Tuesday, November 30, 2010

"Nothing Short of Wonderful" - Hallway

I showed this to Sarah, and she added a heartfelt punchline (which unfortunately doesn't fit on the page).  Read the comic and then the text underneath.
SARAH:  "Good."

Monday, November 29, 2010

"The Don" - Tour

And we're back!  Thanks for your patience over the last few days--had a little Thanksgiving siesta.  Now it's back to the stress (and fun) of a dozen unpaid projects.  If anyone wants to, you know, give me some money, let me know.  

Thursday, November 25, 2010

"Goodbye, Airforce" (Slightly NSFW)

I hope you're all having a nice Thanksgiving.  I am.  Here's a rather disturbing, somewhat illegible comic to change that.


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Five years ago, my first dog, Fry, got hit by a car in Vermont and died.  That kind of ruined Thanksgiving. But it also gave me a reason to be thankful, in the end, because soon after that we got Job.

I Draw Like This might take a few days off--but it might not!  So keep checking.  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"El Pato"

This Thanksgiving weekend marks the ninth year Sarah and I have been a couple.  That's...nuts.  Over the years, I've decided Sarah looks like a lot of different things, including Pac-Man, Arthur the Anteater (or his sister D.W.), an acorn, a Vietnam War veteran named Walter, and most recently, a duck.  I expect that with each passing day, Sarah will continue to morph into even more and stranger things in my eyes, and yet always retain her magical, inimitable, and beautiful quintessence.  Happy anniversary, Sarah.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Don, in "Acquaintance"

I have no idea how to get these pictures to sit side-by-side, instead of stacking vertically.  I've sat here on my bedroom floor for about ten minutes trying to get them to sit in a nice, neat little row, but they insist on being columnar.   So I apologize for that.  I'm also sorry about the Don's worse-than-usual appearance.  I was a little drunk.





Sunday, November 21, 2010

"Arriss and Jorree"

Today let's see how the other half lives.  Or at least works.  Or, rather, doesn't work.

Friday, November 19, 2010

"Welcome to Donkey Town"

Here's a rough lineup of the main characters in "Donkey Town."  I don't know if they'll really look like this--especially Arriss and Jorree--but since this is all just playtime drawing for a pretend TV show, I guess it doesn't much matter.    For those of you who went to HCHS with me, maybe you recognize the name Mr. Sto.  He was my favorite math teacher ever, and he's the only math teacher in Donkey Town.  Every cartoon needs a math teacher, right?  You know--for the token math episode.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Introducing "The Don"

So I hear you all asking:  "Why is this blog called "donkeytowncomics?"  Well first of all, it's actually called "I Draw Like This."  But you're partially correct, in that the address is donkeytowncomics.blogspot.com.  So we're both right.  But to answer the question I pretended to hear you ask, I named it after a show I'm creating called "Donkey Town."  I want to make this show a reality.  I've started a pilot script and I have a few characters, one of which is The Don.  I plan on developing him a bit on this blog, so instead of giving you any background information, here's the first installment of "The Don."

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"Waiting on Line at the Movies"


Do people really wait on line for movies anymore?  It was a big part of my childhood, but nowadays you can order tickets online, or at one of the little credit card kiosks in the theater's lobby.  God, do I sound like an old, confused person or what?  Back when Sarah and I had just started dating, we were discussing our tastes in music, and I started teasing her for liking "new school" punk.  I said, "Yeah, whatever, you just like Sum 51 and all those bands."

It's Sum 41, by the way.  I was...nineteen, I believe?  When I said that.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"iDad" Part 2

Here's Part 2!  Hope you enjoy.  Maybe there'll be a part 3 eventually.

Monday, November 15, 2010

"iDad" Part 1

Here's part 1 of a new series called "iDad."  I thought I would start this description with a sentence that provides you exactly the same information you could glean from reading the title of the post.  Check in for Part 2 tomorrow!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

"Unemployment? Fun-Enjoyment."

Despite the tone of this comic, I've actually been pretty busy--busy letting things pile up until they overwhelm me and I panic and curl into an armadillic ball, that is!  Well, I'm not quite there yet.  And busy is better than the opposite of busy, AKA musy (pronounced "mizzy," natch).

Friday, November 12, 2010

"My Raise"

What can I say?  I'm a generous guy.  And not to toot my own horn more than is absolutely necessary, but these days, even though I've been unemployed for almost a year, the presents have not dropped in quality one bit.  In fact, I've drawn even better comics than this for my family members.  I give.  It's...it's just what I do.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

"All Earth's Creatures"

Sometimes I'll be in the shower, or sitting my desk, or on the subway or whatever, and something strange will pop into my head and I'll just start giggling.  This generally means you are crazy, but I'm not going to worry about that.  When I drew this...thing, whatever you'd call it...I was just sloppily doodling some humanoids, and then thought it'd be funny to kind of celebrate them, as if it were some documentary about biodiversity.  And I guess as I was writing out the celebratory narration, I thought it'd be funny to make it extremely inarticulate.  And that's my entire apology for posting this comic.  Or whatever it is.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Introducing John Parkersmithson, in: "What Happens to a Loan Deferred?"

