CRANK UP THE SQUIRREL

Front cover

     In 1998, I put together a squirrel-themed zine called CRANK UP THE SQUIRREL with friends Julie and Matt, and husband Anthony. It was 28 pages long, photocopied on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, and we left stacks of them around for free in various coffee shops and laundry rooms.
     The cover says "#4," but it was actually the first and only issue. But four is my favorite number, so there you go.
     It was pretty rough, but had some cool comics, stories, and silliness by all of us. And it garnered a legitimate crazy fan, who used to send fan letters and packages to my PO box.

Table of Contents

     Above is the Table of Contents. NOTE: the email and street address above are now defunct.
     See how it says Heenie will be handling correspondence? Heenie is an old character of mine who also showed up in my Skelebunnies comics published by SLG.
     Our crazy fan sent all sorts of stuff for Heenie, including a "nest" for him that was actually fairly complex and made up of plastic and straw and cardboard. Crazy Fan also sent Heenie some bizarre squirrel-themed art that was really good. But disturbing.

Movie review in comic form of Heavenly Creatures, by J. Squirrel

     We each used squirrely pseudonyms for the zine. Jules was J. Squirrel, Matt was Branch Maplebum, and I was alternately Nutsy Whiskers and Claw Twiggins. (Anthony did an uncredited parody advertisement)
   
"play" by branch maplebum

"An Entreaty" by Nutsy Whiskers

The end of J. Squirrel's short story, "Stunted," and Anthony's gross ad. I reminded him of it on our walk a few nights ago and he just chortled.

SKETCHBOOK : Open Mic Night

     This is what I sketched while we were at the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana last night, watching our friend Matt do "open mic" night. Matt played guitar and sang, and did a great job. There were maybe one or two other acts that were okay, and the others were mostly endurance tests.
     I never know where to look when anybody other than Matt is up there. We sit very close to the stage, and I don't have much of a Poker face, so I'm afraid to look directly at the performer, in case I accidentally sneer, frown, or make a painy face. So it helps my nerves to have my sketchbook to disappear into. Especially if someone is reciting a poem, which is worse than having your teeth drilled.
     It was kind of cool, though, when a young lady at a table across the room somehow set some napkins on fire with the candle on her table. All of a sudden, while some guy was performing, there were flames and people running over to douse it with water.
     The lady was by herself, and had a strange honky afro. When she first walked in she had an attitude like, "I am a quirky, interesting lady!" But after the fire, she looked like she wanted to disappear into the floorboards.
     In my mind, I have re-written it so that her honky afro was what caught fire.




T-SHIRTS : "Razors"

"Razors" t-shirt design on Amazon, courtesy of "CleverT"

     This is another design I did for CleverT. There are two colorways available. One is for a black or dark shirt, and the other is for lighter or brighter colors.
     You can buy it on Amazon HERE.
   
I can't decide which background color I like better- red, or blue.

T-SHIRTS : Scream of the Bear

"Screaming Bear"
design for T-shirt by yours truly.

     I did another design that CleverT has released as a special limited run Tshirt. Here's a screenshot of the listing on Amazon:


     Click HERE to purchase it from Amazon!
    But please note, they run SMALL, so order several sizes larger than you think you'll need. I prefer men's 3x, because then it's comfortable and there's room to grow. Not that I plan to grow any fatter, but the trend is pretty obvious at this point.

T-SHIRTS : Valentine's Skull

     I had to order my own to make sure I liked the quality of Amazon's Tshirt printing, but I received mine today and it looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. So Adam (CleverT owner) has the following two color versions of the shirt listed, and I've placed links below each. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Valentines-Vintage-Skullman-Mine-T-Shirt/dp/B01B3XPPFW/ref=sr_1_5?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1454026758&sr=1-5&nodeID=7141123011

http://www.amazon.com/Valentines-Mine-Heart-Skull-T-shirt/dp/B01AR4WNJ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1454027405&sr=1-1&nodeID=7141123011

T-SHIRTS : experimental Amazon product


     Above is a screenshot of a listing on Amazon for a T-shirt with some original artwork I did. This is a new thing I'm trying out.
     A high school friend contacted me recently, and said he's been selling T-shirts on Amazon through a new venture they have in which Amazon prints and ships the shirts on demand. My friend's company is "CleverT," and he asked if I'd be interested in doing some designs and sharing profits.
     What I'm most interested in is seeing what the quality of the printing on the shirts is like. Usually print-on-demand isn't the best quality. I've done CafePress before, and others like it, and the image is usually okay at first, but grows faint quickly, especially when washed.
     He's doing a test one for me, and I'm going to wait until I see Amazon's t-shirt printing quality before I start really promoting this.
     But I have to say it's nice to have somebody else doing the legwork to create the listing, and I like the way he worded the stuff about me and my artwork. So, that's cool.

Here's a link to the page: http://www.amazon.com/Valentines-Mine-Heart-Skull-T-shirt/dp/B01AR4V886/ref=sr_1_6?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1453135009&sr=1-6&nodeID=7141123011

FAMILY BAKE DAY 2015

Anthony displaying his peanut butter cookies
A moment before the shot above, Aunt Wanda's dog, Abby, rushes in to sniff his crotch.

     I'm posting this way after the fact, but I think we did this on December 12th, the Saturday before my last week of work before winter break. I wanted to have homemade stuff to give coworkers and students.

Mom in her cute apron

     Mom, Anthony and I all gathered at Aunt Wanda's house, and made all sorts of good stuff. Lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels dipped in stuff, peanut butter cookies, and various other cookie-like things. I'm getting over a flu right now, so I can't think too much about that, or it'll be barf time again.
     But we made lots of great stuff and had a really good time.

Aunt Wanda presiding over baking supplies

     This has been a tradition with us for the last five years or so, to gather for "Family Bake Day" sometime around mid-December.

Me with my chocolate chip cookies

Mom and me working on the pretzel goo

YOU CAN'T CATCH ME: Vintage Cookie Cutters

"YUM, YUM, LEAP FOR JOY, TRY AND CATCH THE GINGER BOY"
     In December we had Family Bake Day at Aunt Wanda's house, and she keeps turning up all these awesome old antique things every time we turn around. I don't know where she keeps finding them, because we've helped her clear out her garage and stuff several times. But her late husband lived in that house for many years, and apparently never threw anything away, and even kept things in their original packaging forever, when not in use.
     I love this old "Ginger Boy" cookie cutter. Is that racist? Somehow, calling him a Ginger Boy instead of a GingerBREAD Boy seems like it could be offensive to gingers. But, not being a ginger, who gives a shit?

"GINGERBREAD BOY COOKIES" & "DECORATING FROSTING"
     Dude, there's even a recipe on the back!

Note the weaponry and strange hat.
     This other one is probably not quite as old, but still of vintage stock, I think. I don't understand its weird hat. And why do we have to bring guns into it? Stop the violence, Gingerbread Boy.