NEW SERIES – Bill Watterson

Bill Watterson style…

Back to the roots of everything. This is a milestone in a way. Today I post the 200th image in my Family Styles series.

I say back to the roots… because that’s exactly what the work of Bill Watterson is to me. I’ve gone on and on about his lines and color work in Calvin and Hobbes for 25 years. And, I could continue to go on about it gleefully.

But I’d rather let his work to speak for itself. There’s Bill Watterson… and then there’s everyone else.

A tail of a milestone comic strip squirrel

6,000 squirrels

I suppose today is a milestone comic strip.

Today, March 4, 2020 marks the appearance of the 6,000th Bob the Squirrel comic strip. No bells or whistles… in fact I only started really keeping track of the number after I hit 5,000 a few years back.

But, using modern technology (and my obsessive compulsive nature of keeping good dated backup files) I’ve dug up every previous milestone comic strip.


Strip #5,000 – June 8, 2017

Not much to say about this one… I did put together a giant GREATEST Hits show for this one. Took a lot of tape and Funtac to put that show together.


Strip #4,000 – September 12, 2014

Our wedding was in October of that year and I was keeping our plans and anxiety alive and well in the strip… and pretty much in real time. It all worked out to be an amazing day…


Strip #3,000 – December 11, 2011

I was closing in on ten years of Bob the Squirrel at this point… and I questioned if I should continue doing the strip.  I had a small, loyal fan base, but the likelihood of the strip being my only job was looking like a longer and longer long-shot. Should I quit and try something else that maybe would benefit me financially? Or did the squirrel talk me out of it?


Strip #2,000 – March 22, 2009

We were in our new house just under a year when I drew this. This was also when I was really into the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints. Lucy’s favorite was Pistachio Pistachio … I would get a spoon and feed it to her right out of the container. I tell Lez that she should have known what type of guy I was by witnessing that act. She had every opportunity to grab Lauren and run… 🙂


Strip #1,000 – June 20, 2006

I wasn’t sure if I should include this one… despite it being the 1,000th strip. This may sound horrible… well, it DOES sound horrible.  I sometimes forget that I was married once before… and that I had a whole other life in a whole other city. But, I did… and I have the strips to prove it.  And really, aside from a few bits of clothes and my drawing board, the strips are the ONLY things I kept from that life.

So, that’s the strip… thousand by thousand. Hope we’re all around for the 7,000th – which, barring any life complications, should be appearing November 29, 2022.

SCI-FI BOB page is up and running…

100 images, spanning the entire galaxy and sci-fi genre…

One Squirrel

The SCI-FI Bob Series page is up and running… All images will appear in the gallery there. Also, images will be available for purchase… just email me an inquiry and I’ll give you a price.
I’ve set some parameters for the series… you can read them for yourself.
Also also… since I may need a suggestion or tow to get to 100, there is a suggestion form for any ideas you may have.

Categories: fun life love

To my beautiful and amazing wife on her birthday…

Wife birthday 2019

To my wife Lezley, on her birthday…

I’ve been drawing you for 12 years. Depending how you look at it, that can be considered a long time or a drop in the bucket.  I think we’re somewhere in the middle. And even though I know you up, down and all the way around, there are still little surprises . Not big surprises… little ones.  Little surprises are good.

I’ll never get your hair color right. I think I only came close once. And the day after that… you changed it. But, what a glorious day it was.

I’ve said to you 1,276,987 times: I wish you could see yourself the way that I see you.

In fact, that wish may be the one gift I can never give you. Sad.

Hell, I wish you can see yourself the way ANYONE around you sees you. You possess a natural ability of getting anyone to open up to you.  You are comfort. You are sunshine. A more scrupulous person with those abilities could be a superhero. You don’t even know you have it… and that makes it all the more awesome.

But you don’t like this, you don’t like that about yourself. Too big, too small, too this, too that… whatever.  It’s all you… and you are beautiful, both inside and out. You are amazing both inside and out. I’m never going to stop telling you that.  And even if it gets to the point I’m blue in the face it’s all good… my beard and moustache will hide most of the blue.

Changing the mirrors won’t change you… and thank goodness for that.

I’m a stubborn son-of-a-bitch… I know that one day, somewhere, sometime, it’ll happen… you’ll see yourself as we ALL do

Until then, we’ll have to just keep telling you.

You’re an amazing and beautiful pain in the ass, but I’m lucky to have the hurt.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart. Love you.

 

Categories: love