Category Archives: COMICS

Numerous Recent Stwalley Comix Updates

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Here are the updates from the last couple of weeks:

Soapy the Chicken is now updating every Monday. (you can subscribe to Soapy the Chicken here. You can read most of the previous Soapy strips here… or you can buy the collected Soapy in book form here).

Monkey’s Paw, my collaborative comic with my good friend Ben Zmith, updates every Friday. You can subscribe to the feed for Monkey’s Paw here.

Before Ben and I started Monkey’s Paw, we collaborated on some mini-comics. You can now see them all online… click on the images below to read them.

Here is I SCREAM:

Here is Jetboots Johnson and Sinkhead Smith:

Here is Cousin of Frankenstein Vs. Jessica the Bog Witch. In addition to Ben and myself, this one also includes some panels by my talented friend Maxeem.

Recent Soapy the Chicken and Monkey’s Paw Updates

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Here is the last two weeks of comics… click the images to go to the strips.

Soapy the Chicken is now updating every Monday. (you can subscribe to Soapy the Chicken here. You can read most of the previous Soapy strips here… or you can buy the collected Soapy in book form here).

Monkey’s Paw, my collaborative comic with my good friend Ben Zmith, updates every Friday. You can subscribe to the feed for Monkey’s Paw here.

The New Schedule for the Stwallskull Media Empire

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Testing… testing… anyone out there reading this blog of mine anymore?

Well, if so, hi there. I’ve decided to start posting things on the internet regularly again… on a schedule, even.

On Mondays, I will be posting a new Soapy the Chicken strip on the Soapy the Chicken site. (you can subscribe to Soapy the Chicken here… you can read the previous Soapy strips here… or you can buy the collected Soapy in book form here). Click the image below for the first one…

On Fridays, my new collaborative comic with my good friend Ben Zmith, Monkey’s Paw, will be updated. The first four weeks have already been posted, actually. You can see them by clicking on the below images.

You can subscribe to the feed for Monkey’s Paw here.

I’ll also be posting whatever I feel like here on the Stwallskull blog, whenever I feel like it. The posts moving forward will mostly be focusing on my personal comic work, rather than stuff relating to the history of comics and animation.

I hope you enjoy the comics if you decide to follow them. Thanks for “stopping by,” regardless!

RIP Bill Blackbeard

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I was greatly dismayed to hear earlier this week that Bill Blackbeard passed away recently. If you like old comics, well, you owe Mr. Blackbeard your gratitude. Without him, the history of comics would be immeasurably diminished.

When virtually the entire culture (including libraries!) saw newspaper comics as disposable, Blackbeard recognized their value and preserved them. Without this preservation, it is likely that most of the books reprinting early comics coming out today would be terribly incomplete… or, more likely, not exist at all.

He personally edited many of the greatest books reprinting comics, including the monumental Smithsonian Guide to Newspaper Comics… I am one of the many cartoonists whose lives were changed by that amazing book… that magic window into a seemingly lost past.

Much of that past IS lost… but it is truly remarkable the immense amount Blackbeard and his few fellow travelers were able to save. The Sundays of the greatest comic strip of all time (the greatest work of art of all time, in my view), Krazy Kat, has now been entirely reprinted in books! That NONE of Herriman’s Sunday Kat strips ended up in the dustbin seems incredible. Blackbeard not only collected the strips, but he edited the books. I doubt there are any many reprint books of pre-1940 comics that have not benefited directly from Blackbeard’s collection (now housed at Ohio State University).

Thank you so much, Mr. Blackbeard, for saving the history of my favorite art form.

Here is the obit at the Comics Journal by RC Harvey.

Here is a page of Blackbeard tributes at The Comics Journal.

Here is the obit at the Comics Reporter by Tom Spurgeon.

Here is a round up of writings on Blackbeard at the Comics Reporter.

The Soapy the Chicken Book… New and 15% Off

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Collecting the webcomic Soapy the Chicken (soapythechicken.com). If you prefer packing peanuts to bubble wrap, work in the rodeo clown industry, or are simply a fan of the whole mentally-deficient chicken genre, it is conceivable this could possibly be the comic for you.

I recently put together a book collecting all of the Soapy the Chicken strips to date in a convenient, old-fashioned paper edition (you can also download it as a pdf for a considerably lower price… or just read them for free on the website here, as always). It has a brand-new introduction by my friend, fellow cartoonist David Steinlicht.

