The secret (finally) revealed!!

Revealed at long last– the secret origin of Watusi the Talking Dog!! Or maybe “originS” is more accurate, as told in this collection of comics by me, Matt Corrigan, Steve Peters & Daniel Heredia, Steve Skeates, Drew Boynton, Nate Corrigan, Larned Justin, Tom Cherry, Billy McKay, and J.B. Winter!

This “untold origin” project is one I’ve had on the back burner for a shamefully long time; it fell into the cracks when jam comic participation dried up before this invitational issue was filled up and other projects pushed to the fore. But it’s finally complete, and I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Watusi the Talking Dog #40 is a 16-page black & white digest w/ full-color cover; ask for it at your comic shop of choice, or get a copy by mail via my Square store for $3.00 postpaid in the US. You can also get a copy by becoming one of my Patreon patrons during the months of May/June 2021 at the Correspondent or Art Lover tier– plus, joining gives you immediate access to online bonus comics, including a full-color Human Spring adventure!

[January 2023 UPDATE: I’ve closed my Patreon page.]

Hot off the press: Double Dip #3!

Well, maybe “warm” off the press, since Tom Cherry and I finished the latest issue of our two-person anthology Double Dip at the tail end of last year. With the holiday rush behind us, now is a great time to share this issue’s release with the wider world! As always, it’s a joy to team up with Tom to serve you a heaping helping of our different but eerily simpatico cartooning sensibilities…

In Tom’s half of the issue, Dadman & Sonny confront an unexpected visitor, while the alien FooF reveals his secret origin in my story, which incorporates a tactile structure that can only be appreciated in its physical form!

I was thrilled that Tom and I were able to finish this issue in so much less time than it took to finish #2, and that’s even with drawing two covers for it! While I’m not a big fan of variant covers, Tom’s cover gag was such a winner (and of the moment, too!) that it’d be foolish to not use it. My gag was … well, kinda what I used on the first issue, but that’s what happens when there’s a years-long gap between issues #1 & #3, I guess…

Double Dip #3 is a 16-page black & white digest w/ full-color cover; ask for it at your comic shop of choice, or get a copy by mail via my Square store for $3.00 postpaid in the US. You can also get a copy by becoming one of my Patreon patrons during the months of January/Feb 2021 at the Correspondent or Art Lover tier– plus, joining gives you immediate access to online bonus comics, including a full-color Human Spring adventure!

[January 2023 UPDATE: I’ve closed my Patreon page.]

Hot off the press: Double Dip #2!

Double Dip is the book that Tom Cherry and I publish together at an “occasional” (to be charitable) rate, and I’m thrilled to announce that the new issue is finally complete & ready for your hot little hands! Even though getting our schedules in sync for these comics can feel like aligning the sun and moon for an eclipse, it’s been great to team up again with Tom to bring you what is now my new favorite issue!

Of course, a lot of its charm is due to Tom’s 7-page “Little Arlo” gem. I won’t spoil it by saying anything more about it, other than to say it brought me great happiness from beginning to end when I read it!

My 6-page story this issue features Watusi & friends, picking up from the end of last issue wherein they met a dog from outer space that could turn into any breed of dog. And, as it turned out, a monkey! Apparently I didn’t learn my lesson from last time, though, as this story ends on yet another cliffhanger. Fortunately, as Tom said, this means that there’s a Double Dip #3 coming in the future. The near future, I hope. Or at least not another (yikes!) eight-year gap…

As I said above, I am really happy with how this one turned out! Double Dip #2 is a 16-page black & white digest w/ full-color covers; ask for it at your comic shop of choice, contact Tom or me to get your hands on your own copy, or get a copy by mail via my Square store for $3.00 postpaid in the US … or become one of my Patreon patrons during the month of August 2019 at the Correspondent or Art Lover level & I’ll mail you a copy! (Plus, joining gives you immediate access to other online bonus comics, including a full-color Human Spring adventure!)

I hope you’re as thrilled to read these new stories as we are to present them to you!

[January 2023 UPDATE: I’ve closed my Patreon page.]

Hot off the press: Watusi #38!

