Another milestone

Wow. I just reached the 6,000th post on this site! A few of them have even been funny!

Thank you for coming along on this ride. I hope there are many more to come!

*I have a tradition of running my first published cartoon when I reach significant milestones. Enjoy!

 

A milestone!

It's time to celebrate another milestone! This marks the 5,000th cartoon posted on this site! 

In case you don't recall, this is my first cartoon that was ever published — a long, long time ago. Never did I dream that it was the first step in the road that would bring me here.

Thank you for your readership and your support. Here's to many more!
 

Happy anniversary, and stay tuned!

It's the 11th anniversary of Beckstrom Buzz! What a fun adventure it's been so far. I've met a lot of people — both electronically and IRL — and made a few friends. I've had a couple of books published, won a few awards, and —hopefully — scattered a little sunshine all along the way. Thank you for joining me in this journey!

Stay tuned later today as I begin to post my sketch notes from general conference. It's always exciting!

Post-General Conference — and more!

What an amazing General Conference! It's difficult to know where to begin — new apostles, priesthood organization, home teaching and visiting teaching evolving to ministering, and seven new temples! And so much more!

Pres. Nelson recommended we review the talks several times over the next few months. One thing that may help in your review is a copy of my General Conference notes — here's a link to a downloadable PDF on Dropbox.

This General Conference also marks the 10 year anniversary of my blog! It started after listening to Elder Scott's talk from April 2008. Long story there, but let it suffice to say that the Spirit spoke to me during that talk.

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary, we'll be rerunning some of my favorites from the past decade. I think you'll enjoy it.

Thank you for your support, and thanks for coming back! Enjoy!

In which I become accountable

Today marks the eighth anniversary of this blog! That means I've reached the age of accountability, so now I guess I have to start being responsible. Dang!

As usual when I reach a major milestone, I bring back my first cartoon ever published — that was a LONG time ago! Since that time my cartoons have appeared in many newspapers, magazines, websites (in several different languages), and many have been appropriated to be fill material in ward bulletins!

Thank you for your continued support and readership. Keep coming back!

Celebrating some numbers

It's been about six months since I last ran this, my cartoon milestone marker. It's appropriate that this runs just after the Geek Week series, since the milestone is some behind-the-scenes geeky web analytics numbers that probably don't even bear mentioning here -- it's just numbers. But some bigger ones than I expected, and sooner, too. So, cool!

The Runners Up

Here are the Top Five (six, actually -- you'll see) Runners Up for the year. They all have stories that go along with them.

No. 5
My cousin had a friend ask if she knew me, and the friend was thrilled to find out that the answer was yes. So as a favor to my cousin, I did a cartoon that featured her friend. Convoluted? Perhaps. This garnered the most Google+ shares of any cartoon from this year.

No. 4
Don't you hate it when you draw a nice cartoon and then forget what the caption was supposed to be? That happened to me a couple of times this year. This was the winning caption, coming in from a reader in the Great White North.

No. 3
It's unusual for a gag that's already run several times to make a resurgence, but that's what happened with the No. 3 cartoon. I reached the milestone of 2,000 entries on my blog, so I ran this one to mark the event -- my first cartoon ever published. Despite being a decade or two (or so) old, it still holds up.

No. 2 (tie)
Missionaries are always popular here. This year we sent off one of our own. Only problem was, he packed his brother's suit instead of his own. Here's what happened on both sides.

No. 1
And speaking of missionaries, Sis. Kerry Jo got her mission call this year! It started out as a storyline in 121 and spun out of control. Sis. Kerry Jo has her own missionary blog and her own Pinterest following. Be afraid!

Tune in tomorrow for the first five of the Top Ten for 2013!

2001: A Cartoon Odyssey

Today marks blog entry No. 2,001! As usual when I hit major milestones, I rerun my first published cartoon. I don't know why. Maybe I'm still surprised that the New Era ran one of my cartoons.

Happy Anniversary!

This marks my fifth year of doing this blog! Some of the gags have been good; some of the gags have been, well, less good -- but they've all come at the same low price!

As usual, I mark this significant milestone with a rerun of the cartoon that started it all -- my first published cartoon that ran in the New Era when I was still in high school.

In celebration of five years, I'm going to rerun some of my favorite cartoons during this week. I hope you like them, too. Thank you for joining me!

We're 15 (hundred)!

This marks, more or less, the 1,500th post to Beckstrom Buzz! As per tradition, we celebrate the milestone with a rerun of my first published cartoon -- and I'm glad that it still makes me laugh!

I've been doing this blog for more than four years. I didn't think I had that much material! Thank you for your support, your comments and feedback. Mostly, thanks for visiting and making this possible!

Happy Birthday!

We just turned three years old! So per tradition, here's the one that started it all a long, long time ago! Enjoy!

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!

Happy birthday, again!

Today marks the two-year anniversary of this blog! So, following tradition, I'm running my first cartoon, which is also the first one that was ever published. Enjoy!

You don't look a day over 499!

I just reached a milestone of 500 posts! That's kind of amazing to me. When I started out, I wasn't sure just how long I could go before running out of cartoons. I never realized that I had so many (although I have to admit that there are a couple that were accidentally repeated -- I'll leave it to you to find them!). In celebration of this auspicious (to me, at least) event, I'm purposely rerunning the first entry, which was also my first published cartoon.

I still have quite a few left. I promise to keep 'em coming (but I can't promise they'll get any better!).

Now go have a piece of cake on me!

In the beginning...

This is the one that started it all.

As a sixteen-year-old kid in high school, I spent a lot of time drawing cartoons. I decided to send a batch in to The New Era just to see what would happen. After all, they offered to pay good money for ideas they used, and I was in need of good money. And for a sixteen-year-old, any kind of money is good money.

I’m not sure exactly how it transpired, but my girlfriend at the time (Valerie) called up the folks at the magazine and arranged for the two of us to meet with one of the artists to get some pointers. So one day after school, she drove us downtown in her blue Chevy Nova and we went to meet with Bro. Whittaker in his office at the Church Office Building.

Bro. Whittaker was very kind — but I was scared to death! After all, this was the big white tower at 50 East North Temple, and I was meeting with a real artist to talk about my cartoons. He asked me about myself, cartoonists I liked, what my future plans were. He also showed us around the production room. He was encouraging and gave me some tips. It was way cool.

I lost track of how many cartoons and cartoon ideas I sold to The New Era, but there were a lot. Those cartoons contributed quite a bit to my mission account. And Valerie may have gotten some better quality dates out of the deal, too.