Fun With Quickies

Or Unusable Panel Cartoons

Long ago in the old days, which were actually young days because I was younger, I would do a panel cartoon with a Sharpie after making my comic strip. They weren’t submitted to magazines or exchanged for goods and services. They were just for me. A simple and fun exercise. Definitions of fun may vary.

Most of them were just weird, probably because I’m weird, but I enjoy looking at them and taking pride in the fact that I did not waste money on postage by trying to sell them. I generally do not look back on my life and take pride in knowing that I didn’t spend my money unwisely and this is the exception.

Whenever I drew these, and I’m going to take an educated guess that it was two in the morning, it’s obvious that my mind turned to psychology. I like psychology. I did pretty well in it at school, and considering the fact that I never studied, that’s saying something. Psychology wound up being my sister’s profession. I chose the more lucrative option of anything else. As I mentioned, I rarely look back and take pride in money-making decisions.

But psychology isn’t necessarily funny in my hands. Psychology is more of a “Huh, that’s funny” than “Ha Ha” funny when I write about it.

If you want to see genius in the form of a comic panel, check out the New Yorker or any of the now-defunct magazines that existed in the previous century. Being a master of the comic panel is, in my mind, like being a master of the short story. This is why I frequently envy the career of James Thurber, because that guy was the best of both worlds.

The people who can do a great syndicated comic panel have my fullest admiration. Today that would be the two Daves and Mark. Dave Coverly, Dave Blazek, and Mark Parisi are absolutely hilarious, and if you look through their brilliant work you will quickly see why these comics remained in my sketchbook. There will be no desk calendars of this.

I was given the Complete Far Side by my syndicate, and I was so overwhelmed with joy that I often said that it would be the first thing I grabbed if there was a fire. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fire that got to it, but a seven pound cat who thought that it was a wonderful scratching post. Needless to say, I have a great deal of affection for a bound volume of Gary Larson’s genius that looks like somebody with a grater thought it was a block of cheese. Sorry, Gary.

This was published in a library newsletter and caused me to spend about thirty minutes apologizing to an obese librarian.

I still think this is a good idea. I watch a lot of true crime and a dog would make the perfect “surprise witness”. Nobody worries about being ratted out by a dog. “Your honor, I call to the stand….Tippy!” (A hushed gasp fills the courtroom.)

In design class, I often heard this phrase. “If we removed just one line…” So, clearly, this would’ve been a big hit in that very particular design class. Outside of the classroom, it’s another “Huh…that’s…funny?”

Penny! She wasn’t called Penny then. She wasn’t called anything. Obviously, my 2:00 a.m. drawing schedule had my mind on sleep. And psychology.

I also had way too many gags about death. Ok, so I drew about psychology, sleep, and death. I was a regular Emily Dickinson.

I still love this one. Sorry, dad.

I’m also sorry that I filled up an entire post with old panel cartoons that were drawn only to entertain myself. If I accidentally entertained you as well, I apologize. It was an accident.