The latest episode of Comics Coast to Coast features special guest Phil Dunlap, creator of Ink Pen. Click here to have a listen!
The latest episode of Comics Coast to Coast features special guest Phil Dunlap, creator of Ink Pen. Click here to have a listen!
Happy end of the summer, GoComicers! With the turn of the leaves, we can see the dwindling light at the end of the beach and BBQ tunnel, making way for the shorter, darker and somewhat dreaded days of winter.
With most proclaiming their love for the fall foliage, crisp air and spiced beer that accompany Autumn, there are those of us who find it difficult to function. The loss of daylight hours, coupled with the thought of the impending winter months can bring an already fragile psyche down into Oscar the Grouch-level dumps. Call it what you will: depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder... Laziness. It’s a real thing, happening to real (and now fake) people.
Allow me to ‘splain…
Usually, when I find myself slipping into that dark place of deep depression, I slide further beneath my covers, cry at the sun, howl at the moon and shake my fist at daytime TV. This could last for days, weeks or even months. However, the unfortunate reality is that I have work to do, deadlines to miss and dogs to pet. With that in mind, I’m constantly on the lookout for new ways to cope, or at the very least, get through the day without blubbering over the latest TV commercial featuring celebrity puppies and/or stray puppies in need and/or celebrity puppies helping stray puppies in need.
This year, when the crippling anvil of depression hit, I remembered that old pearl of wisdom for the ever-struggling writer, “Write what you know.” Okay, well, I know I can’t find the motivation to brush my own teeth, bathe or get out of my pajamas. I know that I’m considering allowing my hair to grow for one year, just to see if I can fashion hair-cup holders for each side of my head. I know that I can’t remember why it’s important to eat…
So, with these irrational thoughts in full exercise, I decided to project through a week of THE ELDERBERRIES comic. The story unfolding this week is that Dusty Winter’s best friend, Boone, falls into a cycle of complete and total “meh”. While Boone tries to find the reason for his sudden lack of interest in all things human, Dusty and friends attempt to snap him out of it anyway they can, including pie.
Hopefully, the exercise helps ME climb out of my dark hole, while simultaneously providing good material for my paying job. I’ll let you know if it all works out next week.
*On a personal and serious note, clinical depression is a very real and sometimes dangerous thing. My own struggles with life and overcoming feelings of massive inertia, while hardly trivial, have not reached the depths of what some people can experience when deeply depressed. My success in keeping out the very dark depths can be attributed to a great circle of close friends, an understanding wife and a competent and helpful therapist. My reading and understanding of the causes and remedies for depression have helped in my awareness of what’s happening to me when I get depressed and how to deal with it, before it becomes overwhelming.
If you get depressed, or you have friends that seem to suffer from depression and it seems like there’s no hope, please seek proper treatment from a professional. I absolutely can’t stand feeling the way I feel when I’m depressed, but because I sought help, I now know there’s a way out and a way to feel better again.
Remember: The most important things in life involve laughter. And comics. Especially my comics.
Words, Harpoon Winter Warmer Ale and leaf peepers,
-FRS
With the ice-breaking introductions of last week out of the way, we now find ourselves on a second blog date, where the drinks go down a little easier and fill up a bit more frequently. I’ll scoot my chair closer, so I can “listen” to your hopes, dreams, lies and frightful realities, while you can gaze into my now tipsy eyes and wonder at what point you’ll have to subdue my growingly inappropriate advances, with a can of mace and basic training combat techniques.
Ah, the joys of an awkward, new relationship…
How is everyone, really? Did you all have a good week of reading comics? Did you see that Disney bought Marvel? How many Scrooge McDuck/Iron Man mash-up jokes have you heard on Twitter?
How many of you had to install corks on your forks, for safety reasons?
HA!
In all seriousness, let’s get down to business. The serious business of comics is a serious thing, with serious consequences and should be discussed seriously, in serious clothes, at serious venues.
So, seriously, here are some things I’d like to see come out of this blog in the near future:
* Should be filed
under October’s “unattainable goals in comics and comic strips” post.
So, maybe we should begin with a bit about how I go about doing the comics that I do. Perhaps a short description of the formation of an idea and then we can share the advancement of that idea into comedy gold through later posts.
Okay. We’ll do that, then.
