#31 ”Turkey Time!” featuring Lael and Vosse. March 14, 2011

This one definitely got better with color. It’s still not my favorite, but let’s face it, there are a lot to choose from, so not every one is going to be the Sistine Chapel of T&J drawings. This one is more like the “Family Circus” of T&J drawings. You know that comic strip with Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, and the kid? That strip was sometimes very witty, but for the most part it made my skin curl. I still remember some strips just because they were so ridiculous. But, it was a huge hit with the elderly population, I assume, since it’s still in syndication. I’m not even sure what this one is all about. I know there is something happening between the turkey and the conjoined twins. It seems they want to feed the turkey some weed. Maybe these people have come to this little park where their favorite statue stands. The forest fire in the background is making strange circular clouds that fill the air. And all the while, the poor turkey bites on leftover Halloween candy corn, his one row of teeth stuck within it’s high fructose heart. The one twin is having a hallucination of pure color in the vague shape of a woman he once knew earlier in his life whom he had forgotten about until this very moment. The other part of the duo has had his eye punched out, and surgically inserted a Kurt Vonnegut inspired asshole. He looks out at the viewer, or just past the viewer at the dark things that lurk just behind our heads. We never see them back there because once we turn around to catch them in their sinister act, they just as quickly return to the very back of our heads. Waiting in our blind spots to torment us with doubts, regrets, depressions, and rages that we can’t do anything about. But this twin; he sees them. He can see them because his shadowy conscience is a real person, his own twin, always there. Always connected; a physical reminder that he does have a dark side, an evil twin. Or is he the evil one, he thinks to him self. Maybe my weed smoking, hallucinating twin is the good one, and I am the evil one. After all, I am always behind him, as he is always behind me. That is one of the conundrums of having a twin connected at the back, one of them always thinks the other one is the evil one. It’s a vicious cycle that could go on forever.

Tim & Jeremy’s Mind on Loup #23

“The Carnivore’s Dilemma”

I never even realized that this was number 23 and I posted it on the internet for the first time on the 23rd. Michael Jordan would be proud. Tim and I busted this one out in one day. He came over to my place and we sat around the computer and colored it all in one sitting. I guess compared to some of our other drawings, this one was easier to color in because it has only three main characters and a whole slew of supporting characters. But since the main characters are so prominent, they make coloring in faster, and to be honest, more affordable. I was very proud of this one when we finished it. I even printed out a copy and brought it to the Cafe Loup. There it sat, in a plastic sleeve behind the bar for almost a year. About a month ago, I gave it to Edie for her collection. It would’ve sat at the Loup for a very long time had I just let sleeping drawings lie. There is a drawing I did back in 2002 (August) that is still inside a book at the Loup. If you ever want me to show it to you, I know which book it’s in. That is also a testament to how long things can stick around in the Cafe Loup. That goes with people as well. We have multiple people who have been working there for over 20 years. Imagine that! 20 years as a waiter! Lloyd, the boss, has been there since the place opened in 1977. Yes, folks; he has worked there since before I was born. That’s some craziness right there. I guess it’s also a testament to how good it is to work at the Cafe Loup. There are certainly a lot of really bad points, but overall it’s a pretty great job. A lot of cash, food, and drinks. I have actually never worked in a more laid back place. So, although the bad sometimes outweighs the good, usually it’s the other way around. I mean, every job sucks in a certain respect. Anyway, Tim and I had some fun with this one. We made the chef in the back of the waiter/insect the same chef as from T&J #5. It’s a small cameo, but there he is! I liked the guy repainting. He’s pretty happy about his work and the color choice is exquisite! The poor unicorn is still being stabbed but if you look closely, he’s bleeding a rainbow! Possibly even skittles. How nice. Then, the icing on the cake for me is that the unicorn is about to step on a picture. That picture is T&J #22! I love it! It kind of ties the two together in a way. You could assume that the horse from #22 and this unicorn are lovers and the unicorn feels scorned so he’s stomping on the picture. Maybe he is even committing suicide and the waiter/insect is not in the wrong after all. There are always so many story lines with these things. I think in the future, I am going to come up with one and tell it like the gospel. There won’t be any “maybes” and there will only be one way to view these drawings. Actually, that sounds horrible. Nevermind. 

