You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
When I was syndicated, my deadline was weekly. I could have picked any schedule I wanted (weekly or monthly) and any day of the week to turn them in that I wanted. I chose to have a weekly deadline instead of monthly for many reasons. The most pressing one was that I am a procrastinator, and I could see myself thinking, Oh, I still have 10 whole days. Not really thinking of the fact that I had to produce a MONTH”S worth of cartoons in that time. Since I am a good time fritterer, I decided not to give myself any way to get more than a few days behind. I could basically fritter away Monday and Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday, but by Thursday I HAD to buckle down and get started or I woudln’t finish. I tried to turn in my toons on Monday mornings, but there were many Mondays where my stuff wasn’t in until close to the close of business (and UPS was in a time zone an hour later than me!) Still, I usually met my deadline. 99% of the time I did.
So I am going to try that again. I will try to post a weeks worth of cartoons on Monday’s from now on. I posted this weeks yesterday, but since I didn’t have a chance to blog too, no one really knows that. I find it easier to get batches of cartoons done rather than one at a time, and I don’t know why. So that’s the new production schedule. Look for new toons on Mondays. It might be Monday afternoons or evenings but they will be there. I will strive for a weeks worth, but occasionally there might be only 3-4. I am still going to try for quality over quanity.
I’ve been having a hard time with this blog as well. I dont’ post often because I feel like if I don’t post new toons at the same time, people will get mad. So here’s the new blog schedule… there is none. I will be updating this blog as I feel like it. Which will probably be about 5 times a week. You are welcome to read it or not, but I will only post cartoons on Mondays (unless I am feeling especially perky one week, but don’t worry about that because perky is one thing I am usually not. However, if I DO post toons outside of Monday’s, I will alert you right here to that unusual fact!)
Moving on… about today’s Sunday toon. I happen to LOVE it. Everything about it was on purpose, including the non-PC word for homosexuals. I am not trying to offened anyone (well maybe only a FEW people…) but I want’ed to show my true feelings about this organization. I think they do a lot of good and they are good for boys and they can be fun. But they hide their darkside well. They are basically bigots who have been given a license in our society to be just that. They hide behind Jesus, but Jesus CAME for the sinners. If Jesus was on earth today He would not be surrounded by priests. He’d be eating dinner with the prostitutes and the drug addicts and the suicidal and the diseased. He came to help a fallen world. He came to save people and He loves everyone, INCLUDING homosexuals and athiests. (Athiests despite their best efforts to push Him away…)
I just think the scouts have got the wrong priorities, and I like to point that out every now and again. And yes, my son was a scout for a year (just like Owen was) until I finally won the argument in our house and we pulled him.
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
For the record, I am not against all boyscouts. I dont’ think anyone should pull their kids unless they feel it’s wrong too. We are friends withplenty of boyscouts and they are nice people. But their organization is flawed, even if most of the people involved aren’t.
I LOVE the Harry Potter books, and I am quite excited to go see the Half Blood Prince movie, even though the movie’s are always a little disappointing because they never put in all I want them to and they tend to change things on a whim. But still, a pretty exciting day in our household.
I first heard about Harry Potter on the Rosie O’Donnell show about 9 years ago. She was interviewing J.K. Rowling about her book The Prisnor of Azkaban (the third in the series) and it sounded boring. Then she said that all three of her books were currently on the best seller lists and I was more than irritated, I was pissed. Because nothing ever lives up to the hype and I thought the people buying these books were complete morons or lemmings, just fattening up Rowling’s pocketbook. I was trying (unsuccessfully) to get published at the time and I just had to know what was sooo good that everyone had to buy their very own copy of it. My jealousy runneth over…
I didn’t want to give her any more money, so I checked the first book out of the library. We went to Disney World that week and I started it in the hotel room the first night with no real hope of it being good. It sucked me right in and I got a very peculiar feeling as I read it. I just kept thinking how fabulous it would be if it were true. I had been a misfit child (hard to believe, I know) and it would have been so wonderful to be able to leave all of that and go to Hogwarts and perform magic… This was a very impressive book. I can honestly say that it’s one of the few times in my life where something is not overrated. The hype behind it was true. At least for me.