THE MAKING OF AN IDEA, EPISODE I: DAILY DOOM AND DESPERATION
Bill Watterson once said he spent “every waking hour” thinking about jokes for his comics. Clearly, he didn’t own a house, have a family with laundry or pets with stomach problems.
Don’t get me wrong, I think about jokes all the time, I just have other things I think about all the time, which leads to a broken head, even broker deadlines, lack of sleep and an unhealthy relationship with barley and hops.
So I’ll twist Mr. Watterson’s claim by saying, “I spend every waking hour thinking about EVERYTHING… Usually at some level of panic.”
Feel free to use that. Just footnote me when I’m dead.
What’s my process, then? How do I get my ideas? What jumpstarts the Fake Rockstar train wreck? The answer is simple:
I HAVE NO EARTHLY IDEA.
Some say they need a quiet room to think. Others need music at a Spinal Tapped “11” volume. I’ve heard some claim they sit and watch people for hours, where they “wait for the muse to strike”. Some say, “Great coffee” or “Never read other’s strips” or “drunk”.
I can honestly claim no one single thing. I can write in a bar, on a subway or from the trunk of Tony Soprano’s car. I don’t need a quiet office, candles or the music of the ocean. I can also write when I’m drunk, but no one’s allowed to read the result. NO ONE.
And look, I’m not bragging, here. I just have no time to “prepare” myself for the “muse to hit”. I’m always late with deadlines, so when something needs to get done, there’s no time for self-doubt or personal introspection. That sort of mind bending saved for drinking time after the fact.
In summary, I guess you can say my process, if I have one, is in this order:
I’ll use the details of how #4 happens to fill a future post.
Thanks for reading and reacting,
Corey “FRS” Pandolph
Howdy, GoComic fans! Let me begin by expressing my gratitude for the warm embrace of the GoComics universe. Not only have the fine folks of Gocomics and Universal Uclick allowed me to share four different comics with you all, they’ve invited me to bother you further through their official blog!
HUZZAH!
In an effort to familiarize you all with my intentions, hopes, dreams and paralyzing fears, I thought I’d make this first blog post a short Q & A session of Who, What, Why, How and Again?!
Let’s begin with the Who:
Q: Who the heck is Corey “Fake Rockstar” Pandolph and what in Uncle Miles’ name is a Fake Rockstar?
A: Corey Pandolph is a cartoonist/comedy writer wannabe currently responsible for four daily comic strips: The internationally syndicated THE ELDERBERRIES through U/U and three web-syndicated strips available through GoComics: BARKEATER LAKE, TOBY. ROBOT SATAN and GREENE WITH ENVY. Corey also writes for the comedy web portal, Drink at Work.com…Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is.
A Fake Rockstar is someone you encounter at that rare moment in time when the word “Ridicularity™” makes sense.
Q. What?
A: What, yourself. See “Who”.
Q: Why?
A: Because I said so. Also, because I love writing, reading and drawing comics. So much of that simple ideal seems to be lost in these days of dying newspapers, growing webcomics and the ongoing industry debate that often resembles a slap fight between brace-faced 11 year-olds. To me, there is no better sound than the scrawl of my quill pen across white Bristol. I truly love what I do, so it makes sense that I’m considered insane, unorthodox and an outsider. I refuse to take sides and I have angry eyebrows that I’m not afraid to use when provoked.
Q: How?
A: Hopefully I can share that in future posts on this blog. I’d love to talk about the ins and out of my process – how and where I get ideas, my favorite tools of the trade and ideal places to work. Of course, I’ll need you all to sign and fax back to me a simple non-disclosure form, two proofs of birth, one 12-pack of High Life and two pounds of thick-cut, Apple Maplewood bacon.
Q: Again?!
A: Yes. Every week.
Thanks for tuning in and I hope you’ll check back next week, and every week to read a Fake Rockstar on Comics.
Until next blog time!
Lies, words and cured pork-products,
-FRS
Mark Tatulli (Lio) and Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), winners of this year's Reuben awards for Newspaper Comic Strip and Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, respectively, were recently interviewed by Tom Racine for Tall Tale Radio. Listen here.
The Daily Cartoonist, that most excellent site for news from the cartooning industry, has posted the image and link to what can only be described as a bento artist (bento is basically lunchbox in Japanese) who created this Calvin and Hobbes bento! If you browse through her blog, you'll find lots of images of her amazing creations. She apparently made the Calvin and Hobbes bento for her boyfriend, who may now be officially considered one of the luckiest guys on earth.