Tim & Jeremy’s Mind on Loup #22

“The End of an Affair”

When I was a kid and I played chess, I would sometimes imagine these weird scenes off the board when I would capture pieces. I would have a captured queen make out with my king. I would imagine the pawns were all really bummed out to have to be sitting out of the battle. Sometimes it takes your opponent a long time to play their move, so there’s a lot of down time in a chess match. Nowadays, I concentrate too hard on not losing to have these scenarios during a game, but they obviously are still clanging around in my brain somewhere. So, this one took a couple of strange turns while I was coloring it. The most notable one to me is what the knight is thinking. I couldn’t come up with anything for what she was thinking, since she seems so sad. So I thought maybe she would think of the worst fate that could bestow her (either for cheating with the opposing sides bishop or for painting such a bad painting). So, I turned her back into a horse and figured the worst thing to happen to a horse is to become dog food. Think about it, you die and then are eaten by dogs. That would be horrible. There isn’t horse meat in dog food, by the way; I checked. Once upon a time there must have been otherwise people wouldn’t still think that there is even to this day. Maybe I should have put little jars of glue up there instead since they do still make glue out of horse hooves. However, I stuck with the dog food option since I think it is funnier. Not that I think dead horses are funny. But this is a cartoon, people. And, our horse isn’t even real, she’s a chess piece! So, the next little thing I liked about this one was the family portrait over the bed. I like that we are in the bedroom of this knight and she is indeed having a sordid affair with the bishop of the opposing team. I keep referring to the knight as a “her” but everyone knows that knights are gender neutral. I am merely implying that the bishop is a man because of his phallic nature. Maybe he is the woman in this situation. Maybe it is some sort of gay affair. These things also happen! So if you have your own interpretation, by all means, go with it! Anyway, at the very end I decided that this whole thing would look best in a nice gilded frame. It reinforces the fact that we are all looking at a picture and not at an actual scene of two chess pieces having an inter-team love affair. I just wanted everyone to be on the same page. 

Tim & Jeremy’s Mind on Loup #21 

“Untitled #21”

I couldn’t come up with a good name for this one. Maybe if I brainstorm while writing, I could come up with something better than the old cop-out, “Untitled.” I don’t know though. I just looked at it again for a good couple minutes and nothing comes to mind. Yes, it is cohesive drawing with some sort of story arc. In fact, it probably has multiple story arcs, depending on the viewers capacity for weirdness. But what pulls it all together? I can’t find that element. Who would be the main character in this story? Maybe it’s all a vision from the smoking Neapolitan ice cream snowman. Maybe it’s the saga of the robotic bum. Maybe it’s a vision of the future as told by the little girl on the left with her as the old woman. Maybe the blood thirsty wizard on roller skates is about to pull a gun and kill everyone! The point is, there are a lot of probables and no clear cut answers in this one. That is why it remains untitled at this point in our lives. That being said, this was one of my favorites at the time for some reason or another. As I said in the last post, it was also Dien’s favorite. It wasn’t may favorite when we drew it, but I did have a good time coloring it in and I think it really came alive with the colors. I really liked coloring the old woman’s hat with the monkey squirrel on it. I thought that was a cool hat to begin with, but the color really brought it to life. I also drew more in post than I ever had previously. I usually don’t like to draw in post production because I think it looks too “computerized.” You can see the pixels and it doesn’t look like a “drawn” line. With this one, I broke out of that and drew a couple of things. The first one was the human bum’s sign, “Get a job, hippie.” When I was drawing that, Tim had wanted me to send a message to one of his frienamies down in Florida. He was in a fight with this kid and the bum shown here was a representation of this person, if I remember correctly. I looked on the old interweb to see if I could find some witty bum signs. I found a bunch although most were along the lines of “will work for beer,” “Why lie, I need a beer,” and “Bet you can’t hit me with a quarter.” Yes, all of them were sadly amusing, but none of them seemed right. So, I turned the tables and had the bum ordering instead of asking. He is accusing you and I, the hippies of the world, to go out and get a job. Either that, or I am accusing him of being a hippie and telling him (or Tim’s pal) to get a job. Either way, I thought it was a good twist on the old bum sign. The second thing I drew in post production in the graffiti in the background. This was my tag while I was in high school. I did a lot of tagging in Syracuse N.Y. back then. I never got into the whole graffiti culture and spray cans, I was more of a Sharpie Magnum kind of guy. My proudest moment was when I was called to the principals office of my high school and they used my tag name over the loud speaker. It was like I was a celebrity! All of my tagging friends were so proud. I got high fives and hugs all day and we laughed and laughed. Looking back on it, I was a real jerk to my high school janitors. All they wanted was a clean and tidy school, and I just drew all over it with this stupid tag. You might be able to still see some of it outside the “C” building if you’re ever in Syracuse, although I haven’t checked in a while so maybe it’s all been painted over or washed away by the elements. This was a long time ago, after all. Finally, there are two pictures imbedded in this one. One is of a fireworks display right behind the robotic bums head. I love the original picture, but I’m not sure if it works here or not. I’m not loving it at the moment. The other is over near the beheaded chicken king. I wanted it to be a blue background that was ambiguous and didn’t want to use the blue, partly cloudy skies that I always use, so I got this picture. Both pictures are from the Holga and this one is, again, from St. John. In fact, there is a guy named John in the original picture, although no one calls him that. I like the way the Holga distorts everything , and this picture is no exception.

