Category Archives: studio

That’s a LOT of Squirrel

What a long strange trip… I’m still on…

November 29, 2022 will see the 7,000th Bob the Squirrel comic strip. We’re still here. Not entirely sure if this is out of spite, stubbornness or quality of the product… maybe a combination of all of that and some other stuff. Either way, thanks to everyone who’ve been on the ride from strip #1 or or 6,999. I hope I never disappoint you (too much). Here are the other 1,000 milestone strips in order…

Strip #6,000 – March 4, 2020

This was just before the lockdown hit. Not that I really noticed any thing different (hint – I never go anywhere and like to stay home)… everyone else AROUND me did though.

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.

Categories: history illustration illustrations studio thoughts

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.

Categories: illustration illustrations love studio thoughts Uncategorized

New Series – MOEBIUS!

Moebius – Attention to detail

For the next Family Series set, I go back to the early 1990s (again).

Around 1990-92 I was really into comic book collecting. This was the guilded age of the special edition cover, when Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield ruled the pages. I was especially into Spiderman…not too much DC, lthough I still picked up all of the Superman titles: Action, Adventures of Superman, etc. It was a great time to be a comic reader.

One day when I was at my local comic shop (which is still in business… but in another town) I happened to see a poster of Iron Man drawn by a one name artist: Moebius. It didn’t look like all the other posters…Iron Man looked mean… and made less of iron and more like stone or some sort of weird marble masonry. I bought that poster instead of comics that week. I remained on my wall thru my high school graduation. Then… poof.

It didn’t catch on fire or anything… I just took it down.  Eventually, it was thrown away (inhales sorrowfully).

So I remembered that poster and the work of Jean Giraud (Moebius) when thinking of my next series. Feels like the 1990s again.  Hope you dig it.

Categories: art studio

New Series – Modigliani

Modigliani and me

Yes. Amedeo Modigliani is back again. Previously, I used his style for a family portrait late last year. Even before THAT, in 2014 I did a quick colored pencil Bob in his style as well.

Now, as with the previous Hopper series, I felt the need to do every member of my family individually.  The motives are purely selfish – I dig Modigliani’s work and want to do more.  I genuinely feel at home in his style.  But, I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or three diving into his work.

Hope you enjoy this next series… I’m just as eager to see what I’ll do as I hope you are.

Categories: art painting studio thoughts