6,000,000,000 (That's milllion with a B, people!) More to Go!!!!! - 12-31-15

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to you, you big beautiful pale blue dot!

4 1/2 billion times around the sun and still going strong!  Here's to 6 billion more!

And the rest of y'all, just have a regular old Happy New Year!

Be safe.

Talk to you soon.

Aesop's Fables "K" = 12-30-15

Another Aesop's Fable character doodle, this time from the "K" column.  This one's called "The Kid and the Wolf".  It's got a bunch of hounds in it, too.  They just didn't get any billing.

In this story a Kid (whom we'll assume Aesop meant to be a young goat) was heading back from out in the pasture alone and unprotected, when a Wolf spotted him and pounced upon him.  The Kid using his head played on the Wolf's own vanity at being not just a ruthless killer,but also a fine musician said, "Oh, mighty Wolf.  I know that I am destined to be your supper, ut could you grant me one last wish and favor me with your fine playing?".  The Wolf being as full of pride as he was hunger obliged and the Kid began to dance.  The pipe music and loud clogging by the Kid brought the attention of a pack of Hounds from nearby who came running over the hill to chase the Wolf away.  

MORAL:

"In time of dire need, clever thinking is key"

or

"Outwit your enemy to save your skin."

Bugs Bunny would be proud.

Talk to you soon.

Aesop's Fables "J" 12-29-15

Aesop's Fables doodle time again and this time we're up to the letter "J" (there were no "I" fables listed to speak of).

Today the tale of "The Jay and the Peacock".

A jaybird watching a flock of peacocks strutting around showing off their feathers.  There were a bunch of their feathers all over the ground left from when they were molting, so the jay tied a few to himself and began strutting alongside.  The flock realized right away that they had a poser on their hands and pecked at him until all of the peacock feathers came off and the jay had nowhere to go but back to his own kind.  The other jays had seen his behavior though and shunned him for thinking he was better than him and spouted this moral at him...

"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds"

Sort of a "clothes don't make the man" lesson here.

Talk to you soon.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Blog 12-28-15

I'm as famous in Korea as Dennis Rodman!  Stick THAT in your hat and smoke it!

An unusual Twitter conversation (for me anyhoo) began this week as a user named Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada posted to a fellow blogger and associate of mine Bubba Shelby @BubbaShelby and left him this message...

Ryan Estrada ‏@ryanestrada  Dec 24

@BubbaShelby Trying to solve the mystery of why this personal commission has mass-produced merch in Korea. Thoughts?

This is a pinback button made from a drawing I did for ol' Bubba wayyyyyy back in June of 2012! Bubba has a blog called "Toyriffic" (check it here) and a running theme for him has been a thing called "Harley Qwednesday", and he had asked me to contribute to that fine idea. Here's the original pic.

AND a link to his original post here.

Seems some outfit called "Artbox" an actual reputable dealer and not one prone to swiping images, is selling these out of one of their stores in Korea and POSSIBLY globally.

Now I'm not all in a tizzy over stolen artwork or anything, in the digital age and a good quality original on a website, it's dang near impossible to police such a thing. My question is, why?!

Here's an image by an unknown cartoonist with the main image being him/me, between a long forgotten golden age character and a certainly much more recognizable in today's eyes character, making an inside joke understood mainly only by the 2 bloggers the cartoon was exchanged between.

What is the thought behind the marketability to this??

We may never know.

Maybe the cartoon of me looks like the Korean version of Mr. Sparkle. :)

Talk to you soon.

A Big Box of Happy to Everyone!! 12-25-15

Happiest of Christmas to all of ya!!

Talk to you soon.

12-24-15 WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!

Fighting for their Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  Whatever it means to you.

Talk to you soon.

12-23-15 - Aesop Fables "H"

Here's a couple Aesop Fables sketches beginning with the letter "H".

Sesame Street would be so proud of me.

I'll lay down a little about what each fable is, but if you should care to skim through any of the over 655 fables, you can find a fine archive here!

