The Return of Stickman #789

The Werewolf - 1956

My friend Bill Barnes of Unshelved told me that I should be blogging my webcomics. So, until I’ve learned enough CSS to revamp me webcomic sites I’ll be using this blog as a way to promote my strips. Today you get a double feature; A movie review the classic B-movie The Werewolf (1956), and what might be a controversial The Return of Stickman.


This is just one of many movies that Sam Katzman produced. Katzman was all about keeping on budget and increasing the profit margin by getting them quickly in the can. Most of his films are B-Movie classics. He might have worked fast, with an eye for the bottom line, but somehow, most of his films have a solid professional feel. The Werewolf was made fourteen years after The Wolf Man, just a year prior to I Was A Teenage Werewolf. What I love about this film is its location. Sure, the sign on the sheriff’s office says Mountaincrest, but every other sign in town reads Big Bear, a nice hunting community from what we can tell. If the scenery around Big Bear City looks familiar, it’s because the town is a common filming locale for movies. From classics like Old Yeller (1956) to recent horror efforts like Ticks (1999), Big Bear City has played host to over 200 films. You might want to check out their annual film festival.

Featured in the film, the cool jazz of Mischa Bakaleinikovff.

And here is today's...

The full archives of these strips can be found at
The Comic Critic and
The Return of Stickman.

A Tall Ship, A Taller Squid

This week I worked on a project for Tacoma Art Supply. There is a fleet of tall ships coming to Tacoma and they wanted a poster to sell at their booth that had a nautical theme. The challenge was the limited time I had to work on it as the event is coming fast. Here is an example of three stages my projects go through. The comp was a very loose sketch about eight inches tall. Both the inking and the color final was done at one 100% to fit on a 17 by 22 sheet.

Media Inc. Ad

With all the traveling I did this month, I’d forgotten that I was scheduled to get a quarter page ad into Media Ink last Friday. Thankfully, the magazine gave me a call and reminded me. My problem was that a project I took on last week grew a little bit. Once I met the client’s deadline I found I only had a few hours to complete my own ad. So, I flipped through the pile of portfolio samples and found an image of which I was rather proud. I quickly thought up a line of copy and banged out my ad. Naturally, I think this is a clever ad, perfectly honed for the audience to which the magazine is distributed. Still, I’m curious as to what other people think. How would you score this ad on a scale of one to ten?

Street Sketch

I’m a big fan of the famous cartoonist R. Crumb. One of the reasons I like his cartoons so much is that he takes the time to drawbackgrounds. And since his stories are usually in a rural setting, he draws rural backdrops.Most of the time it’s what you would see on any average street--power lines, dusty windows, garbage bags, and so on. This page in my sketchbook was an exercise I did when I was trying to remember non-descript things I saw that day.

How to use an inhaler on a cat

When the veterinarian told us that our cat needed medication to treat her bronchitis, we expected the prescription to be in the form of pills. We were shocked to find out that we would be treating her with an inhaler! Just how do you get a cat to suck in medication from an inhaler? Apparently, you use a device similar to one created for treating infants. The instructions that came with it provided a verbal description, but their imagery left a lot to be desired, so I drew this how-to-help-your-cat illustration.

Rhino with Hat Smoking a Cigar

The last time I was in Toronto, I ate at a truly fancy steak house. We’re talking wood-paneled walls, two waiters to every table, and slabs of steak the size of your head—well, maybe my head. The ambiance, filled with the aromatic scent of Old World money, Powerful Canadian Money, gathered by men of questionable character and strong wills, land barons, industry tycoons and semi-civilized tyrants, was overwhelming. In reality, our table was probably just adjacent to some Toronto real estate agents, but the flavor of the place inspired me to once again draw a hat on an animal.