Monday, September 26, 2011

Check out my brother's website

If you get a chance, check out my brother's website. He collects videos and other documentation of UFO sightings throughout the world. Pretty cool! Also, I designed the banner: http://www.investigateufos.com/

Classic Crabby and Hon: May 12 and 14, 2010

Oh goodness. I forgot to post a strip last week, didn't I? Well, I'll make it up to you. Enjoy two strips this week, on the house:



Monday, September 12, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: May 10, 2010



Oh my. I'm not very good at posting three times a week, am I? Let's make it once a week, on Mondays, ok? I can manage that.

This strip marks the change from three color strips a week to two colors and a black and white. Three colored strips plus two Aegis cartoons was quite a bit of work, so I talked b back to letting me to do two colors a week. From here on out, every third strip will be in black and white.

You probably feel a little ripped off today. I understand.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

SPXPO and some thoughts

Yesterday I attended the Small Press Expo (SPXPO) in Bethesda. I was only able to stay for a few hours, but I got to see a lot of old friends and meet a couple new people. All-in-all, it was a good day.

The highlight of the day was meeting Roz Chast. I'm a big New Yorker cartoon junkie, so meeting her was a huge honor. She even said she'd visit my website! (Ms. Chast, if you do stop by, I'm really sorry I didn't have a proper business card on me. So embarrassing!)

Anyway, when I was there, I told Ms. Chast the story of how I started out as a cartoonist. Have I told you this story?

(Warning. This is a longer version than what I told at SPXPO, because I didn't want to be more boring than I already was.)

When I was about 22, I was just out of college and working at a job I hated. One day at lunch, one of my co-workers asked "If you could do any job in the world, what would it be?" Although it may sound strange, this is a question I had never thought about before.

The answer, of course, was cartooning.

I began to do research on how I could become a cartoonist, which led me to information on how to submit work to the the New Yorker. I quickly did 10 (bad) cartoons and mailed them off.

I got rejected.

I did 10 more, and again, rejection. Then 10 more. Same result. During this time, I had created a portfolio of 30-50 New Yorker-style cartoons.

I remember being at the grocery store and waiting in line (nice segue, right? It'll make sense in a minute) and I saw the front page of my local newspaper. The cartoonist for the paper had passed away. That night, I gathered my favorite cartoons and mailed them to the paper. This is how The Aegis and The Record hired me as the new cartoonist.

Anyway, after meeting Roz yesterday and another New Yorker cartoonist of the summer, I think I'm going to start submitting stuff again. Maybe they won't buy a cartoon, but you never know what good might come of it!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: May 5, 2010


Uh-oh. I missed a few days, didn't I? Needless to say, the first week of school kicked my ass, but in a good way (i.e., I've just been very, very busy.) But fear not! Cartooning is still priority numero uno here at Carr-Toons headquarters! Keep checking for updates and more Crabby and Hon goodness, m'kay?

Monday, August 29, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: May 3, 2010



I like this one. Click it. You'll like it too!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 30, 2010


Sorry folks, I forgot to post yesterday! On top of that, today's cartoon isn't even that funny!
Ah, well. If you're in the Baltimore area, you'll probably lose power soon anyway and you won't even be able to read this. Stay safe in the hurricane, everyone!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 28, 2010


Not a particularly funny one, but I like how I drew it.
Click the image and all your wildest dreams will come true.*



*Based on the assumption that your wildest dreams involve a larger version of the above comic.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 26, 2010


This one's cute. Click to see it smaller. Just kidding.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 23, 2010


Not one of my favorites. I was trying to use this strip to establish that Hon's character is very sweet. Click if you want to see it larger.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 21, 2010


I always liked this one. Click to enlarge, it should be bigger now.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 19, 2010


It's funny to see how much my drawing style has changed in a year.
As always, click to enlarge.

PS - I stole this joke from my dad, who apparently stole it from his brother.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Attention, twits!


Did I mention that I now have a Twitter account? Yes, I did mention it, but this news deserves its own special post.

Follow me today! @Carr_Toons.

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 16, 2010



Click to see Crabby and Hon's special guest star.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Classic Crabby and Hon: April 14, 2010



Click to make bigger. I'll enlarge these images next week, I swear.

Monday, August 8, 2011

April 12, 2010


Click to enlarge. Duh.

Grandma, what a large banner you have!

I know. I'll fix it.

But, look! I'm trying to be a serious blogger! You like this, yes? Yes.

I have a Twitter account, so I think you can follow me @carr_toons. I think that's how that works.

And also, starting right now, I'm going to start posting classic Crabby and Hon strips on the blog. I'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until I run out of strips, or until I lose interest in this little project.

Strips I think are crap will be omitted. Sorry to all of you who love crap.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Have you hugged a designer today?

So I don't want anyone to think I was putting down b, or b's graphic designer last week. I used to be a graphic designer, and I know how it is. I've never designed for a newspaper though, so I would imagine it's a lot more stressful with the added pressure of super-stringent deadlines.

