Tuesday, March 31, 2009

There's no escape this time


This cartoon does a quick job of explaining the University Avenue Reconstruction project concept. A lot of the local folks were worried that UDOT was going to tear apart the entire downtown for the whole summer. We tried to quell those fears by assuring and reassuring them that we were going to keep the disruption to a minimum.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Monday sketchbook: Entrepreneur Ship

People always wonder what it was like at the bottom of Noah's Ark. Probably pretty nasty, I suppose. But I think at least someone was wise enough to take advantage of the situation!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The tale of Han Seok Bong

When I was cleaning out the garage (my favorite spring break activity!), I came across this Korean story that I translated and illustrated for one of my classes in college. This is a little longer than my normal post, but bear with me. It's the Korean folk tale of Han Seok Bong.


Long ago in a small village far from here, a boy named Han Seok Bong lived with his mother. She sold rice cakes for a living, and their family was poor. Because of their poverty, they could not afford to send Seok Bong to school. He stayed home by himself all day.

Sometimes Seok Bong would amuse himself by writing his letters in the dirt in front of their home. One day, a gentleman happened to pass by and praised the boy's talent at calligraphy. From that point on, Seok Bong worked hard on writing his letters.

Seok Bong's mother saw her son's diligence and skill. She determined to send him to the temple so he could improve his skills by studying with the masters. Seok Bong was happy for the chance to go and learn, but the thought of living away from his mother made him sad.

"The art of writing is more than just talent," his mother told him. "Practice is essential. You must study and work hard for ten years, and don't give a second thought about home."

Three years passed by. Seok Bong worked hard and studied diligently. He determined he had learned all that he could, and decided to leave the temple and return home to his village.

When he reached the mountain near his village he began to run. We he saw the gate to his house he ran even faster. He burst though the gate, and with a loud voice he cried, "Mother!"

His mother was busy cutting rice cakes. She looked up at him and said, "Has it been ten years? Why have you come back so soon?"

"There is nothing left for me to learn at the temple," he replied. From now on I will take care of you."

"I don't want to be taken care of," his mother replied. "What I want most is for you to become an outstanding young man of character."

"Let's see how well you have learned," she said. "We will have a contest. I will cut my rice cakes, and you write your letters. We will see if you are yet a master."

They each assembled their materials. Seok Bong began to write, and his mother began to cut her rice cakes.

Then his mother blew out the lamp. The room was pitch black.

After a while, she lit the lantern again. The letters Seok Bong had written in the dark were crooked. Some were big, some were small. However, the rice cakes his mother had cut were each exactly the same size.

Seok Bong gathered his materials, stood up and bowed to his mother.

"I am sorry," he said. And he returned straightway to the temple.

After seven more years of study, Seok Bong returned home. His mother greeted him with joy.

Han Seok Bong's skill as a calligrapher became known far and wide, even as far away as the courts of China.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

A penny for your thoughts

I found one more of the Morning Calm cartoons. It's funny that it seems to be along the same lines as the Good Heavens cartoons that ran last week and this week.

Friday, March 27, 2009

That was hot

We didn't have Webelos this week, but this isn't why - although my theory behind scouts is that we need to blow stuff up as often as possible! No, it's spring break and we had too many folks who needed to take a break.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pass the dip

For some reason, this just makes me sad. I also think it's a little creepy that he's eating potato chips.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The answer is blowin'


OK, so rocket science isn't my strong suit...and I say that knowing full well that this particular strip is mocking those of us with fair hair...but someone pointed out to me that I could stack the four panel strips to make them a little more legible on screen. Good idea.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Welcome to the field!

Zach leaves from the Missionary Training Center at 5 a.m. to go to his mission assignment in Tempe. He's pretty excited!

And it should be exciting for him. We've heard a lot of stories from people who have served in the same area. One former missionary advised Zach that it's a good idea to let the geckos and lizards run free in your apartment because they eat the other big nasty things.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Monday sketchbook: Twilight revisited again

For those of you who may have missed it, Twilight is now out on DVD. I think they planned the release to coincide with the NCAA Tournament so they could reach their target demographic while the other group is distracted.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Three of Five

March is just chock full of special events! Today is Daniel's birthday. This is the cartoon I drew for his birth announcement. He's an awesome young man! Hope you have a good one, Mr. D!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Better eating

I also shudder to think of some of the stuff other people were eating as well!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Achieving balance

I shudder to think of some of the stuff I had for meals as a college student!

