talking cows

I finished up illos for another book last week. There is an island with talking cows, but get this... the cows don't know how to use colons or semi-colons! Can you just imagine the horror? Luckily, Calvin flys in and teaches the clueless cows about the punctuation. Whew! Here are a few sample illos.
the cover illo with Calvin flying in

a safe landing for Calvin, but he does not say, "take me to your leader" ...(sigh)

If you noticed there is no colon on the digital clock... give yourself 50 points!

RED

Q. What is black and white and RED all over?
A. an embarrassed zebra... hyuk hyuk hyuk...

This is one of the first jokes I can ever remember hearing. Of course the answer is "a newspaper." It took a bit for my little mind to realize that the word that sounded like RED was actually READ. Later came the variations on the original joke, one of them being the embarrassed zebra punchline. It seems like there was another one invloving a nun... but I don't remember it.

For a bigger view... just click on the image... and see ALL the embarrassed zebra goodness.

SUPER HERO

click to enlarge... if you dare
Faster than a speeding tricycle... more powerful than a two speed blender... able to leap tall lattes in a single bound. It's Super SocMo!

...well, wasn't this what you were expecting? :o)

Alas, just when there is a word I could get my teeth into, I have NO time to do anything more than this doodle. I slapped on some color and a halftone filter and this is how it turned out. Maybe things will settle down next week... and maybe they won't. Stay tuned, same BAT time... same BAT channel.

pigs, pigs, pigs...

Well, I spent all week working on a little book (16 pages) for first grade teachers. The pig has fallen out of his book and is searching the library to find the book he fell out of. He ends up in many scenes from various fairy tales. Finally he finds his book, but the Big Bad Wolf also finds him. Can you stand the excitement?

Anyway... after a week of drawing pigs, here are a few of the pages.

80s

(click to enlarge)
SocMo McFly checks his watch and hopes he can hit the magic speed of 88 mph in his DeLorean time machine to get Back to the Future.

The 80s produced some of my favorite movies. Let's see, there was the Empire Strikes Back, the Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., the Princess Bride, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Back to the Future, to name a few. Back to the Future is full of what the 80s was like with the skateboarding Marty McFly in his vest and the music of Huey Lewis and the News. This was one "heavy" movie. Things weren't "cool" in the 80s... they were "heavy" ... a running gag between Marty and Doc Brown in the movie.

Mr. Obvious sharpens a pencil (BUZZ)

What Ho! Mr. Obvious here. Have you ever been drawing and had your pencil point become unsharp? I used to say dull... but the pencil-Americans took offense at that. They aren't dull... not that there is anything WRONG with being a dull-American. Some of Mr. Obvious' best friends are dull... but I digress. Here is what we professional drawers (artist-Americans) do when this happens to us.

I searched the internets and found this automatic, electric pencil resharpening device. It only cost $129.95 and of course I bought the extended warranty for an additional $129.95. If anything goes wrong with it, I get a new one absolutely FREE! Is this a great country or what? Anyhoo... all you have to do is firmly, but steadily push the pencil into the resharpening hole, and it has a new point applied to it... while you wait!

Ha!... I just remembered the episode of Andy Griffith I watched last night. Aunt Bee made these horrible kerosene cucumbers... what a hoot! I laughed so much...

...and that Barney... he is SO funny! I remember the time he locked himself in the jail. You know, that show was best in black and whilte... when it changed to color it was never the same...

Ah, yes... the pencil... here we are all nice and pointy again. I was going to tell you another tip I have learned about this electric resharpening device... something about not getting distracted while using it. Now how did that go? I don't seem to remember... anyhoo, now I can draw fine details again.

There we go... I am drawing those fine lines again! Yippee! I do believe the quality of these pencils has been going down recently. They just don't seem to last like they did in the old days. I must fire off a letter to my congressman concerning this issue. Well, thanks for stopping by... and come back soon for more exciting professional art tips from Mr. Obvious.

Remember... if you don't think too good... don't think too much!

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earlier episodes of Mr. Obvious can be seen here and here.

New for 2007!

Welcome to the new and improved JONESAPALOOZA! For the new year I have been tweaking the old blog. You may notice some fancy new colors... a bit of change in the header... and the addition of some cool blog links. I hope to be adding more links soon. I also plan to post a lot more fun things on JONESAPALOOZA in 2007. Stop by and check things out.

Happy New Year!

Rumors were running wild about the possibilty of SocMo attending New Year’s Eve festivities with Britney Spears. She has been hanging around the “Mo” a lot since her recent dumping of that Federline guy. The rumors proved unfounded. In the end, SocMo chose to attend festivities with a different swine. (snort, snort)