When you're a designer, people are always asking you to make more changes and add content at the last minute, and it gets to a point where you can only fit so much information on a page! Changes were being made to Strange City at the zero hour, so I get that there probably wasn't a lot of time available to make it look perfect.

That being said, this week it looks great! I'm happy with the size and it's all on one row. The colors aren't what I had hoped for, but that's entirely my fault (Brush tool + newsprint = muddier colors than I had anticipated.)

So anyway, take time to appreciate the graphic designer where you work today. I'd like to give a shout-out to b's designer, but I don't actually know her and that would probably be incredibly weird for everyone.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New comic!

Hey there! So there's been some big changes lately in the land of comics. Here's the rundown:

1. Crabby and Hon is no more. With b altering its format to become a once-a-week paper, it was difficult to keep C&H in its original format. That being said...

2. I've got a new strip running in b! The new strip is called Strange City. It's not my favorite title in the world, but maybe it'll grow on me. Initially, I wanted to call it "The Lottery Results" for the person who wrote in to ask if Crabby and Hon could be replaced with the lottery results. I figured it could be a little gift to the haters, but alas, my editor said no. So, now it's Strange City.

Also, in this week's edition, the strip is split into two rows (and the bottom of each panel is cropped off, ah!). The panels weren't evenly spaced as it wasn't meant to be in two rows, so it looks a little odd. I get that the paper needed more space, so hopefully future strips won't look that bad.

So that's what's going on with b. If you get a chance, pick up the paper and let me know what you think of Strange City!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

This just in...


Once again, I'll be signing copies of Baltimore Betty at HonFest this year! I wasn't too sure if I'd be there or not, because the store that used to host me changed names/owners, and I wasn't even sure if they still carried Betty! Fortunately, they do, and I just confirmed that I'll be there to sign, so yay!

Look for me outside of HonTown, which is the old drugstore on the Avenue. It's right across from Cafe Hon, which you can't miss due to the giant pink flamingo on the building's facade.

Hope to see you there!

Recent thoughts...

At the risk of spending hours sifting through thousands of comments on this post (Ha!), I'd like to throw a question at my readers. (Well, the one or two confused souls who accidentally stumble upon this blog once a year.)

I'm considering creating a Facebook page for Crabby and Hon. I hesitate to call it a fan page, because that would be putting it on the same level as someone with actual fans...like Justin Bieber. Really, it would be more of a feedback page. If people like the strip or dislike something specific they could post it there, or if they have ideas for future story lines...maybe I could even post previews of upcoming strips (if I'm allowed to do that...I'm just thinking out loud here.)

Anyway, for my very few followers, what do you think? Good idea/bad idea? I'm interested to here y'all's opinions!

BTTA

The Baltimore Time Travel Anthology (which includes yours truly) was released last week. I don't have any awesome pictures, but the release party was held at Atomic Books in Hampden. It coincided with the release of SnoBaltimore, a new 'Zine about snowball stands in the Baltimore area. The party included free snowballs, animations, performances and cocktails. Everybody had a great time. Plus, they raffled off a copy of the anthology signed by all the artists!! I don't know who won it, but if I did know, I wouldn't mention it here because I don't want that person to worry about my hoards of readers breaking into his/her home at night to steal his/her precious signed anthology which is probably worth millions.

But I've already said too much! To protect the winner of the signed anthology, I've provided a link where you can get your OWN copy of the anthology! How cool is that? Quick! Click here and be transported back in tiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

May recap

As usual, I apologize for not posting as often as I should. That being said, I've still got a few hours left of May, so here's what happened this month. (And yes, I realize that it would have made sense to promote all of this beforehand.)

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Free Comic Book Day took place on Saturday, May 7. It went really well this year and oddly enough, I sold more copies of Baltimore Betty than I have in the last several years...could this be a sign of economic recovery? Only time will tell!



Me sitting at my signing table. Unfortunately Greg Cox and the other signers weren't able to make it this year.





But Keith and Jams made it! (As did Donna, John and Justin.)

















Promotion for FCD and the cartoon I did for that Friday's Record. I included the owner of Washington Street Books/longtime friend, John Klisavage.










You can read more about Free Comic Book Day here. Remember, it's the first Saturday in May at comic book stores around the country. If you missed out this year, mark your calendar for the next one!

Also, I think I'm going to break this recap into three posts. It'll make it look like I've accomplished more. Ha!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Q and A


Did you know that there's a collection of comics about time travel in Baltimore? Did you know you can pre-order your copy now? Did you know that yours truly and a bunch of other fabulous Balto. comics artists are in it? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?! PRE-ORDER IT TODAY!!!!!

Also, did you know that I'm finishing my Masters degree right now? Did you know I get about four hours of sleep per night? Did you know this is why I post so infrequently? DID YOU?!??!?!?!