With a lot of these, it helps to click on the picture so you can see the art at a bigger size. Sorry!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Four cheese clover?

This wasn't the original caption for this cartoon. It was going to be something topical, like a reference to Bernie Madoff or a dwindling IRA. Then Ben came in when I was coloring and said, "It looks like he's holding a big nacho chip!" And it just kind of evolved from there.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Monday sketchbook: March Madness!


We just finished coaching an elementary-age basketball team. One of our friends, Tom Kelly (a former head coach at Western Oregon University and assistant at BYU amongst others), came in as a guest coach to a couple of practices. It was pretty cool, and although those kids weren't Division I (yet), he worked 'em!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A record of my people

It makes sense to me... But I'll bet Laban's soldiers would have taken their iPod as well.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Friday, March 13, 2009

...and it just keeps getting better!

It's our anniversary today, so I thought I'd drop in a drawing that I did for the thank you notes for my wife's bridal shower all those years ago. Happy anniversary!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Oh the weather outside is...changing

In the past few days we've gone from snow to sunshine and back all in the course of a matter of hours. I know that's not unique to Oregon, but it does make it a challenge to get everybody dressed appropriately for the day.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Look, Buzz!

The whole idea of caveman-era aliens cracks me up. Kind of an anti Erich Von Däniken thing, you know? Instead of ancient alien astronauts influencing advancements in earth's early civilizations, maybe the visitors just made our guys stupider.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Time for a change

OK, I know I ran a rooster-themed cartoon just a few days back, but I like this one!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday sketchbook: I'm losing my sole!

One more indulgence about getting Zach ready to go on his mission: We got some shoes for Chris when he went out that the salesman guaranteed would last his entire mission and beyond. No such luck; they fell apart a month or two after he went out.

Lesson learned.

So with this knowledge in hand, we got Zach a different brand of shoe that was also supposed to hold up to the rigors of missionary work. Zach elected to wear those for the first time when he got set apart. He put the shoes on upstairs, and by the time he made it to the bottom of the staircase the sole had separated from the toe!

Luckily, our friend Hugh bought Zach a pair of Rockports just before taking us up to the MTC. Word is that they're still holding up...keep your toes crossed!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The ol' family tree

Way back a million years ago, when family trees were much shorter, my family used to spend our summers doing genealogical research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. And when I was a Boy Scout, the folks at the council office told my scoutmaster that I was the first scout ever to earn the Genealogy merit badge. I don't know if that's true or that they keep a record of such things, but I hold on to that as my Boy Scout claim to fame.

For all your family history needs, visit familysearch.org.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

He's in there!


This was drawn when three of the boys were hovering around the age of six, plus or minus two years.

At the orientation in the MTC yesterday when we took Zach in, the mission president said - jokingly - that at one time they considered making 16-year-olds eligible to serve missions because at that age, "they know everything and their parents wouldn't mind seeing them leave." At least half of that may be true!

It was great to see Elder Zach walk through those back doors with courage and faith. He'll do an awesome job!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Watch out...

This was the very first strip of Explore Provo, the comic strip I did for the Utah Department of Transportation a few years ago. OK, several years ago. It was part of our public information/public outreach for a project that replaced the road surface right through the heart of downtown Provo during the spring, summer and fall. We worked with the city and the downtown business alliance to come up with a public information campaign, which included ads, posters, signs PSAs and lots of other materials (this was in the days before Web sites, blogs or podcasts - I told you it was a while ago!).

Anyway, I'm not running this today because of any road project. I'm running it because this is the day that Zach enters the MTC (and then from there to Tempe), and I only think it's right to give them fair warning: He's coming!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Houston, we have a problem

One thing that makes me feel good as a cartoonist is when I feel like I got the timing right on a joke. I think I hit it on this one, so to speak.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Monday sketchbook: the guy in the red shirt

Since Zach is heading out this week, I thought I'd run a few cartoons that remind me of him. Although he's not really a Trek fan, this one seems to be his type of humor. He's got kind of an alien brain, I guess.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Do something more

Zach is pretty good about getting up in the morning, so his companions won't likely need to resort to anything like this. I had a few companions, however...in fact, I had a hard time coming up with a name for the slumbering elder because I didn't want to implicate anyone.