Fireworks

From the Disney collection, if for no other reason than it has some pretty good fireworks that I made in Illustrator. 

If you're looking for something to add to your summer reading list, click on the link to the right. The book is available in paperback and Kindle!
 

Hot off the electronic press!

I know this is something you've been clamoring for: the Kindle edition of our Disney book, The Pickletons go to Disney. It's now available on Amazon! 

Written by fellow cartoonist Ryan Stoker and illustrated by me (although I did write two of the cartoons!), the book is described thus: 

"It doesn't matter if you've been once or a hundred times. Disney parks are the most amazing, magical places to visit with your family! They can also be the most frustrating, expensive and comical experiences of your life as well!"

For your reading pleasure, you now have the choice of hard copy, electronic — or both! Get your copy today. It's almost as good as being there!

We'll be back again some day!

The spirit is willing but the budget is weak.

That may not be a good lead in to a gentle, subtle reminder to be sure to order your copy of our Disney book! It’s full of lots of fun adventures that you can relate to, whether you've been to a Disney property or not! 
 

Real pirates

Some messages at the park are subliminal — the scents, the invisible paint, the forced perspective. Others are a bit more blatant.
 

The happiest place

It’s getting toward the end of summer, so it’s time for a little vacation! Let’s take a trip to Disney World!

This week and next I'll be running some cartoons from our Disney book that may not have seen yet. These are a few of my favorites.

And, hey! if you want to buy a copy of the book, I would certainly encourage that!

Special bonus material!

Hey! It's another Disney cartoon! But there's something special about this one — it isn't included in the book!

The folks at Disney took out the Splash Mountain ride without consulting us, so we pulled this one from production.

Just a reminder that our book, The Pickletons go to Disney, is available now and makes a great gift for that Disney fan in your life.
 

Fill your mind

There are several ways to get ready for General Conference. Amongst those myriad ideas is filling your head with good thoughts and ideas. That's the genesis of this cartoon. What's better than the classics?

But, if you are looking for something to supplement your usual gospel study materials, may I suggest the following:

The Great Missionary Bake-Off — My latest collection of missionary-themed cartoons.

That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind — An award-winning collection of missionary cartoons.

The Sis. Kerry Jo collection — Three volumes of cartoons the chronicle the missionary experiences of Sis. Kerry Jo as she serves in Korea (Hey! That was my mission!). Based partly on real-life experiences, these books give an in-depth look to life as a sister missionary.

There are also seasonal collections (they make a great gift!) that include:

• Tastes Good With Giblets and Gravy Blues
• Mad Science for Dummies
• The Missionaries are at the Door and other Terrifying Tales

You can find all these and more on my author page on Amazon!

BONUS

As you prepare for General Conference, you may also want to download the semiannual General Conference Activity Pack by my good friend Arie Van De Graaff, aka the Ward Cartoonist. He's also got a great collection of cartoons and activity books great for any age!

Enjoy General Conference — it's sure to be a good one!
 

Shameless self promotion!

It's here! The new missionary cartoon collection, The Great Missionary Bake Off! 

This follow-up volume to the award-winning That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind has more than a 125 new cartoons that cover all aspects of missionary work. From knocking on doors to companion inventory to working with members to dealing with dogs, it's all in there!

This volume makes a perfect gift for someone who is preparing for a mission, someone who is serving on a mission, someone who just got back from a mission, or even someone who knows a missionary! It's not too early to grab a few as stocking stuffers before the holiday rush.

Available exclusively on Amazon, it comes as a paperback, or there's a Kindle edition too! If you order now, you can have it ready for your Sunday lesson! Check it out today!

 

The Force is tepid with this one

We haven't checked in on Disney for a while — and the fact that it's Star Wars-related doesn't hurt any.

It's that time of year when we start getting ready for General Conference! It comes the week after Easter, so you might want to be ready to share the ever popular and awe-inspiring Ward Cartoonist's General Conference Activity Pack! Perfect for sharing with your classes, family, or for your own personal use!

It's also the start of spring break here, and at work we've put together a Spring Break Activity Pack of our own! If you want to learn more about Transportation in Oregon — or if you need to keep the kiddos occupied — check it out. It's kind of fun, if I do say so myself!
 

Raise the song of Harvest Home

Maybe it's just me, but I think these turkeys look like they could have come from the pen of the Ward Cartoonist, Arie Van De Graaff — who incidentally has a new book out, just in time for the holidays! It's the Old Testament Come, Follow Me Activity Book. If you're a Primary teacher, youth teacher, parent, grandparent, or all on your own, this would be a great gift to supplement your Come, Follow Me studies! Heck, I'll bet even the Elders Quorum would get a kick out of using it!

And if you're looking for that perfect yet inexpensive Thanksgiving gift, look no further than Tastes Good with Giblets and Gravy Blues — a collection of my Thanksgiving-themed cartoons. And it's non-denominational; I'm saving the LDS cartoons for other nefarious purposes. Stay tuned!

 

Quarantined turkeys and shameless promotion

Remember back in the spring when we thought we'd have a wave of the coronavirus and then life would be back to normal? Who thought we'd still be wearing face coverings at the holidays?

Let's be safe out there!

 

Speaking of holidays, gift-giving season is fast approaching! 

I heartily recommend "Giblets and Gravy Blues" as a Thanksgiving gift, "That's No Moon" and "That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind" for any special occasion! Each is chock full of chuckles, and is the perfect size for mailing to your missionary or stuffing in a stocking! Order your copies today — and grab a few for gifting as well!

