Comic #30

A special four-in-one!

Comic #29

Actually being "topical" for the first (and possibly last) time. (Note the portrait of a lone Neuftuplet on the wall in the second panel.)

Comic #18 and update

Soooo... Got it started, but it's slow going on Robot Banjo, and certain life events aren't helping things much... I'm thinking of possibly taking a break from Some Town to work on a new animated film, The Vermeers' Even Death Gets Lonely Sometimes, based on a concept album written by me and Holly. Never fear, though! Some Town will always be there for me to work on, we have at least four more episodes with dialogue already recorded, so they will eventually be done. But after spending over a year straight working on it, I'm thinking maybe I need a little break of sorts from that world... The comic strips will still continue to appear here every week, and if you like Some Town, you should like Even Death Gets Lonely Sometimes as well... After all, Honey and Jelly got their start with an appearance in the last Vermeers film. (Maybe I'll even sneak in a cameo or two...)

Comic #16

Well, I'm off to the Rocky Mountains to see and help Jenny move back home, so expect even more cartoony goodness in the upcoming months!

Comic #14

Comic #12

Comic #9

So looks like if all goes well, the next episode should be done in the next couple of weeks! As far as fake documentaries on alcoholic beavers go, I'd say it ain't half bad...

Comic #6

Getting kinda meta here... Although I am pretty proud that I snuck Klaus Nomi into the local paper...

Making some progress on Behind Boozy Beaver, getting a lot of work done this week, filming some live action sequences on the weekend... I'll probably post some more images soon...

Comic #5, and bonus strip

Okay, the bonus is "online only" because newspaper readers who haven't seen the animated series would most likely be scratching their heads... I'm also abruptly ending the "story" strips and just doing "gag" strips from now on because nobody likes these...

Comic #4

Also, here's some artwork from Behind Boozy Beaver:

Sketchbook, Part I

Just thought I'd show some stuff from a sketch book that traveled around with me, Jenny, and Holly to the various music festivals here in Michigan... Most of these were done at the festivals, and several while under the influence, so keep that in mind...






More to come, along with some screenshots from the next episode...

Comic #3

Comic #2

I think this might be the first time Frat Dad's full name was officially revealed...

In other news, just started drawing the Boozy Beaver documentary earlier this week---stay tuned!

Character development

When we first started the cartoon about a year ago, I was unsure about how a couple characters should look...



I knew D.W. would be an overweight sweater-wearing bespectacled "classic" nerd, but to what extreme? Should he have bad acne and sweat all the time? I think he was originally supposed to be repulsive, and in the end I think the girls thought I made him too "cute", but I'm used to the design now... Oh, and just to clear something up, a lot of people think he's old, but he was in the same high school class as Frat Dad and Stella...



I originally went with the third Granny design, because she was supposed to have a pet dodo bird that looked just like her. She appeared this way in Musician Audition, but by the time I animated the opening credits, she looked a lot more like my first design, which I believe Holly and Jenny had wanted me to go with in the first place.



I wasn't too worried about Stella, as originally she was only supposed to appear in Frat Dad Says Goodbye, but I think we all liked the character and liked the way Jenny played her, so she stuck around. Based on Veronica Lake, I'm glad we went with the design we did.



On the other hand, there was no real question about the Neuftuplets... This was the only drawing I did of them before beginning production on Bucket Babies.



Frat Dad (although he had not yet received that nomenclature) had already begun life in The Vermeers' 2007 music video for Just Killin' Time. (Whether or not this video is considered canon is up to the fans to decide...)



Same goes for Honey and Jelly, who appeared as Delilah's back-up singers "Lilith and Jezebel" in The Vermeers' Samson & Delilah in 2008, and it was this film that got the ball rolling for Some Town. They were the easiest characters to come up with because they were, of course, just caricatures of Holly and Jenny.

Oh, and by the way, all The Vermeers videos are available on DVD... (How's that for a plug, eh?)

Comic strip?

So we've expanded the Some Town universe to include a comic strip. (And maybe eventually a graphic novel.) The strip is currently running in the Boyne City Gazette, so if you're in Northern Michigan, you should try and check it out... For all the rest of the world, I'll be uploading them on here each week the week after they appear in the paper. So check back every Wednesday-ish for a new strip and maybe a little commentary.

With that, here's the first installment:



Admittedly, this is my first attempt at a comic since the last issue of Incredulous in late 2006, so this first strip was more of a test/rehearsal than anything else... But so far I've done 11 strips and there's just two I don't like so much... So I guess that's pretty good odds!

Oh, and feel free to look us up on Facebook if you're so inclined...

Of buckets and babies...

Okay, so I've got the first third of Bucket Babies done... This one has three mini acts wedged into (I'm guesstimating) about ten minutes, making it the longest episode thus far. It's also the most dialogue heavy, which, when you're not any good at synching mouth movements with dialogue spells trouble. I just tell myself it adds to the charm. Or I can pretend it was a foreign cartoon that we just dubbed into English. (Denial is not just a river in Egypt, my friends.) I also realized that since I technically don't know what I'm doing that I shouldn't attempt to explain it. SO, I'll forgo the lecture and show you some more pictures:

Honey and Jelly in trouble:

The long-awaited arrival of the Neuftuplets:



And finally, although not from the cartoon, here's a page from our "summer festival sketch book". This particular sketch was done on the Beaver Island ferry at about 8:30 or so in the morning. It features an early appearance of Monique (when she was just Jelly with a beret... Okay, I guess she's pretty much still Jelly with a beret), and showcases what I was actually having for breakfast that day. (Sans cereal bowl.)



Well, until next time...

Introducing Monique and Les Neuftuplets

Okay, I just realized if I'm reporting on the progress and showing images that I'm gonna have to probably reveal plot points, which I don't really want to do in advance. So, I'm gonna try to do this without giving away too much of the story. (As a favour to you. It's like waiting till Christmas morning to open your presents... But reading this blog is like seeing it wrapped up and under the tree, and being able to shake it and whatnot... Nevermind, I was never the best with analogies.)

This episode (entitled Bucket Babies) introduces the character of Monique, Jelly's cousin from "the old country", who asks Honey and Jelly to babysit her nine children ("the neuftuplets"). As you can see, she resembles her cousin, but to make it easier for the viewer to tell them apart, she's smothered in stereotypes, just short of the escargot:

She even gained a little notoriety in her homeland:

And finally, we leave you now with a reactionary shot:

What's she reacting to? Wellllll, stay tuned, kids!

P.S. I just got done reading the archives over at Julia Wertz' Fart Party. You should go there now and read them too, yep yep.