Clovis v. Snuggle

For those of you who are regulars of my comic, "Imagine THIS," you're well aware that my main character Clovis has some kind of beef against the actor who portrays the character/mascot "Snuggle the Bear."

Why?  Who knows. The absurdity of the concept is what cracks me up.

Here is a funny little doodle I did of the two a while back, just to give you an idea. Enjoy!

Break Time Sketch -- Max

I've got Dr. Seuss on the brain lately. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1st: yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday.

2nd: when I got home from work last night, my son asked if he could watch "The Grinch" cartoon.

Needless to say, I might be throwing Seuss characters up here for the next few days. Here's the first: the Grinch's dog Max.

Benefits of the Ever-Recycling Cold

If you've been following me on Twitter, then you know that my kids and I have been battling colds since late November, early December. It's been awful. One of the worst cold/flu seasons I can remember in many years. But it has also been one of the best. Because I was able to spend more time with my boys then I normally could.

For those who don't know, I'm a big kid at heart. When the opportunity comes for me to play robots with my kids, pretend I'm a giant super-villain dinosaur, or bust into lightsaber duals in the middle of lunch, I seize the moment.

The other thing about spending a LOT of time with someone, is you begin to understand how they think. During week 4 of our quarantine, I witnessed my 3-year-old's imagination explode with hilarious creativity. When he and I would play, he would create characters, locations, and crazy situations that would resolve themselves in ways you wouldn't expect. It's incredible.

In fact, his stories are so hilariously strange, I've been writing them down in a Moleskine notebook after he goes to bed, so that he could look back on them 20 or 30 years and enjoy them as much as I did. The whole thing reminds me of the magic that is Axe Cop. I'm such a huge fan of that comic.

After I had about 6 or 7 different stories written down, I thought this totally would work as a comic. So I decided, what the heck! And I turned a few of these stories into comics. I'm thinking of posting them, just for giggles.

Would you be interested in seeing some of them?

Remember, they were written by a 3-year-old. So you kind of have to just go with it.

Here is one of his main recurring characters. A robot who's all about vigilante justice:

Coffee Sketch -- Poli-Pricks

This gentlemen frequents my local coffee shop daily. And every day, he shares his thoughts on politics and world affairs -- at 140 decibels to anyone within a 5 feet perimeter. Okay, fair enough. Problem is, he doesn't know anything about politics or world affairs. So that, combined with his lack of volume control, not to mention the fact he is a regular, means he's a business killer. I fear my local coffee shop will not survive the winter.

 BTW -- Every city in America has one of these guys. All tourists, be warned.

Coffee Sketch -- Old Man and the C(offee)

I'm gonna get popped one of these days drawing folks. It's gonna happen. Until then, enjoy!

This guys was downing coffee, talking about jury duty. Smiling the whole time. His neck was really that big; I shit you not. (click to see larger)

Lunch Sketch -- Spidey

A little lunchtime pen/pencil sketch of Spidey. Not very good. Too much muscle. But what can you really expect in 20 minutes? (Click to see larger)

Breakfast Sketch -- Hard Times for Santa

Ol' St. Nick stopped by McDonald's this morning. Looks like 2011 has been pretty rough on him.

(Done with a mechanical pencil. Click for larger version.)

Breakfast Sketch -- Lack-of-Coffee Skater

I had mentioned on Twitter a few weeks back that I had started doing warm-up sketches again.

Here's one I did this morning of a 40-year-old-plus skater who frequents my local coffee establishment. Now, I know what you're thinking. However, the answer is no; the dude's much uglier than I've portrayed here.

(Done with a uni-ball pen. Click for larger version.)

Prickly

Here is a little sketch I did of Carmen and Winslow from Scott Stantis' comic, "Prickly City."

You see, back around 2006 Scott was looking for someone to help him with some of the ink/art duties of his strip. If I recall, he was having arm surgery.

Well, good friend of mine who is also friends with Scott, told Scott I was looking for cartooning work. As a result, Scott asked me to submit some illustration samples to make sure I could match his style ( more likely, to make sure I could actually draw). The above sketch was one of several I submitted.

Scott really liked the illustrations, and pretty much told me I had the job. However, just like these days, newspapers were cutting strips left and right. Scott lost two huge papers during this process. Because of this, he couldn't afford to pay me and I was never able to ink any of the strips. Oh, well. It was a fun ride while it lasted!

Man, I really nailed those characters.

Evolution

When I first sketched Clovis on the back of some note paper several years ago, I had no idea he be anything more than just that -- a sketch. But now, 4 years, more than 700 strips, and several thousand readers later, Clovis has become a huge part of my life.


Here is the very first sketch of Clovis I sketched way back in 2006/2007:

...and what Clovis looks like now:

 It's interesting how a character evolves, isn't it? It's hard for me to remember a time when Clovis' ears were on the top of his head, rather than on the bottom.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these drawings.

Thanks to all the readers out there!

-L

A Super Man

I loved the "Superman vs. Doomsday" storyline back in the 90s. Here is an illustration I drew from that series. It's not as good as the original, but still. Enjoy! ...until DC makes me remove it.

A Kids' Book

I love children's books. I would love to draw children's books. Here is the cover from a children's book I created a few years ago. Nobody bought it. But I still like it. So, there. Enjoy!

Ah, The First Post

Welcome to my blog. What can you expect here? Not much. Thoughts, art. Basically, that's it.

Here are some of my fav caricatures I did for the Prizewinning Political cartoon book from a few years ago. It features (from left) Steve Breen, Don Asmussen, and Clay Bennett. I'm not that good of a caricaturist. However, I liked these ones. Enjoy.