Family history in the age of COVID-19

Although the global pandemic is far from over, let's go back in time just a few months.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it totally disrupted our lives. Movie theaters and restaurants closed down, toilet paper disappeared from grocery store shelves. Suddenly, both work and school were at home. There were no sports to distract us — only what we could stream on TV.

Remember March, April and May? They seemed to go on forever!

Nowadays, a lot of the changes that were instituted don't seem so strange any more: masks, teleworking. Zoom, Teams and Skype are old hat. Eating dinner out means bringing food back home.

Announcing That's No Moon — a collection of cartoons and journal prompts to help you remember this long, strange trip. It's filled with gags and questions for you to add to your family's story. Who were you with? What did you do?

There are two versions: the Standard Edition and the LDS Edition, which features additional cartoons and questions geared toward members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Order your copy today!

What? An award?

Yesterday I was honored to receive an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. My cartoon collection, That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind. won the 2019 award in the Comics category.

Here's what they said in their write-up:

That’s One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind is the latest collection of cartoons from Kevin Beckstrom. As a cartoonist, Beckstrom is best known for his regular contributions to the New Era, the official youth magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet most of his work has appeared on his personal comics blog BeckstromBuzz and his various social media platforms, where he has published a new comic or cartoon virtually every day for more than a decade. His simple, distinctive style has become instantly recognizable to Latter-day Saints throughout the world. And his charming sense of humor has made more than a few Latter-day teenagers chuckle at themselves and their fellow Saints.

 That’s One Small Step delivers what it promises: smile-inducing cartoons about Mormon missionaries and the families that support them (from afar) for eighteen months to two years. It pokes fun at many of the situations that have become staples of the missionary experience: eccentric companions, unpredictable weather, hard-to-learn languages, and odd investigators. The cartoons are like the quirky snapshots in a missionary’s photo album, but they are also tributes to the young women and men who submit themselves to daily unpredictability in the cause of Jesus Christ and His message of peace. Indeed, Kevin Beckstrom’s cartoons remind us why we should value missionaries and their selfless service. 

I am honored and humbled, but most of all I'm excited to see that people read my cartoons! Thank you!

Enough with the shameless self-promotion. Have a great day!

Endless summer... camp

As the school year comes to a close around here, it's time to start thinking about summer activities. For many of our Young Men, this summer could be the last chance they get to go to Scout camp.

Be that as it may, there are many of us who have fond memories of the Scouting program. In fact, many of those memories are included in my new collection, Cubs, Scouts and Zombies! Grab a copy for your favorite Scouter — or zombie — today!

Sketchbook: Not the big dance

Frankly, I never figured out the secret to impressing girls at stake dances. I learned a lot of things that don't work...!

But, hey! If you want to impress your family and friends with your preparedness for general conference, now is the time to download the Spring 2019 General Conference Activity Packet from your friendly neighborhood Ward Cartoonist! And it's available in multiple languages — and all for free! What a deal!

And it's not too early to think about what you should include in your Easter package to your favorite missionary. May I humbly suggest I Miss My Dork Dot, Volume 1 of Sis. Kerry Jo's Mission Blog, or the ever-popular That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind. a collection of missionary-themed cartoons by yours truly. You could consider adding one of Arie Van De Graf's books as well! (I'd shill more for other LDS cartoonists as well if I had the links).

One more thing (But wait! There's more!)... stay tuned this weekend for my General Conference Sketch Notes. Be sure to watch, and as Pres. Nelson says, buckle up!

A commercial interruption

Wait! Just east of Temple Square are the Church office buildings! And what's that book he's holding? Why, it's That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind, a collection of missionary-related cartoons by none other than yours truly! (Yes, this is a shameless self-promotion!)

It's available now on Amazon, just in time to send as a belated Valentine to your missionary serving in the field! Grab your copy today!

You think your teacher is boring...!

My guess is that this is the week that a lot of people figure out just how easy it was to sit in Gospel Doctrine and be fed a lesson every week.

Come, Follow Me will encourage a spirit of learning and of gospel study in the home. There are a ton of resources available to make it more exciting and engaging, and take our study of the Savior to a deeper level.

Shameless Plug
If you want to further enhance your gospel enjoyment, there's an additional new resource — Volume 1 of Sis. Kerry Jo's Mission Blog: I Miss Wearing My Dork Dot is now available for purchase on Amazon! It's approaching the top half-million best sellers (currently at 515,255 and rising fast!). Order your copy today — and look for more to come!

On being prepared

Better clothes, yes. Questionable food, yes. Better living conditions than Scout camp? I've been to some nice Scout camps, and I've been in some scary missionary apartments. I'd say that one is a tossup.

By the way, if you want to really prepare your missionary by giving him or her a true picture of what it's  like, I recommend two things. One, read Sis. Kerry Jo's Mission Blog (or follow her on Instagram @sis.kerryjo). Secondly, pick up a copy of Arie VanDeGraaff's Mission Daze (available at Amazon.com). Between the two of them, you'll get a really good idea of what to expect.

And good luck to my padawan, who enters the MTC today. Go forth and do good things!

Sneak preview of yet another public service announcement

Avast! Monday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we at the Oregon DOT thought it would be a good idea to hijack the news with a few more public service announcements. Watch for their official release on our ODOT social media accounts on Monday.