"The Hare and the Hound"

A hungry hound is chasing after a hare hoping to make him his supper.  At a certain point, the hound gives up and the hare runs off to live another day.  A nearby goat herd sees all this and laughs at the hound, expounding how much faster and more clever a hare is than the hound.  The hound, understanding the real reason the hare got away, points it out.  Don't you see?  I was only running for my supper, the hare was running for his life.

MORAL:

"Necessity is our Strongest Weapon"

Here's another'n for today.

"The Hunter and the Woodman"

A fierce and proud and braggadocios hunter was looking for the tracks of a lion so he can have a new story of conquest to boast about.  He enters a wood where a woodman is felling oaks and asks, "Have you seen the tracks of a lion, hereabouts?  I seek to overcome him, kill him and mount his hide upon my wall!".  The woodman replies, "To heck with the lion's tracks, I'll show you right where the lion is and you can get him right now.".  The truthfully, not-so-brave hunter shudders and cringes at the thought of actually FINDING a lion and says, "I didn't as for the lion, I asked for his tracks!".

MORAL:

"The True Hero is Brave in Deeds as Well as Words"

There you have it, hope you enjoy.

Talk to you soon.

12-22-15 HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!

I hope you all (in the Northern hemisphere anyway) celebrated the winter solstice in fine fashion last night!!

C'mon, Mr. Sun!!  Let my brain make some of that sweet sweet serotonin, and don't forget to give me that gooooood vitamin D!

Talk to you later.

12-21-15 - Aesop's Fables "G"!

A couple more Aesop's Fables character doodles, this time ones that begin with "G".

Everybody probably knows the goose and the golden egg story in one form or another, but the apparently archaic one has more bloodshed than you might expect.

If you want to read the stories running through my head as I doodle these, check out the Aesop's Fable database maintained here.

Talk to you soon,

12-17-15 - A Fox, A Cock and A Dog Walk Into a Bar! Oh yeah, and A Goat, Too!

Aesop's Fables doodles, some more!  From the "F" column featuring 2 foxes, both of them kind of sneaky and smart-assed.  Only one wins, though.

Oh, and the return of a dog and a cock, too,  Fun to say.

I dig the goat, too.

Talk to you soon.

12-16-15 - Aesop's Fables "E": The Wild Sow Incident!

That's right, kiddoes...more Asesop's Fables doodles.

This time with 2 eagles, harder to differentiate than 2 dogs, but I think I managed it somehow.

We grew up with so many of these named for the 2 animals in them (the foolish one and the smart one), I find I'm attracted to the fables that have 3 main characters.  I like the way the titles roll.

Aesop's Fables "E", if you please, featuring sneaky cats and traitorous tail feathers.

Talk to you soon.

12-15-15 - Dogs is Dogs!

Yippety-boopety, you guessed it, more character doodles from the fables of Aesop.  These 2 from the "D" listings.

I try and do different animals, but sometimes the choices of morals wins out, so here are 2 dogs.  That's OK since we're so closely attached on a daily basis, we easily recognize their different personalities and differentiate one form the other,

The dogs in both of these fables is the goofy one who has to learn the moral from the other animal.

Aesop must not hav had as high an opinion of dogs as we do.

Ignore my numbering of the fables, I need to brush up on how to count.

If your unfamiliar with any of these fables, and would like to know what happens in each, please visit the good folks at Aesop Fables dot com, org or net and check their database.  I name each of those the same as in their alphabetical database.

Talk to you soon.

12-14-15 - This IS your daddy's super-hero!

There's a new trend in "Super-Heroes"tm, in which the tried and true concept of "good guy rises up against insurmountable odds and puts the bad guys in their place" gets ignored as old fashioned or too simple.  So the writer's and artists or directors or animators or whomsoever, decides to "de-construct" the hero concept and make it "grittier" or "darker" or "edgier" or "modern", just to show that their concept is totally 2015!!

I call bullshit.  de-constructing the base concept has been being done with the 75 year old form for AT LEAST 55 of those years.

The "de-construct" is the norm which is boring to all, except the writers and artists and directors and animators reveling in their own doodles.  

YAWN!