#20 “Birth of a Nation” Featuring Landon Webb

Originally published on July 1, 2010

Well, if it didn’t make any sense before, once I threw some colors into it, all bets were off. Although this was posted to Bookface on July 1, I had been working on it during the 2010 World Cup. You know, the one from South Africa with the vevuzulas. This one happened to coincide with that World Cup and it became the unofficial “Tim & Jeremy’s World Cup Tribute Drawing.” Maybe that was too bad, but maybe it was the right thing for the time. At this point in time, the Cup was not finished yet and there had yet to be a winner. I think that most of the teams were out and we were in the semis or something, but there was no winner. You can see though that there are a bunch of teams who were in the semis and there is even the winner! But first, lets talk about the losers, or Loupsers as we call them here on this blog (remember, they are pronounced the same way since the P is silent!). First of all, there is Ghana. Ghana was reviled by most of the U.S. because it beat them to knock out the States. Too bad, America! Play better next time. I thought it was fitting to include them, so the little purple priest represents Ghana. He is thinking in his thought bubble about the host nation, South Africa. They didn’t fare so well either in the Cup, but they did beat Mexico to start everything off and they also had my favorite name of the tournament, Siphiwe Tshabalala. He is the guy in the thought bubble. Great name. The Jewish fellow on the left I made into Holland. The Dutch played very well in the World Cup and almost won, except they forgot to play in the final game against Spain. And then they played like a bunch of thugs anyway, so I really was rooting against them. I used to really like the Dutch team, but these days I’m no longer a fan. Van Percy and Robin seem like completely unlikable characters to me so it makes it hard for me to root for them. Maybe that’s why this guys face is green; the Dutchmen’s final game probably would’ve made me sick too if I were a fan. Next up is Brazil. They were one of the favorites and they played very well, until Robin and the Hollanders smoked them in the semis. I thought the Brazilians played a good Tournament and they also had a great name on their team. A guy with the name of Kaka. It doesn’t sound like the child’s version of shit, but it sure looks like it. I thought that was unfortunate for him, but amusing for the world as a whole. I think I actually started with this guy and worked left, so he was the one who started the whole World Cup motif. The Brazilian uniform is really striking and I thought it fit well into the drawing. The rest of it may have been overkill, but that’s what I was feeling at the time, so you’ll have to excuse me. Last, but certainly not least is Spain. They were the 2010 World Cup champions and they deserved it. They played great, they looked great, and by golly, they seemed like a nice group of guys. However, in this drawing, to celebrate their victory, they had to give birth to a moving van full of robots. Maybe that’s what winning the World Cup actually feels like. You have to play so hard for a month straight and then when you finally win, it must be exhausting! I’m sure it’s not as bad as giving birth to a van through your rectum, but metaphorically, maybe it is. I really actually like the Spanish team. It’s kind of strange that I put them in here as that guy. I think I ran out of teams, and I wanted them to be represented because this drawing has a lot of the final teams represented in it. Maybe I was rooting for the Brazilians or the Ghanians at that point. I don’t know. It’s just what came out, so to speak! On a side note, some friends and I went up to Bethel, New York to watch a concert and have a lost weekend. The World Cup was constantly on while we were there and I will always associate that trip with it, so I also included one of the pictures from that weekend in this drawing. We were staying on White Lake up in Bethel, and if you’re ever in the area, I recommend stopping by for a swim. It’s quite lovely.