For the first time in a long, long time I’m happy to announce the release of a new Watusi digest comic! I’ve long been fascinated by the Chinese Zodiac (more so than the Greek one), and this 38th digest issue is my long-overdue “Year of the Dog” issue. It features collaborative comic contributions from Tom Cherry, Rusty Mathis, Mark Morehouse, Keith O’Brien, Kemmer, & Joel Pfannenstiel, plus a 4-page story from Bob Corby’s Oh Comics! #22 (2014), a color centerspread, and my first wraparound cover in 25 years … tho if my plans for 2019 work out, it won’t be my last!

While it may have taken me longer to complete this “Year of the Dog” issue than I’d hoped … at least I got it done faster than my unsuccessful attempt at one in 2006! I’m glad it didn’t take me another 12 years to get it into reader hands!

Watusi #38 is a16-page black & white digest w/full-color wraparound cover; you can order it directly from me, postpaid in the US for $3.00.

I hope you’ll order a copy and give it a read!

[Feb 2020 UPDATE: You can now order a copy of Watusi #38 from my new Square store!]

Hot off the press: Watusi’s Doghouse Funhouse #2!

This collection of kid-friendly comics has been a l_o_o_o_o_n_g time coming, as I sure my contributors can attest! Originally planned as a 2010 followup to the first issue (and tied in with the watery summer reading theme at the library I was then working at), a few different things– including a never completed collaboration featuring the title character– conspired to keep it from coming together. But I’m glad to say it’s finally complete and that it turned out really well!

In addition to my own comic stories featuring Watusi and other members of his supporting cast, it features contributions from some of my favorite creators: a Thunderdawg epic by Mike Sullivan, Magnet Man by Brien Wayne Powell, Doggie & Jilly by Drew Boynton, and Little Arlo by Tom Cherry! Plus comics from JB Winter,  Ivan Martin, Joyce Steiner, and Paige Kallenberger.

It’s a 48-page black & white digest w/full-color covers, and is available by mail for $7.00 postpaid in the US directly from me. Additionally, you can find copies at my booth in the Memphis Arts Collective Show and Sale (through Xmas Eve), and a special sale in Lawrence to support a worthy cause (details coming soon; look for an announcement on my Twitter and Watusi’s Facebook feeds). I hope you’ll give it a read– I’m really proud of this book!

[Feb 2020 UPDATE: You can now order a copy of Doghouse Funhouse #2 (and the first issue, too) from my new Square store!]

Hot off the press: Watusi and the Emerald Serpent!

Well, maybe more “warm out of the oven,” since I’ve taken this collection to my last two events (with two more on the horizon: the Memphis Comic Expo, Oct. 22-23 and Wichita’s Air Capital Comiccon, Nov. 12-13) . But with the print copies now in hand, and my shipping costs figured out, I’m happy to share these comics with those of you who aren’t able to catch me at one of my appearances!

Watusi and the Emerald Serpent is the story of an ordinary talking dog thrown out of his comfort zone into a crime-ridden island paradise! Watusi finds himself pitted against an outlaw gang and its lunatic leader in his most epic adventure yet! Inspired by the Kenneth Robeson Doc Savage novels and Floyd Gottfredson’s “Mickey Mouse” strips, this story may be my favorite project so far. Certainly my favorite Watusi story.

As I wrote a couple of months ago, I’ve been working on a print edition of this story, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. This print edition has been edited and expanded from the story as it was first published online (46 of its 84 pages have new &/or updated content), and I think the changes help the story flow much better. And look better, too! In addition to interior art improvements, I’m also really happy with the full-color covers– I think it’s my best color work to date– and the full-color guest art from JB Winter, Billy McKay, Mike Sullivan, and Tom Cherry really rounds out the package in a classy way. As you can tell, I’m trying hard not to overdo the hyperbole, but I’m really proud of these comics, and hope everyone who reads these issues enjoys them as much as I did making them!

You can order all seven 16-page issues (b&w interiors with full-color covers) as a set from my Square store & have them delivered right to your mailbox!

Learning new moves from experienced strippers

I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between comic strips and comic books lately.

