NEW SERIES – Bill Watterson

Bill Watterson style…

Back to the roots of everything. This is a milestone in a way. Today I post the 200th image in my Family Styles series.

I say back to the roots… because that’s exactly what the work of Bill Watterson is to me. I’ve gone on and on about his lines and color work in Calvin and Hobbes for 25 years. And, I could continue to go on about it gleefully.

But I’d rather let his work to speak for itself. There’s Bill Watterson… and then there’s everyone else.

Frank Page Triple Self-Portraits

The tradition continues

A new-ish tradition for me (Since 2017) is to recount my life to that point by doing a self-portrait in the style of illustrator Norman Rockwell’s famous Triple Self-Portrait.

It’s an interesting way to document what things (at that point) are important to me and to see what, in my mind, has dropped off the radar.

Here is this year’s installment along with previous years so far. Click or tap on image for a larger version.

A tail of a milestone comic strip squirrel

6,000 squirrels

I suppose today is a milestone comic strip.

Today, March 4, 2020 marks the appearance of the 6,000th Bob the Squirrel comic strip. No bells or whistles… in fact I only started really keeping track of the number after I hit 5,000 a few years back.

But, using modern technology (and my obsessive compulsive nature of keeping good dated backup files) I’ve dug up every previous milestone comic strip.


Strip #5,000 – June 8, 2017

Not much to say about this one… I did put together a giant GREATEST Hits show for this one. Took a lot of tape and Funtac to put that show together.


Strip #4,000 – September 12, 2014

Our wedding was in October of that year and I was keeping our plans and anxiety alive and well in the strip… and pretty much in real time. It all worked out to be an amazing day…


Strip #3,000 – December 11, 2011

I was closing in on ten years of Bob the Squirrel at this point… and I questioned if I should continue doing the strip.  I had a small, loyal fan base, but the likelihood of the strip being my only job was looking like a longer and longer long-shot. Should I quit and try something else that maybe would benefit me financially? Or did the squirrel talk me out of it?


Strip #2,000 – March 22, 2009

We were in our new house just under a year when I drew this. This was also when I was really into the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints. Lucy’s favorite was Pistachio Pistachio … I would get a spoon and feed it to her right out of the container. I tell Lez that she should have known what type of guy I was by witnessing that act. She had every opportunity to grab Lauren and run… 🙂


Strip #1,000 – June 20, 2006

I wasn’t sure if I should include this one… despite it being the 1,000th strip. This may sound horrible… well, it DOES sound horrible.  I sometimes forget that I was married once before… and that I had a whole other life in a whole other city. But, I did… and I have the strips to prove it.  And really, aside from a few bits of clothes and my drawing board, the strips are the ONLY things I kept from that life.

So, that’s the strip… thousand by thousand. Hope we’re all around for the 7,000th – which, barring any life complications, should be appearing November 29, 2022.

NEW SERIES – SCI-FI BOBS!

SCI-FI BOBS – Launching today January 6, 2020

Bob the Squirrel as the First Doctor from the series DOCTOR WHO

the first doctor - doctor who

About the series: I will draw Bob the Squirrel as some of the more famous characters from the genre of sci-fi. The series will probably go as the Rock and History series have gone… 100 images, 100 characters.

Patreon supporters at the $5.00 level and above get a sneak peak at the FIRST FOUR images in the series.

If there are any characters you’d like to see Bob-ified… let me know…

Categories: art illustration