#19 “No Lifeguard on Duty”

Originally posted on June 16, 2010

I’m not sure how this one came about, but here’s my hypothesis. Around this time last year, the sidewalk in front of the Cafe Loup was all ripped up because the building we are attached to was putting in a some new plumbing. Or something. When I first started at the Loup one million years ago, a similar thing was happening and it went on for over four years. It was even reported about in the New York Times! So naturally, when the sidewalk was again ripped up, all the customers who remember the “Big Dig” were always making remarks about the condition. Some funny, but most were pretty annoying. I think it was our friend and co-worker Sue, who is always one for funny remarks, who came up with a brilliant retort to these comments. She started telling everyone that we were putting in a pool! It almost looked that way, too. There was a little moat, and even a plank that customers would have to use in order to enter the restaurant. It almost looked as if we were putting in a koi pond or a pool! I started telling everyone as well, and soon people started to believe it (mostly senile old people and children, but still). It would be great, there would be a pool in the summer, and in the winter we would use it as an ice skating rink. How exciting! So, I’m not exactly sure if this drawing was any way inspired by that story, but somehow that is what I thought of today. It looks as if it could be outside the Loup. The angry guy in the corner could even be a floppy haired Lloyd, angry about all the people in his pool. There is even one employee in there. Can you see him? That’s right, it’s Wood-Lump! Haha. I think this is his last time showing up in these drawings. Because, you see, he is a little under the weather. He developed the mumps, and is all covered in spots. When I was tagging him on Bookface when I posted this one, I tagged him as “Wood-Mumps.” This is a variation on about 1,000 Woodman drawings that Tim has done over the past year or so. I’m sure he’ll return some day, but this is the last one for a while (if I remember correctly). If I can find any of the variations, I’ll post those as well. One other reason that this may have come about is the insane heat of last year’s Loup. We’ve since gotten a new air conditioner so don’t be afraid to come in, but last year that was not the case. We had an air conditioner from who knows when and it was just eking out the air. It was always so incredibly hot in there that all we really wanted was a dip in a nice blue pool with octopuses and sinking ships. Then the toy ship armada started sailing on land, and everything got messed up. The angry guy started thinking about lunch and all he could come up with is the cheeseburger from T&J #1. Luckily, they still serve that at the Cafe Loup, just steps away from the pool! (Spoiler alert: they didn’t put a pool on 13th Street. At least not in front of the restaurant.)

#18 “Straight From the Source”

Originally published on 6/1/11

This one sure turned out well in color, wouldn’t you agree? You can actually tell why I chose to name it the name I named it. (Awkward sentence, yet amusing) You see, behind the man who is actually taking his face off for the customers is a room in which a couple of people are engaging in some surgery. That is convenient for the purveyors of this little deli. They can get all the leftovers from the surgery and sell them to hungry cannibals straight from the source. There is virtually no middle man. What a perfect operation! When I was coloring this one in, the surgeons were the last thing to be added in. I had a hard time thinking about what could be in that back room, and then in a flash of inspiration, it came to me. It’s pretty hard to see in the small version and the only reason that you might be able to tell they are surgeons is the color of their scrubs. Even then it’s a little obscure. But that’s why we have this blog! To explain the mysteries of the universe. Haha. So, the thing I like about this one is that it’s a pretty gristly scene if you think about it. Yet, with Tim and my style, it looks pretty harmless, some would say humorous. That’s what I like the best about these drawings. We take some things that are disgusting, perverted, socially unacceptable, and somehow soften them until they become almost PG. Okay, maybe PG-13. Like the last one, dealing with bondage, pornography and exploitation  in the end looks like a nice little afternoon tea party. In this one, the guys behind the counter have severed their own limbs to sell to the customers! They’ve beheaded at least one poor guy to serve the customers dog! What kind of establishment does that?! I was really happy with the way this one came together. It actually has a really good dialogue and is concise and self contained. A lot of the other ones we do are surrealistic insanity with dreamlike scenes and non-sequiturs everywhere. This one started out that way, I’m sure, but found itself come together quite nicely. This is still one of my favorites, even though it’s almost a year old! I have to catch up on this blog pretty badly. We have so many great ones in the line to get the blog treatment. In the meantime, I put a Chinese poster into this one; can anyone tell me what it says? I’m sure it says something about missing fingers, but does it have a humorous slant?

