’t know, is the banner that I publish my comics under. Coming in the new year (2025 of course) will be not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new books for your reading pleasure! This is a bittersweet announcement in a way as I would not have been able to print these books if I had not been given the funds to do so from my sister Susie who received the money as part of my late Uncle Anthony’s estate. As someone who encouraged me in my artistic and creative endeavors I’m sure he would have felt that it was money well spent. Anyway, the first three books are Dead Cat publications; An Olde Man in Ireland, Gasp!, and issue seven of Little Doodles. An Olde Man in Ireland is a travelogue about my trip to Ireland and is a whopping 64 pages. This book will run you $10 plus shipping from my website. Gasp! Is a collection of Halloween inspired art from over thirty years and is over 150 pages!!! It contains all of the Drawlloween challenge art from the past few years and a whole lot more. This huge tome will cost $15 plus shipping also from the website. Finally, we have issue number seven of my anthology comic, Little Doodles and I don’t mind saying that it may be the best issue yet. This one is only $5 plus shipping from the website. And the website? All of these books (and many others) can be purchased from www.deadcatcomix.com! But wait, I mentioned FOUR new books for the new year. The last book is not from Dead Cat Comic but rather from a sister publisher called Cohesion Comics which is a joint project between FIGID Press and Dead Cat Comix. The book is a reissue of the first (and only so far) book put out by Cohesion Comics, the parody book Dr. Poo. This book will be available through Amazon but I will have a few physical copies to sell on my website. I’m sorry I couldn’t make these available before the holidays but maybe you can spend some of that money your grandma gave you for Christmas to pick up a few of these books in the new year!

[lil-doodles]

Another weird one for you. This is another one from an old file of unfinished stuff. There may be a reason why these were never finished but that's never stopped me before.

[lil-doodles]

So I just rewatched the 1988 Christmas at Pee-Wee’s Playhouse special for the first time since it aired and I seriously didn’t remember it being so….well, gay. I wonder how all of those really obvious nods to the LGBTQ+ community were overlooked by Reagan America. Remember, this was a time of mass censorship and anything even remotely out of the norm was punished. The show starts out with a group of young manly Marines in their finest uniforms dancing and singing as Pee-Wee prances around them. It has an all-star cast of gay icons including Little Richard, Cher, Grace Jones, KD Lang, and Charo all in full camp mode. It’s a gay spectacular for sure and I’m here for it. There’s a woman named Mrs. Rene who, while played by a woman, is in full drag attire. Don’t overlook the fact that this character replaced a similar character on the show called Mrs. Steve. There’s two shirtless construction workers building a new wing onto the playhouse out of fruitcakes. And, my personal favorite moment, Ms. Yvonne has a mistletoe hat on and all of the playhouse creatures want her to kiss them. Who does she choose? Floory, an anthropomorphic floor. He asks to give her a kiss and she runs over without haste! Wait, a kiss from the floor wouldn’t reach her FACE…. Anyway, it’s a good campy romp for sure and good for them for slipping this all by the censors to infect the Reagan youth. Also, just on a side note, can we talk about Dirty Dog, the leader of the puppet band? He looks like he’s been through a few things….

[lil-doodles]

If you've been following my posts for the last few days then you know that I have been posting the finished comics for a long delayed Christmas project I've been working on. If you haven't then check out the last two days for other comics I've posted. This comic is based on a few sources, the first is the funny book art of the great Basil Wolverton (most notably his Powerhouse Pepper comics), the second is the comic books about the Frankenstein monster made by the great Dick Briefer (the funny ones of course), and the last is my odd infatuation with the Frankenstein monster's aesthetic (I've never read the book or watched many of the movies but I love his look). This one is slightly weird I will admit but, then again, so where those old Wolverton and Briefer comics. I hope you enjoy this one, I need to get back to work on the Christmas comic so it might possibly be finished by next Christmas.....

[lil-doodles]

Hey gang! Here's another Christmas comic for the holidays! As I mentioned yesterday, I have been working on a Christmas comic for a number of years now and it's been a slow process. I currently have just three stories completed and I have plans for several more so it may be a while before the finished product come out. BUT! As a special Christmas treat, I am trotting out the three stories that I do have done. This is number two (see yesterday's post for the first one). This comic is another one that was originally created many years ago (early 2,000's for sure). It's another comic that I made to get my frustrations out about working in retailing not doing something I actually enjoyed. This comic was originally created in a fumetti style (where photographs are used instead of drawings). I did it using some finger puppets I had purchased at an art store. At the time I was just starting to get back into doing creative stuff after a hiatus that lasted well over ten years and I wasn't confident in my ability to draw anything as involved as a comic. The store is based loosely on my time at Blockbuster and the name Sideshow is an homage to my little brother Jesse's film production concern of the same name (with his permission of course). For more fun stuff visit the Dead Cat Comix website and tune in tomorrow for the third comic!

