Monday sketchbook: If at first you don't succeed

I think the Veggie Tales folks took over the second one, so it wasn't a total loss.

Be thou humble

Maybe it was just me, but I thought I totally rocked the house when I passed off my Scripture Mastery scriptures.

On a related note, one of our seminary classes put together an awesome video on YouTube: The Seminary Rap. Check it out!

The air up there

This is just a simple gag without any deep or hidden meaning. But what it lacks in depth, it makes up for in height.

Need a band-aid for that?

One time we were teaching first aid to our Scouts and one of them did a face plant into a mailbox while running around the church. It didn't work out so well for him, but it gave everyone else some good hands-on experience!

Ice, ice, baby

Probably some cool jazz, right?

Candidate for the crawl of fame

With the Academy Award nominees being announced yesterday, I was reminded of this cartoon I wrote a while back.

State of the Union

I suppose I could wax editorial with this, but I won't.

Monday sketchbook: Dinner at the DMV?

Sometimes I get an idea that I really like, but i can't quite translate it onto paper, such as this one from the sketchbook. It would probably be a more effective rendering to do some photo manipulation in Photoshop. I think this idea had good potential as a visual, but a cartoon may not be the way to get there. Dang!

A simple "no" would suffice

I had a few doors slammed in my face as a missionary, but there was never enough snow that getting pelted with snowballs was a worry. Thank goodness!

Blinded by science

Sometimes I think the Internet is like a giant refrigerator where people stick stuff up on it and say, "Look what I did!"

This is one of those entries. It's not a gag, just some illustrations I did for a project at work. They illustrate the concept of discovery.

Listen to your mother

This one makes me grin.

Somewhere there is a tree that specializes in making expressive arms for snowmen, I know there is!

Once there was a snowman

I like the idea of someone taking the time to build a snowman to vent his frustration at all the snow.

Ready for anything

I don't know why I have all these snow cartoons. Here in the Willamette Valley we hardly ever get snow. But when it does snow, it's a huge event. TV stations in Portland come up with slogans like "Stormaggedon" if there's even a slight chance of the white stuff coming down.

Just last week, there was a forecast of snow, and the media had reporters all over the city just waiting for the first flakes to fall. "Nothing here yet, but we're keeping an eye on things so you'll be the first to know."

When a truck crashed on I-84, the on-scene reporter was positively giddy because something happened -- there was something to report!

Drivers freak out, too. People who are accustomed to driving in all sorts of wet weather suddenly find themselves sliding off the road if there's a mention of snow. I've seen chains spewing up sparks on bare pavement "just in case."

In Utah, I never remember having a snow day. I remember my boss being upset because I was late to work in a heavy snowstorm.

If you build it

I had a lot of friends who grew up to be engineers.

Monday sketchbook: The answer man

OK, I have to confess. As a general rule I don't do this, but I altered this sketch. The original had a name other than "Jones."

And that's all I'm gonna say. : )

Dunk shots

Now that football season is over, it's time to turn our attention to basketball!

Sixteen tons

With the advent of tools like Twitpic and Flickr this is less common nowadays, but it seems like any time the Department of Transportation closes a highway there complaints about why. A picture is worth a thousand words.

All washed up

Zoom-zoom

I think this must be apprentice week. Here's one more from the mind of my padawan.

Nom, nom, nom!

Another idea from the mind of my apprentice!

Once there was a snowman

In a way it scares me that this gag stemmed from a conversation I had with one of my kids.

Monday sketchbook: The French lesson

For Christmas I was given a daily calendar with French phrases. This was one of the first phrases to appear when I opened it up. For some reason, this was the first image to pop into my mind.

Sharing time!

Here's one that the New Era used a long time ago. Long enough ago, in fact, that I couldn't find the original and the copy from the magazine didn't reproduce very well. Here's a recreation instead. Feel free to share.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

At Prince School, as I understand it, students learn about all the different topics that rulers need to know about, including divination. Ball gazing gets to be a bit of a problem around Yuletide.

Lesson learned!

Just the thought of this sends my teeth chattering!

It could work...

We should all show more gratitude, right? Thanks!

I am the world

I remember being thrilled in college when I found that a faculty member had clipped some of my cartoons and pasted them outside of his office. This wasn't amongst them. In fact, I don't know why this cartoon even made me think of that...

Think of it as service

Like a lot of cartoonists, I get many of my ideas from real life experiences. I wish some of them -- like this one -- were not rooted in reality. But I'm sure you know someone who is just like this. If not, I can introduce you!

Monday sketchbook: A balanced life

1K

Sometime in the past couple of days my blog passed its 1,000th entry! Thanks to you for keeping it going -- I appreciate the comments, the feedback and the encouragement!

To commemorate this occasion, I'm rerunning my first cartoon that was ever published, a long time ago in a magazine far, far away. Enjoy!

2010 Top Ten, Part 2

No. 5


No. 4
From the October 2010 Conference Sketchbook


No. 3


No. 2


No. 1