You can order it here.

Until September 30th, you can get a 15% discount by using the ordering code FALLREAD305.

In the unlikely event you want to do Soapy a good turn, here is a chicklet advertising the book that you can post on your social networking profile, blog, website, a tattoo on your bicep, or what have you.

Please link it up to the book at: http://www.lulu.com/product/12663702

Thanks much to those of you foolhardy enough to promote or endorse such a dubious cause.

Also note: Love her or hate her, you can now rate her (and review her)… be the first to review Soapy the Chicken!

Tater Tot Diaper Man Guest Strip and Intro

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My friend Lance Ward recently asked me to do a guest strip for his comic strip Tater Tot Diaper Man, and an introduction for his upcoming book collection of TTDM strips. Since TTDM is one of my favorite webcomics, I was delighted to accommodate him. You can subscribe to Tater Tot Diaper Man here. Here is the guest strip:

It was a pretty fun challenge. Lance laid down the rules to me for drawing a TTDM strip… work small on some paper he provided with panels already drawn (both strips are 5.5″ x 8.5″), and use no pencils… just straight up ink. Also, the writing had to be spontaneous, with no writing or planning in advance… which is how I usually work. I cheated and used a couple dots of white-out where I had committed accidental illegibilities, but otherwise I stuck to the plan.

I decided to do the intro in this format as well. Here is the intro:

EEK! DINOSAURS! and the other stuff I have in the Lutefisk Sushi Volume D Show

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The comic I have featured in Lutefisk Sushi Volume D bento box (opening Friday… more info here) is a collection of dinosaur comics I drew for my daughters called EEK! DINOSAURS! It features a 3D cover, which you can see below.

The Lutefisk Sushi Volume D bento boxes include work by over 50 Minnesota cartoonists, have a hand-silkscreened 3D cover by featured artist Danno Klonowski, are limited to 150 copies, and sell for only $25. Hard to believe we have put together four of these monsters already.

3D and dinosaurs are like chocolate and peanut butter to me.

Here is a version with the art moving to give a glasses-free 3D effect.

I’ll also have a 2’x3′ digital print of the piece hanging on the wall at the gallery (there will be plenty of 3D glasses around to view it with, and there are glasses included in the boxes). In the event anyone wants to own one, I’ll be selling them for $40 (frame not included).

In addition to this, I printed six issues of little funny up for the show, which will be in the small boxes from the vending machine along with comics by many other artists (I’ll have a gallery of photos of all of them up sometime soon). The ones I printed include one by my oldest daughter, two I made with my good friend, Lutefisk Sushi featured artist Danno Klonowski, and three that are solo books. The little funny boxes each include a dozen or more micro-comics by different artists, and sell for $4 each… there are around a hundred of them this time around, and they will go very fast, I think.

Hope to see you there! Please tell your friends!

Lutefisk Sushi Volume D Opens This Friday! (August 6th)

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I have work in the Lutefisk Sushi Volume D show opening up this weekend (on the walls, in the Sushi bento box, and in the little funny boxes)… more information about the show below. It was just written up in City Pages here… I was excited to see the print edition included the above image from my Sushi comic, EEK! DINOSAURS! Hope to see you there!

Lutefisk Sushi Volume D opens this Friday! The show features a limited-edition (150), hand silkscreened, 3D bento box full of mini-comics by over 50 Minnesota cartoonists for only $25! See original art and other work by the cartoonists all over the walls of the gallery, including a bunch of work by featured artist Danno Klonowski (Manly Tales of Cowardice). Also, don’t miss little funny Series II, small boxes of micro-comics sold out of an old cigarette vending machine.

The show has been included in the A-List in this week’s City Pages.

Please tell your friends, blog readers, social networking website compadres, co-workers, parents, cousins, casual associates, and random people on the street of the opening this Friday, August 6th from 7 – 10 PM at Altered Esthetics!

Altered Esthetics • 1224 Quincy St NE, Mpls MN 55413 • 612.378.8888

Promotional materials below.

Postcard Resources!

Postcard front, small jpg

Postcard front, large pdf

Postcard back, small jpg

Postcard back, large pdf

Misc Show Sites

Sushi Website

Facebook Event

LSD – Facebook website