I say get back to basics and do an in-your-face "THIS is what it's ALWAYS been about" character and story.

My newest hero.

Keep it simple, stupid.

Talk to you later.

12-13-15 - Aesop's Fables "C"

I'm still having fun with the character doodles of Aesop's Fables characters.

Since there are so many, 656+ by last count at Aesop's Fables dot com, net and org,

I've been skimming through them.  Pledging to mineownself to do at least 2 beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

I tend to pick ones that maybe aren't as familiar as well AND have a moral I can get behind the importance of.

Anyhoo, here's 2 samples from column "C".

I hope you dig 'em.

Talk to you soon.

More Aesop's Fables 12-12-15

More Aesop character doodles, this time from column B.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-11-15

I used to think you had to know stuff.

I've been watching the "experts" on the news.

Apparently, no you don't

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-10-15 - Aesop's Fables

There were a bunch of little kids around here over the Thanksgiving holiday and at one point, as one was misbehaving, I asked, "Haven't you ever heard the Aesop's Fable about...(whatever fable fit whatever poor manners they were exhibiting )".

The reply came back a resounding, "Who the Hell is Aesop?".  The kiddoes didn't know.

I thought it would be a fun idea to illustrate Aesop's Fables and spell out their morals for the multitude of ignorant children out there and commenced to seek out a source for them so that I wouldn't forget any,

I found one.

There are apparently 655+ of these little diatribes.  At least according to Aesopfables.com, net AND org, which has been archiving them for the last 17 years.

I'm not that ambitious.

But I did do character doodles for a few.  Here are the 2 I chose from column A.

Pretty damn good chrysalis if you ask me!

And then of course, this old chestnut.

More to come.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-9-15 Pre-Thanksgiving doodles.

This was my lone doodle from the 16th of November.  I was feeling better than I had the day before.

So good I apparently said "Who needs to color??".  

I do.  It's good meditation.

But so is cooking.

Playing devil's advocate, here's a pre-Thanksgiving doodle imagining how the other guy feels.



I always root for the underdog.

I have no regrets.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-8-15

Another attempt at a positive affirmation?  Or just seeing if I could draw hash browns or not?  I won't tell if you won't.

These too drawings were both from November 15.  I was having a down day then too, just like the one I posted December 4th.

I hear it gets better.  The suspense is killing me.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-7-15

This might be a better affirmation than yesterday's mess.

And this is kinda stream of consciousness doodling.  What I imagine real actual cartoonists doodle like.

You can see, the title's a little open ended.

Talk to you soon.

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-6-15 "GOOD MORNING, SELF!"

I may be doing these wrong.  I think they're supposed to make you feel good.

Talk to you soon.

Moving to Montana Soon...

Just like Frank Zappa said!

'Ceptin', I already moved.  And I ain't no dental floss tycoon.

I moved from loverly Southern California back to loverly Montana after 29 years and 8 months.

I'm calling it an even 30 years.  Sue me.

I flew back on November 3, 2015, wearing only my wardrobe of t-shirt and shorts, to quickly and direly in need of beanie, sweater (best if dressed in layers and long pants.

LONG PANTS I TELL YOU!  INHUMANE!

This was drawn on November 8th because it took 5 days for my drawing arm to thaw out after the shock of the temperature drop of 35 degrees or so.

This was also the first day I've used my sketchbook in a long time.  It's no longer a distraction of silly doodles, I'm to do this per doctors orders.  I have a prescription to draw,

These next 2 slid out of my pen the same day,

My guitar's cold shock.

And lastly, after going to the Walmart to get colored pencils and pens, I had an epiphany.

A realization of a truth that we've all been shown but rarely make the connection.

Ah sweet blind youth.

I hope you enjoyed 'em.

Talk to you soon.

Unca Jeffy's Sketchbook Return

It's been awhile.  Almost a year if the dates on these blogs are to be trusted.

I've been filing my sketchbook of late, thought I'd share some doodles with you.

This one spurted out of my pen today.  I was having a sad one.

I guess we all have them, they say it's normal.

I still don't care for them though.

Talk to you soon.