This spot for rent

My buddy Gary over at newsphotography: exposed asked me to draw a cartoon for him to use on his blog. Each year he does a summer project. This year he traveled through South Dakota on his way home to Wisconsin (Go, Pack Go!). Somewhere in the hinterlands of South Dakota is Wall Drug, a landmark destination that has more than 165 signs in either direction advertising its location. His assignment: photograph the signs. So, for Gary, here's his cartoon. Check out the signs at newsphotography: exposed!

Monday sketchbook: Don't move

Anybody out there?

Although it's too late for the lesson in Gospel Doctrine, I thought I'd share these two illustrations from Elijah and the Great Contest. These pages show Elijah offering a challenge to the priests of Baal, and then taunting them when Baal didn't seem to be listening to them.

Sometimes the prophets of the Old Testament get a bad rap. But Elijah had a sense of humor. Check out 1 Kings 18. He was cool.

Crossed wires

As long as we've been spending the week on technology, I ought to throw in this robot cartoon.
The photo on the wall shows them honeymooning at the Eiffel Tower. It's an engineering thing, I guess. My original sketch also had him reading Partboy magazine, but because this is a family friendly, ring-around-the-bathtub site, I changed it to Popular Electrons.

A passing fad

With the preponderance of handhelds and iPads, grandma may not have been be too far off.

Judge not

Despite the changes in technology, this is one thing that hasn't changed -- except now instead of "damaged" I'm now told my documents are "corrupt!"

And, in case you're wondering, the display is orange on black.

Watch your fingers

Don't you love that monitor?

Changing majors

Around here, it's time to head back to school. Because of that, I was looking through some old 121cartoons and came across a series that cracked me up. Not because the gags are hilarious, but because of how much change there has been in technology in the past few years.

Monday sketchbook: If you can make it there

I liked the sketch, but the gag just wasn't quite there.

Of beasts and bugs

I think this is the second carton I sold the New Era, a long, long, long time ago. Apparently it was before I learned how to draw! :-)

You can't go back

Here's another old one that I found, but it seems that somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, there was something similar in the Far Side. It still gave me a chuckle.

Under what?

Here's an old one, based (just a tiny bit) on one of my kids.

You're our only hope -- or not.

Star Trek and Star Wars are often easy targets. I like this one, though, because it goes in a different direction.

Onward, ever onward

Yep, we extended the project because the contractor was ahead of schedule, under budget...and there was a need. I have to say that I can't remember another project that was given a green light to expand like this one was. Well, except for the Syncrete project, but that's another story for another day.

Faster than a speeding sloth!

I was actually quite surprised at how popular this cartoon was amongst the UDOT folks! Yeah, it's a slight dig on the was the department used to be...but I guess that was it. That's how it used to be, not now. It was impressive, though, how well the project went. Especially because the year before we had a similar project in a neighboring city that was, well, less effective!

Monday sketchbook: Separation anxiety

There's always that debate. Who knew that it extended to the animal kingdom as well?

There is some good in him

We're halfway through the month... have you done your home teaching yet?

Nevermind

It's true. There are no shortcuts.

The Way

Don't worry -- Wile E. Coyote is there to greet him at the bottom.

Circulation

Sometimes it's so difficult to tell the difference!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I debated whether to capitalize the "U" in universe because it is the Universe, but I was afraid some people might get it confused with the BYU student newspaper of the same name.

It's that or nothing!

I like his smile.

The little stream

This is one from my intermittent series Not Quite Zen. In the art world, Zen paintings are meant to convey the essence rather than be an actual depiction of an object. Likewise, these cartoons are stripped to the essentials. Comics unplugged.

I like 'em!

Monday sketchbook: Fetch!

We had pets in one area on my mission. I'm not talking about the adopted cockroaches or the rats that played football in the ceiling. We had a couple of fish that lived in our front room, Stud and Bud. They didn't last long.

That experience did make me think, however, if missionaries could have pets, what would they be? A golden retriever certainly seems appropriate!

Shhh! Don't tell anyone that there's a typo in the caption. This is an old sketch from before there was such a thing as spell check!

We date once a month

I know a lot of couples that met through the home teaching program.

Not just for breakfast anymore

It's an annual summer ritual -- my wife has me clean up some storage area, and I find some old cartoons. This time around I ran into a batch of 121s that never made it to print.

In case you're wondering, the JCCC is Johnson County Community College. But that's another story for another day.

Revolting

OK, this one may need a little context. With Chevrolet's recent announcement about the price of the Volt, their hybrid, plug-in electric vehicle, EVs have been in the news a bit lately. One of the biggest questions is, how are EV owners going to keep their car's batteries charged?

The Oregon DOT is working on that. Our Innovative Partnerships folks (the same folks who brought you the Solar Highway) are working on a project to help establish charging stations to support electronic vehicles.

The question always comes up when discussing the project: how is this being paid for? This cartoon answers that question.

Now explain those bubbles, young man!

While we were at the Oregon Coast with the kids, we had a bit of a discussion about manners. That led to this cartoon.

Call me

It may be true that there are a limited number of gags out there floating around this universe of ours. How often do you open the comics pages of the newspaper (if you actually look at a print copy of the newspaper) and see similar jokes in some of the strips? Now, these two strips are separated by more than a dozen years, but they rely on the same joke.
Then here's this one from Fox Trot that ran back in 2005. It's the same idea, just executed a little differently:I thought it was kind of cool, anyway.

BTW, mine was first. : )

Keep 'em in stitches

Here's one I drew while the rest of my family was in Egypt. Can you tell?

Monday sketchbook: Avian CSI

One time when I was a kid, a bird flew into our house. I don't know how it got in, but the poor bird was totally freaked out. It slammed into some sliding glass doors and knocked itself out and my dad carried it to the backyard with a shovel.

I like the chalk outline on the window of this sketch, and I also like the TV news crew at the bottom. First. Live. Local!

Online training

Seriously, someone should make a MMPORPG geared strictly for the LDS audience. If not World of Wardcraft, then maybe Stakecraft II.