Even though I’ve essentially been writing & drawing a comic strip for years now, I’ve always thought of myself as a comic book creator. And, while I haven’t yet collected the “Watusi” strips like I’ve planned, my end goal with these stories has always been for book-length (or at least issue-length) collections. Which only makes sense, given how much more my storytelling sensibilities and influences have always come from the pacing of comic books than from gag-a-day comic strips. Still, I’ve found myself paying a lot more attention to comic strips than to books lately. Partly this is because there aren’t that many ongoing monthlies that appeal to me right now, partly because my own collection is largely inaccessible in my current studio space, and partly because the (how to say this kindly?) “vintage” graphic novel collection at the Memphis Public Library includes a lot more “Alley Oop” than Saga. And they only have one “Alley Oop” book…

But I’m enjoying what I’m discovering– not just in classic adventure strips that lean naturally toward my comic interests– but also in gag strips, both those being published today and what I’m rediscovering in older strips.

20 questions: the lost Tom Cherry interview

While this isn’t exactly a lost interview, it kind of feels like one. Tom answered my questions quite a while ago, but for one reason or another (none of them good enough!), I didn’t get it formatted and published until now … but I think it’s still worth the wait! Tom Cherry is a creative powerhouse that has been making wonderful comics and actively working in theatre, radio, and television for years. The last few months have seen him be particularly active as a cartoonist– with lots of new “Oh! Those Savages” strips this summer– so, on the verge of “Draw Crabby Day” (more on that below), this seems like the perfect time to turn the “20 questions” spotlight on Tom Cherry…

1. Revisiting the TFI episodes (thanks, YouTube!) I was struck by how leisurely they were paced in comparison to the strips. (On the other hand, maybe I’m just reading the comics too fast!) Is your approach to writing for the comic different than writing for the show? How?

Yes, writing for the strip is vastly different than writing a script for television. Of course, as much as I like to believe my strip’s humor is character driven, it follows the classic gag strip format with a set-up that ends with a punch line. With three or four panels, there’s not enough space to explore the same story structure I can play around with in a longer format. With my comic strip, it’s designed (for the most part!) to be simple, funny, and to the point. With a script for television or radio, I have more time to tell a complete story with greater character interaction.

Gallery-worthy comics

When I saw the flyer for the Percolator Artspace‘s “Dime Bag Show”, a joint fundraiser for the gallery and Lawrence’s Social Service League, my interest was certainly piqued. The challenge: purchase a bag of thrift store items for $10, and make artwork out of it. Of course, I’m not the kind of artist who would make a “collage, assemblage, fabric, poem, video, a song or a dance” out of the items … but I am the kind of artist who can make comics inspired from them!

And thus Dime Bag Comics was born.

When the realization of the short timeline (about 5 weeks) sank in, I knew I couldn’t fill up a book with my own new stories in that time, so I asked if some of the other artists I know would be interested in taking on the challenge, too. Fortunately for me (and Dime Bag Comics readers), a number of them were, and the comic is so much better for the variety of styles they brought to the project. Dime Bag Comics features all-new short drawn stories by J.B. Winter, Tom Cherry, Greg Smallwood (soon to be of Moon Knight fame), Drew Boynton, Matt Levin, Keith O’Brien, and Dale. Signed and numbered limited edition (of 50) 28-page black & white standard comic w/hand-cut accent on the outer wrapper for $7.00.

Since it was initially produced for the gallery fundraiser, I’m giving them first crack at selling copies, after which I will make them available from other retail outlets and direct from the publisher. The “Dime Bag Show” opens Final Friday, June 27th.

[Feb 2020 UPDATE: You can now order a copy of Dime Bag Comics from my new Square store!]

Two scoops of fun!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finished an actual print comic book, too! Double Dip is a book that Tom Cherry and I have been planning for a long time, and things finally aligned to get it completed. It’s got a 7-page (a hilarious 7-page) “Those Funky Idiots” story, and a 6-page Watusi comic featuring Professor Harvey and Mitchell. I’m really happy with how it turned out – ask for it at your comic shop of choice, or contact Tom or me to get your hands on your own copy!

Double Dip #1 is a 16-page black & white digest w/ full-color covers. 

[Feb 2020 UPDATE: You can now order a copy by mail via my Square store for $3.00 postpaid in the US.]
[January 2023 UPDATE: this post originally appeared as a footer to that week’s Watusi episode.]