Category Archives: blog

never question my dedication…

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sketches_seriously

Dedication is a special thing.  I can’t even believe that I’m doing this, but after all it is the internet.

You will notice I posted two pages from my sketchbook.  There are a lot of squirrels there.  New squirrels.  They’re not anything of museum quality, but there they are.

For those of you not aware, I post 3-4 extra one off sketches of Bob to Facebook and Twitter throughout the day (Monday thru Friday).  They are quick little things.  I got into the habit of it from that Instagram Bob 365 challenge I completed last year.

This is in addition to the daily strip and three installments of SQUIRRELOSOPHY.  17 (avg.) sketches, 7 strips, 3 Squirrelosophy panels = 27 new Bob the Squirrel drawings/panels per week.  That’s nearly a month’s worth of original work in a single week.

It has been alleged that the sketches of Bob that I post throughout the day are rehashed drawings I merely change the words to.  Translation: I’m stealing from myself and rehashing content.

I DO NOT re-hash stuff I post.  That kind of thing, while tempting on those late days I’m not feeling even 30%, turns my stomach.  I didn’t get into this to re-hash anything.  If I can’t be original, there’s just no point.

I don’t have to post all this extra stuff. I WANT to post all this extra stuff.  I like having people see something new from me on their daily feeds.  I’ve gotten to the point where I can draw 20-30 squirrels in one day for the following week.  I suppose my dedication could be misconstrued as crazy.  I’m totally cool with that.

Go ahead… Call me any name in the book.

Hell, get creative and make up a few… makes no difference to me.

But three things you can NEVER call me: undisciplined, undedicated and a re-hasher.  If I post something from the past, I’ll let it be known it’s from the past.  I will NEVER take a squirrel, throw a new coat of paint on it and pass it off as new.  Never.

I get “I don’t like this” emails all the time.  Sometimes there’s genuine constructive criticism, sometimes it’s just crap.  I just couldn’t let this one go.  Readers of Bob know I’m in this strip blood, sweat, ink and tears.  It only takes one cruddy email… one cruddy email.

I’m not the type of person to call someone out…so I’m not going to post the allegation originator.  Think what you want… I’ve wasted enough energy on this.

 

Categories: art blog bob cartoon comic squirrelosophy strip studio thoughts

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Bob’s 14th Birthday!

Today, Bob the Squirrel turns 14.  In squirrel years he’d be a fossil.  Here is a quick slideshow highlighting some of the unforgettable and forgettable moments in the last 14 years.  I’m not going to go into a long “where have all the years gone…” type thing.  I know and you know where they’ve all gone.  Enjoy.

And, if I’m still doing this in another 14 years, the slideshow will be that much longer.

Happy birthday Bob.  It’s been real. It is real. It will be real some more.

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Categories: art blog

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three books at once…

notebooks_3

This is something that probably only matters to me… but since we’re living in a share little things type of world, here goes.

I’ve always carried some sort of sketchbook around with me.  It was a habit I formed in high school and never kicked.  When I seriously started writing comic strips (around ’98 or ’99), I began to carry a lined notebook along with the sketchbook. I felt it necessary to keep the dialog separate from the pictures…writing is a different thought process than drawing and vice versa.   Plus, I needed the lines to keep my writing straight on the page.

In 2007, I began to think about graduate school.  I applied late that year and was accepted in early 2008.  It was around this time I started to keep a journal… just something I could jot down the days events in.  I’d always kept a journal in some form (another habit formed in high school) but I was never very disciplined about writing in it daily.  There are gaps several weeks wide between some earlier entries.

2007-2008 – This was a time where a lot of change was happening for me.  School, divorce, move, love, life.  I felt the need to document all the things I was going through simply to remember what had happened.  It helped.  Once the really dark stuff was weathered, I just kept documenting.  The graduate faculty in my MFA program suggested that students keep a journal of their time in the program…I was already doing it.  Their logic was it would help at the end when you examine your work progress and process in the program.  They were right.  As a matter of fact, I used entire pages of my journal in my final process paper.

So, since then, the two books I carried around became three.  Every day.

I’m telling you all this to tell you this: this morning was the first time in the history of Frank Page notebooks and sketchbooks that I started a new notebook, new journal and new sketchbook at the same time.

That’s all. It may never happen again.  I just wanted to be sure I documented it.

Categories: blog book cartoon

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