My Early Art (Yikes), Books & Songs I Like, Cartoons & More
Newsletter #50
In This Issue:
My Earliest Art
Books & Songs I'm Enjoying
Top Cartoons
My Early Art. Yikes.
I'm going to be speaking to my friend's Girl Scout troop next week, to help them earn a Cartooning Badge (coolest badge ever). So to get ready for that, I was going through my "save" box, looking for art I did as a kid. I thought maybe the Scouts would like to see that.
Today, I wanted to show you a couple things I uncovered.
First, I found out this Peanuts book that I read SO much as a kid, it's actually falling apart.
Oh, how I loved this book. I should re-read it.
I also found some very early art. Here's a cartoon I did around age six? I'm not sure. Anyway, I must have just heard about Cherries Jubilee, which is that dessert the waiter sets on fire right there at your table. I'm sure that blew my mind. Here's what I drew (with my notes below each panel)...
Unclear whether he revived himself and ate the dessert. Let's assume he did.
As I continued digging through my old art, I noticed that most of the characters I drew faced weird, unfortunate challenges. Take this dude, who is trying to learn how to surf. I wouldn't recommend reading a surfing manual WHILE YOU ARE SURFING, but maybe he was pressed for time.
So far, so good. But then, boom! An unfortunate turn of events!
Oh, but his troubles aren't over yet.
Rough day.
This surfing cartoon wasn't the only water-related story I found. I seemed to be somewhat obsessed with the sea. Behold this story about deadly seaweed. Or, as I spelled it:
This is how the story opens:
I'll spare you the details. Let's just say things don't end well for Pam...
In fact, dangerous algae was a favorite subject of mind. A while later, I created this story, entitled "The Treacherous Grass."
(I still don't know how to spell "treacherous," by the way. I had to Google it just now.)
In this cartoon, we find John reliving Pam's mistake. No, John, no!
We all know what happens to him.
I probably should have talked to a therapist about my seaweed issues.
Oh well.
During this review of my old cartoons, I DID notice that it look me a long, long time (much too long) to add ears to my characters. And most of the time, my characters were lacking noses and were completely bald.
Here's something I drew when I was 17 years old. It's part of a birthday card for my dad, who was turning 50. I don't know if you can tell, but the characters are arranged to form the number "50."
I mean, really, I couldn't have drawn ears on ANYONE there? Really?? Also, where are the women? Did I not have the skills to ADD HAIR and make a few people look female?
It's sort of incredible that I'm doing anything in the cartooning business now.
Let's not dwell on that.
Over time, my skills slowly improved. In an exciting development, I finally figured out how to draw women. And noses. Here's an early example:
But honestly, I still forget to draw ears half the time.
I have a whole other box to dig through, so maybe I'll show you more drawings later. As for what I'll tell the Girl Scouts next week... well, I need to figure that out.
I guess I'll talk about drawing, writing, and finding humor. But mostly, I'll talk about seaweed, and how freaking dangerous it is.
Suggestions: Books & Songs
I've been enjoying two books lately. One is Calypso by David Sedaris.
Have you read any David Sedaris? I enjoy his writing so much. This is his most recent book, and while it's a touch more serious than the others, it's definitely kept me laughing.
I also just got Austin Kleon's new book, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad.
Austin says he wrote the book "primarily for writers and artists, but I think the principles apply to anyone trying to sustain a meaningful and productive creative life, including entrepreneurs, teachers, students, retirees, and activists."
You can learn more about the book (and watch him flip through it) here.
And now on to songs! My theme for song recommendations this time is "Great Covers." Here are some covers I love -- and I created a public playlist on Spotify, so you can listen to them here. The playlist is called "Great Covers (Hedger)" in case you want to search it on Spotify.
John Mayer covering Free Fallin' by Tom Petty
Mumford & Sons covering Friend of the Devil by the Grateful Dead
Old Crow Medicine Show covering Angel from Montgomery by John Pine
Imagine Dragons covering Hand In My Pocket by Alanis Morissette.
Gipsy Kings covering Hotel California (in Spanish) by the Eagles
Beacon Street covering You Get What You Give by the New Radicals
Kill Hannah covering Under the Milky Way by The Church
Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds covering A Pirate Looks at Forty by Jimmy Buffett
If you have any other suggestions, let me know! I'd love to hear about specific cover songs you like, or albums where a whole bunch of artists cover a certain band. I'll share any suggestions I get in the next newsletter, and I can add songs to that playlist I created.
Top Cartoons
Make sure you're connected to Hedger Humor on Instagram and/or Facebook. I also post cartoons on my website, of course!
The following two cartoons were the most popular since the last newsletter.
This first one is me every time Easter comes around. In fact, I was sitting there eating a Cadbury Egg (and dying of thirst!) when I thought, "I need to do a cartoon about this."
And this one is from several years ago. It is word-for-word what happened when Claire got a doctor's kit.
Bottom line: Do not make Dr. Claire your primary physician. Or your secondary physician. Or ANY type of physician in your life at all.
Over on Patreon...
Patreon is where people can pledge $1 per month (or more) to support my cartooning! Then I send out rewards. Learn more here. And THANK YOU!
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