#16 “That Guy Could Talk a Dog Off a Meat Wagon”

Originally posted on May 19, 2010

So, I thought I lost the original drawing of this one, but I just found it. Now, by this point in the T&J saga, we had been using the entire triple dupe pad in these drawings. You can see this one is a little shorter than the previous couple of drawings. That is because on the front cover of the dupe pad, the drawing took a turn for the worse; no, not worse, horrible! I remember what happened too. What you see here is the back cover of the pad, drawn sometime during the course of the week or something. The front cover we started working on one late Friday night. And I mean late. The thing looks like a child’s doodle pad complete with stick figures and ridiculous bugs (bees?). I don’t know what the heck is going on, but needless to say, I cut it and won’t ever post it because it’s too insane. If you ever want to see it, you’ll have to come over to my house to visit, and I’ll show you the original. That’s the nature of these drawings though. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they are unusable. It’s saddest when they are great and they get thrown away. This happened recently and I am sad about it, but you have to move on. It’s not like these things are the Sistine Chapel every time; almost every time, is more like it. This one is a good example of that. Clean, smooth, weird and complete. I personally love mini golf. I think it’s because of all those warm summer nights as a kid going to places like “Pirate’s Cove” and “Holiday Hill.” Pretty good courses and always a good time. I mean, there are few better thrills than a “Hole-in-one” as a kid. But these characters seem to be missing the fun involved. I imagine the main guy as being the coach of the golfer. Talking incessantly about his form and to just relax! That’s the downside of golf for most people, and was the reason I stopped playing for a long time. You have to relax. If you are all tensed up, there’s no way you’re going to sink your putts. I remember playing one day with my brother on a small par 3 and getting so frustrated that when we got home I shaved my head. I was really hot that day, but that summed up my overall attitude of the day. I didn’t golf (besides putt-putt) after that for years. These days, I don’t get out on the course as much as I would like to, but I finally understand the attitude of golf. This guy in the crazy pants should learn it someday, especially since he’s on the greatest of holes, 19, which to most people represents the bar! Win or lose, we booze!

#15 “Exception to the Rule” Featuring Landon Webb

First posted on May 10, 2010

This is the first time I am showing this one as I wanted it to be shown. When I posted it on Bookface on May 10, 2010, I tried to post it like this but the stupid Face wouldn’t let me. I was forced to post it on its side, which works compositionally and every other way as well. I just prefer it this way. I may or may not be better this way. You can be the judge. This whole scene seems to be taking place in the mountainous regions of a distant land. Not too distant as the characters seem familiar, probably American, though not necessarily. The main character is certainly the woman, bowlegged but seemingly confident. She wears her gold framed glasses as a status symbol as well as a fashion statement. Maybe she’s in the arts. It’s hard to tell from her outfit, which looks like an apron pulled over some ugly blouse. She has no arms yet seems to be holding up a small child with a set of eyes too many. As carefree as a schoolboy, he blows bubbles with one hand while the other balances a hot dog. Tough the actual dog looks delicious, the one end is exploding with some alien being. The alien being turns into a set of hands and a bunny’s head dripping horizontally with blood. Oh, the horror. One of the hands balances a martini, though drunkenly spills some of the contents onto the mountain floor. The bird of paradise, once lost and out of place is now giddy and lively, eyeing the dropped martini drops thirstily. Yes, it has been a happy day for our heroine, and she smiles at the thoughts surrounding her head; shoes delicately matching her ugly blouse. Some of my favorite parts are as follows. I really like the hot dog. I have been drawing them for years and they always look similar to this one. Is it cheese and relish on top or mustard and japalenos? It doesn’t matter! I don’t even like this style of hot dog, but I love drawing them. This was my favorite use of the fold in the triple dupe pad. It is usually a real pain in the neck to clean up the fold. By it’s nature, the fold is usually very wrinkled by the time I get them home to scan. So, I have to clean that section of the drawing up a lot. If there are little details in the fold, they are sometimes lost since a cleanly image is more important to me than some crusty lines. This fold is in fact neat and tidy and creates the bottom of our heroines dress; the pink part. It looks great! To anyone else, this is such a minor detail, but I love it. Other than that, I think this is a solid T&J and the first and only one that was ever vertical.

“Back Stage at the Sunken Head” Featuring Landon Webb

Originally published on May 4, 2010