She needs therapy or good sex, take your pick.
Posted on December 3, 2008 | by Donna Barstow
“ANOTHER FREUDIAN SLIP: “I want to make wild, passionate chocolate chip cookies with you.”
Well, the wine glasses are empty, and this may explain her behavior. But really, isn’t it fun to be the aggressor?! ;)
The subject for Illustration Friday this week is Balloon. So here you go, the speaking (or thought) balloon all cartoonists know all too well. And a colorful cartoon that I just remembered I did last month for a little interview I did for Psychology Today. No, not as a patient, silly - though they may have missed the boat on that call - but as a creative person. (That’s what my most recent contract calls me: Creator. What happened to A$$h#le?)
Susan Perry is an accomplished writer of several books about flow, and is now working on a novel. Psychology Today invited her to do a blog for them, about creating in flow. (What, did you think PT was too stodgy for blogs and fun? Never! And they welcome comments, too!) I don’t know if you’ll learn anything new about me or cartoons there, but it’s a pretty accurate portrait. Or portrayal.
About the Cartoon
Because the title is at the bottom, I had to put the caption into a balloon for her. I think they balance each other out visually, but that took a couple of tries. I did the drawing recently, and I like the assertive lines. I thought of it several years ago, however, before chocolate became popular and ok. (which is really only the last 5 years.) This was published in Weight Watchers. They have good taste, don’t they!
Of course, I loved the idea so much I also did one for men. But I’m not sure that one’s ready for Prime Time viewing!
Trader Joe’s does it again. Bad pie, TJ.
Posted on December 3, 2008 | by Donna Barstow
Picture of homemade pie.
You would think that with a title of (take deep breath) Trader Joe’s Chocolate Pumpkin Pecan Praline Tart, how could they miss, right? Nice cheerful orange label with chocolate dots, attractive looking pie. But I won’t make you wait until the end of the review: thumbs down.
(What is the difference between tart and pie? [Pause while I go over to Google.] Okay, here:
A tart is made with a crust formed in a tart pan or a low, straight-walled pan with a removable bottom. A pie, similar to a tart, is baked in a pie pan that has sloping sides. Both a tart and a pie can have the crust prebaked and filled or baked with fruits, custards or chocolate.
Everything 2 agrees with that. Already, things are not quite right here. This is definitely a pie, not a tart.)
Anyway, it has a sweet crumbly crust. I love soft crusts! But it’s not real chocolate, and it doesn’t taste like chocolate, unless it’s the cheap drugstore kind. The filling has a slightly crunchy filling, of substance, but not hard on your teeth.
Man without a backbone cartoon.
Posted on November 27, 2008 | by Donna Barstow
“Well, I’d want the whole thing taken out, but you might want a second opinion on that.” Cartoon ©D. Barstow.
Not that I’m in the least bit misogynistic. People who know me know I love men, in all guises. But the stronger the better, of course. ;)
This is part of my Morbid series. It’s not that I like jellyfish, which he’d be without the skeleton, but I’m fascinated by skeletons. Once I read a science fiction story that I’ve never forgotten, about the bones inside a man who wanted to come out. They felt the flesh was the enemy, hiding them, hindering them. They knew they were the strength of the man, the real power, and they wanted to be seen. And in the end, they do, don’t they. Now you want to read it, huh?! If only I could remember the author…
One of the first things I studied trying to be a cartoonist was the body form. I’ve taken a few figure drawing classes ever since college, and really should take one every year. To think that you know the body - when every body is different - is a little presumptuous. I’ve heard Sergio Aragones say many times that every time he draws something he studies its form again as if it’s new, so he’ll have a fresh take on it.
Anyway, this was before the internet, so I had to learn skeletons from books. For a while I wanted to do a strip with them! They are pretty powerful, after all, and I didn’t need that scifi story to tell me that.
Earlier version of this cartoon after the jump.
I have a big carbon footprint when I make toast.
Posted on November 20, 2008 | by Donna Barstow
I don’t like white bread anymore. Only grainy or dark or bread of substance. I like bagels and English muffins and crumpets to be grainy, too!
I also don’t like toasters. Too slow.
Or toaster ovens. (What is the point of them again? I think I’m going to toss mine.)
Microwave is fast, but where’s the slightly burnt/toasted edges?
That leaves my big stove. That’s right, I turn it all the way up to broil, put a piece of tin foil down and the bread, wait 30 sec, turn it over and put some butter on so it melts just right, and Bob’s your uncle!
Honey is optional, along with the guilt.
And I thought Buster Brown only made shoes! Buster Brown Bread through Flickr Creative Commons Photographs by Derek Farr (Detroit Derek). Thanks Derek!
Three cats consider a hole.
Posted on November 20, 2008 | by Donna Barstow
“If you see any bigger than this, just pretend you don’t see them.”
I hope you understand this cartoon. So far, no editor has.
Well, it is a little ambiguous, my favorite place to be. Originally, I meant that they should pretend to ignore any people, and since everyone is bigger than that, that would mean they ignore everyone. Which they do, anyway!
Then I noticed the mousehole - or I drew it, forget which - and so maybe the cat is referring to big mice. And that, too, is typical of cats - to ignore any fight they can’t win.
I guess I shouldn’t go into the story of how I was running around Silver Lake very late the other night and saw a mouse for the first time. I see coyotes, skunks, raccoons regularly, and hear Great Horned Owls. But I have never seen a mouse. So tiny and sort of helpless, running in short bursts to avoid my thundering feet coming up. Read the rest