[lil-doodles]

For about five years now I've been planning on doing a Christmas comic but it keeps getting pushed back as I do other things instead. To date I have finished three complete stories for the book and have some pages done for other stories so it's not going to be 100% done anytime soon. BUT! As a Christmas treat I've decided to post the three stories I do have done as a sort of preview. This comic is based off a series of comic strips that I drew for fun way back when (early 2000's?). The original strips were made to tease a co-worker and never amounted to anything more than that. This is Jimmy's first proper comic appearance. I didn't try too hard to update the original drawing style. For more comics and whatnot visit the Dead Cat Comix website! And come back tomorrow for another comic!

[lil-doodles]

I saw this pencil sketch of Superman by the King, Jack Kirby, and decided to ink and color it for practice (I know, how dare I?). I made a few small changes (mostly lengthening the cape and cleaning up the symbol) and I hope the King would have approved. I tried to keep the coloring simple as a throwback to the old comics.

[lil-doodles]

I redrew this from an old notebook (from 2003!). It stems from a conversation that I had with a young lady I worked with who told me that her mom had trained their cat to use the "people" toilet. At the time this was not as common a thing as now (or at least it is on the internet). This has been in that notebook for over twenty years. It was originally drawn using stick figures.

[lil-doodles]

Happy Thanksgiving from me and Tom "Whitemeat" Turkavich of the Plymouth Pilgrims.

[lil-doodles]

Minimalist drawing of the beautiful Kat Dennings. I have other things to do but I wouldn't say they were more IMPORTANT things to do....

[lil-doodles]

From the sketchbook: I messed around and drew some characters from one of my favorite cartoons Trollhunters-Tales of Arcadia. Toby is the best character for sure.

[lil-doodles]

Something for the kids. Quick sketch to cleanse the palette. www.deadcatcomix.com

[lil-doodles]

I put together a book filled with Halloween art from over the years (all the way back to the 90's!). The book has 148 pages total (144 if you don't count the covers) and has all of the art from my last two Drawlloween challenges so if you liked those drawings then this book will appeal to you. It's currently at the printers but will be available soon from the Dead Cat Comix website. The book will be limited to 25 copies and I'm hoping to sell them all as a sell out will just about cover the cost of printing. Keep watching this site for more information.

[lil-doodles]

Okay kids, the Drawlloween 2024 Challenge has ended. I hope everyone enjoyed the spooky art and had a great Halloween season! All of the art that appeared during this challenge is now available on my website. All of the drawings are 8”x10” and run between $30-$40. Please check them out!

[lil-doodles]

Bonus Halloween content! This isn't part of the challenge of course but I started doodling on a sheet of paper and it turned into this. There is a bit of a backstory to this. Many years ago, my little brother, Jesse, was working on a show about a horror movie host named Gordon Ghoul. I know they shot some footage for it but I have yet to see any of it. Jesse wrote for the show and starred as the titular Gordon Ghoul and, as it happened from time to time, he asked me to think up some ideas for the show. We often collaborated on things or used one another as a sounding board. I came up with a sidekick named Throckmorton who was an irritating demon that popped up to annoy Gordon. The demon was conceived as a purple furry puppet who wore a fez. I have sketches of Throckmorton somewhere but I'm not sure where. Imagine a purple Grover with big black eyebrows and a red fez and you aren't far off from my design. I also wrote an. episode but I don't think it went much further than a concept. This is my homage to the concept and my late little brother Jesse. It's also a bit of a nod to the local horror movie host in Indianapolis, Sammy Terry, who appeared on Channel 4.

[lil-doodles]

Drawlloween 2024, Day 31, The Mole People! It's Halloween! All Saint's Day! All Hallow's Eve! Samhain! I hate to end this challenge on a sour note, especially on the grand day itself, but this movie was an exhaustingly boring trudge from beginning to end. I watched the MST3K version and it was still a chore to watch. Do yourself a favor and miss this one. You'll thank me later. This drawing was created using various markers and the old 100lbs vellum bristol paper. And that's all there is, there is no more, that is the show! Thank you for following this challenge and I wish all of you the merriest of Halloweens! If you want this drawing or ANY of the drawings that have appeared in this challenge then please visit www.deadcatcomix.com All drawings in this challenge have been 8"x10"

[lil-doodles]

I saw a post by the amazing artist @tessfowler7 on instagram and decided to mimic her with my own version of her art. I hope she’s okay with it.