Fun for the whole family!

I was raised on newspaper comics, and I strive to make a newspaper-worthy comic. I'm talking figurative newspaper here, as currently most newspapers are in sad decline and no longer worth the trouble. Whatever, it's the TONE I want to capture, and the delivery method can change. Oh, and it has.

I've signed on with two groups, both in the family-friendly comic vein, and I am greatly enjoying this current goody goody mentality.

First, as mentioned in the last post, is Kidjutsu, a site created to being comics to kids. When I was a kid, I spent my library time hunting down old Peanuts collections instead of blindly sticking with Judy Blume. I'll always claim I learned most of my vocabulary from reading Calvin and Hobbes. Comics are vital in getting kids to love reading, and Kidjutsu aims at providing kids a one-stop resource with tons of comic volumes to choose from.

Precocious will eventually join that line-up once I do some redrawing and reformatting. Finally, my tendency to create long story arcs pays off! I have issues - and they're not all mental!

The second site I'm pimping out is Family Webcomics, which does exactly what you think it does. It's very thorough in classifying and listing family-friendly comics, making it an excellent resource for parents. Precocious joined the list and I hope to be an active contributor there as well. It is my hope that when I am up against the wall, judged while a gun is held to my temple, I can point out I was a FAMILY-FRIENDLY guy. That could save my life! I'll admit that my family love might work more for a liberal family, but that's due to intelligence and being, you know, interesting. If a conservative mother is going to faint the second she reads the word "sucks" in her kid's comics, I can't really do anything about that. It's not like I could do or say anything to do more damage to her children than her anyway.

On the Family Webcomics forums, the creator, Mirz, put out a request for homepage splash art. This is something I can do! Here is my contribution to the cause:



Of course I had to feature my strip's giant Et family - with so many kids I can't fit them all in a square composition. I sorta felt bad about leaving Frida and Michelangelo out, so I started work in a second sketch:



This sketch hit a wall when I realized what a pain it would be to make it clear the object the family is viewing in the foreground is a monitor. But I did include all the children! Minor victory!

Mothers Day

Ok, so technically that day has passed and Fathers Day is closer. Whatevs - I hope to have the daddy sketches ready for display soon enough.

Continuing to share sketches of the Precocious Cast, I offer the two main moms yet to appear on the blog. They also happen to be the last two characters that appear in the first arc of the comic strip. While the first arc is all about the Poppinstock kids, a cross-neighborhood epic tale invariably passes through the homes of our players. As three of the four houses are fairly hetero-normative - with the husband out working and the wife at home - it's the mommies that play the parental roles in this case.

Granted, these women don't always enjoy the housewife role. Ivy Pingo is "between jobs" and refuses to say that keeping the home from disrepair is a valid career option. (Don't glare at me, housewives of the world, that's *Ivy's* cognitive dissonance there!)

Deirdre Linkletter, however, is the natural homemaker. She cooks, cleans, organizes, enjoys charity work and is active with the PTA - all the wonderful mommy stuff. Even better, she does it with cheerful and bubbly innoncence. This is not your typical bored housewife harpy trying to grab any power she can. Deirdre is a sweetheart despite working in a realm where sticks up one's rear are common. It's so improbable; she might just be a robot.

Sky Et is the other true stay-at-home mom. Unlike Deirdre, Sky never saw her life taking this path. She was going to be a biologist... maybe a doctor... cure cancer... do awesome science stuff! Then she got knocked up. Ok, that's fine too! The former free spirit now has five children (aged 9, 6, 4 and a double-dose of terrible 2's) and spends her time wrangling brats.

Let's put it this way: At a PTA meeting, Deirdre can effortlessly maneuver through the egos and bureaucracy to get things done. Sky would sit to the side, make sarcastic remarks and sip from the flask she sneaked in. (If you're wondering about the other moms: Ivy would only attend if someone else volunteered to drive. Yes, the school *is* within walking distance. Sydney Oven would send a check to fulfill her obligation.)

Here's another set of sketches I did last night. Like my constant botching of Tiffany's details, I forgot to color the tip of Sky's tail. Deirdre is also a bit thin, but who doesn't want *that* bank error in their favor?