John Parkersmithson is a character I created on the subway while drawing comics with my friend Julian Graham one day.  Jules and I drew comics throughout high school, usually during chemistry or math, which we called "Little Tales."  He'd draw a panel, then I'd draw a panel, and so on, until the page had about 9 panels on it.  Each panel would usually be its own stand-alone scene, but every now and then there'd be some kind of bizarre, improvised story that held them together.  I know the first John Parkersmithson comic had a storyline that involved him getting fired and coming home to his large-breasted wife, but it was really his name that I liked.  So several years later I reinvented J.P. for this comic, and now, several years since then, I'm giving him a big role in a new show I'm trying to develop.

Also, I have no idea if this is how loans or interest rates work.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

"Plant Parenthood"

In December I turn 29.  That means I'm actually nearing the end of my so-called "emerging adulthood."  I grew up with this sense of life as a series of phase changes:  baby to kid, kid to teenager, teenager to adult, and with certain X-Men, adult to liquid adult.  But so far, none of those has happened!  As I approach 30, I'm reminded of when I realized I wasn't going to get any taller--if adulthood was going to emerge, it would have emerged by now.  Emergency!  Well, maybe Sarah and I will just have a baby--that'll solve my developmental crisis!  Babies solve everything, I hear.

Monday, November 8, 2010

"Job's Job"

I love Job so much.  We got him from a family in Vermont, after our first dog, Fry, bit it in a car accident.  Now, I wasn't actually present for the purchase of either dog, but Sarah obviously knows how to pick them.  Apparently Job was the runt of the litter, and the family had named him "Mouth," for his tendency to talk and talk and talk when he needed something.  This appealed to Sarah, I think, because although the whole litter was physically hurting from malnutrition and worms and stuff, Job at least was psychologically hardy and ready to speak up and be counted.  This comic is from when he was just under a year old.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

"Nothing Short of Wonderful" - Yogurt

It was a bad Saturday.  The worst part was when I left the house without my keys on three separate occasions.  I suppose those three occasions comprised the collective worst part of the day.   Do you ever ask yourself, "What the hell is wrong with me?"  Well, if you ever get an answer, could you let me know?  On the off chance that it might apply to both of us.




Saturday, November 6, 2010

"Good to Be..." (Slightly NSFW)

I mean, it's not actually NSFW--just kind of weird.  And there's pubic hair in it, for some reason.  This is just one of those odd doodles I did while working on a script.  I won't tell you the name of the show or the episode, but my guess is that "celery trail," scrawled off to the left, is a very good hint.  I have at least one other of these "Good to Be..." doodle sheets somewhere.  Maybe if you're really, really, really lucky, I'll find it and post it.  But boy would you have to be lucky.  Whoo!  What a treat for you!

Friday, November 5, 2010

"Back to the Ocean" - Theater

We have these heat pipes that clang really loudly in our apartment.  They were very rhythmic and loud this morning at around 6.  Woke up and couldn't fall back asleep for another hour or so.  It was awful, but I stuck with it, and eventually fell back asleep.  Determination:  Without it, you won't be able to sleep in while your wife gets up and goes to work.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

"Six Flags"

Sometimes you're on the subway and a guy gets on holding a bucket.  He says he represents whatever organization to help whatever group of disadvantaged people, and he goes into a spiel that sounds maybe somewhat official.  And sometimes you catch yourself thinking, "Wait, is this guy legit, or is he just some dude panhandling with a script?"  Well, I think I've come up with a foolproof litmus test:

Legitimate charities do not ask for money on the subway.  Ever.  Because it is fucking illegal.  And ghetto.

Save your change for those awesome mariachi groups.  Or the guys with the conga drums.  Or that asshole who plays bass and insults people on the 1 train.  My friend Chris told me about this one really drunk, homeless dude who addressed the train in a sleepy, slurring voice, with his eyes closed:  "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Bob.  Bob is jusss...looking for somethin' to eat...Bob don't want to bother no one...."  Then Bob slowly opened his eyes on a young Asian guy, grinned at him, and said, "You feel me, Jackie Chan." Bob FTW.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

"I'm Dog-sitting"

The two little dogs in this comic, Mila and Marpa, are going home today, thank god.  They're nice dogs--very sweet and low maintenance--but you can't have three dogs in New York.  I mean, maybe you can, but I can't.  And I told Sarah this.  I said, "No."  She said, "Let's give it a try."  I said, "No, it's not going to work, and that's final."  So of course we gave it a try.  Goodbye, Mila and Marpa.  Hope you have a nice rest of your lives.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

"73"

Back when I was getting my MFA--which isn't to imply that I ever got it--I had a job at the old Poet's House office on 72 Spring Street.  Well, not at the office, exactly.  More like in the lobby.  See, on Saturdays, the building's door would be locked, and they'd need someone to sit down there and let people inside.  I usually worked three or four hours, for $10 an hour.  And I was always late.

I'd sit at the security guard's desk and try to write poetry or draw comics.  Most of what I came up with was weird and distracted, as you can see here.  It wasn't a good time in my life.  Trivia:  The guys in animal suits, I later learned, were the Crunch gym's street team.

Monday, November 1, 2010

"What Even Is This" - Sick and Edgy

Whenever I'm feeling ill at ease, it's always tempting to panic and universalize my anxiety.  "Things are just...terrible," I'll think.  "I give up.  What am I going to do?  Everything is just shit."  And then, if I'm lucky, some sensible voice--usually either my wife's or my therapist's, but sometimes my own doing a little impression of them--will remind me that, oh yeah, you probably shouldn't keep playing Fallout 3 until 2 AM and then getting into bed and watching MST3K on youtube.  Eat a banana or something.  Jesus.