I immediately wanted to read the second book but it kept being checked out of the library, so I read number three first. That book remains my favorite in the series (well, except for the last one). Then I bought the second book and then I went out and bought the first and third one’s too. And when The Goblet of Fire came out (number 4) I had preordered it and it came to my house on the day it came out. My daughter was also into Harry Potter so we had to share the book. She got to read it until her bedtime and then I got it, and I finished it (she was sooo mad that I read it before her) and with books 5, 6 and 7 we bought 2 copies so we wouldn’t have to share. Yes, J.K. Rowling is a billionaire today because of crazy people like us. My husband is not into Harry Potter at all and he just rolls his eyes whenever we start discussing it. Poor man…
I’ve met a lot of Christians who are appalled that I not only read the books and love them but that I let my children read them too. I have to say it baffles me why they are against these books. No they are not Christian books but I read lots of fiction (a lot of horror) and most of it is MUCH worse than this stuff. All there is is some minor rule-breaking that the kids do that could be considered bad. They spend the rest of their time fighting evil. There is magic in the books but there is also magic in the Lord of the Rings books and they are deemed ok because a Christian wrote them with a Christian agenda. I get the distinction, I just think it’s rather silly and arbitrary.
I get the whole witches thing, but honestly, these are not real spells. The witches and wizards in the books are magical. Kind of like Doug Henning or what’s his name who almost married the supermodel (you know, if they were actually performing magic and not doing tricks). I just think the books are neat. They are full of really cool details that I wish I’d thought of, and I think they have a good heart.
So I cannot wait to go to see this movie (if not tonight, tomorrow for sure!) It’s always a good month when we get some new Potter stuff…
I have new toons up on my website (www.karenmontaguereyes.com) in the Clear Blue Water section. I’ve completely caught up and I’m feeling very proud of myself.
Okay, so I turned on the Michael Jackson memorial and watched the last 20 minutes or so. Here I was thinking that it wasn’t QUITE the spectacle I thought it would be. It turned out to be in better taste than I feared it would be. And then they had Michael’s daughter Paris speak about her late father. To a world-wide audience. This is a child that I didn’t even know what she looked like 2 weeks ago and now she’s talking and crying about her very real and painful grief for her daddy for all the world to see. That moment will DEFINITELY make the nightly news. It will be the soundbite they use over and over and over.
…It was a sickening display.
And though the family quickly hustled her away when she broke down in tears, seconds before that, they were telling her to “speak up, honey” and thrusting the mike at her. What the hell is WRONG with these people? Can they just not help themselves? Why would they exploit that child like that? If she really wanted to speak, then it should have happened at the private funeral this morning. No, this was a calculated move to show the world that Michael was a good and normal dad who’s children loved him and would miss him.
What they are forgetting, in their barely concealed desperation to cling to the fading spotlight and dead moneytrain, is that Michael Jackson spent his life shielding his kids from the spotlight. He went TOO far in fact, well into freakdom, to make sure they weren’t in the very public eye that his family just opened up for the entire world to peer into. When Michael Jackson makes better decisions about something than you do, then you know you REALLY need to rethink your worldview.
I spent the morning watching Michael Jackson’s videos and I must admit, he was a damn talented entertainer. But he is gone now, and I, for one, will be glad when the media can focus on something else for a change!
Michael Jackson’s been all over the news and Sarah Palin quits and we had the fourth of July… Whew! I am exhausted just thinking of it. Anyway, I have been writing cartoons daily, but I haven’t had time to post them until today so today you get an entire weeks worth of cartoons all at once! (I sense your excitement…) The trick is, you have to read them like you are reading them on the DAY that things happened or it makes my characters seem slow. I knew I had to get them posted today because of the big memorial in L.A. I wouldn’t miss THIS for the world.
I must say, the last panel of the last cartoon today contains one of my favorite images ever from my cartoon. I just really like the way Eve came out here. The story line might not be grounded in reality (they won tickets AND plane tickets AND they could find babysitters at the last minute for 5 children including their autistic son? Yeah right…) But, then again, that’s the fun of a comic strip. I can write things in it that could never happen in real life.
I’ve had a blast writing this week, and I like all of the cartoons (which guarantees that most people will not get them and think they are unfunny and in questionable taste). Which is ok, I guess. I write for myself mostly anyway.
The story of their L.A. vacation is not over…Stay tuned! Oh, and I am going to either try to post a new cartoon daily or post them in big chunks every few days, but no more missing days. As you can see, the first week in July is complete and I am really going to try to keep up ths schedule. I should be able to. I mean, I MADE my deadlines when I was syndicated! I’ve just gotten lazy…
