Something has happened. Something that will delay the printing of the 2019 Bob calendar.
My wife gave me an idea.
As you know, I had the cover to the 2019 calendar all set. The only things left to do were the months. Did I want to rush it and just put old art in the spaces? Or, did I want to do all new, never before seen art on each month. I opted for the latter. New art.
But life is crazy… and thinking of 12 new pieces of Bob art on top of everything else, while not impossible, is not something that lends itself to the concept of “Quickly”.
I whine a little. I don’t whine much, but when I do, it’s a good whine. I tell Lez about it… and I ask her: “Bob calendar – what’s the first thing that comes to your mind: GO!”
She says: Bob sunflowers.
I say thanks. I walk away. I think about it. It’s a good idea. It is at that moment I realize why I married her… for an idea on what to do for the 2019 Bob calendar.
So, the good news is that I have a concept. The bad news is that I don’t have to think of 12 ideas for art… I have to think of 13. (New Cover).
Over the course of a week I managed to pencil each month. I finished the inking yesterday. On to color.
Bob’s 2019 Year in Sunflowers will hopefully be available in late November.
On August 1, 2018, Facebook will be changing its API. Long story short, I will be unable to automatically post Bob content on my personal Facebook page. Of course, I can still post content to the page manually. Automatic updates to the Bob the Squirrel Facebook page and the Bobnuts Facebook group will not be affected. There just may be less content on my personal page.
If you want the latest Bob the Squirrel strip delivered to your email every day, sign up with GoComics and add Bob. He’ll be waiting for you every morning.
I don’t like it, but it is what it is. In the grand scheme of things this wouldn’t even register as a minor inconvenience. Hope you all stick around to enjoy the show!
Last year, I decided to start a yearly tradition… to re-create Norman Rockwell’s “Triple Self-Portrait” using what has happened to me in the year to populate the panel. Here is the black and white version of this year’s installment. Lots of detail. A color version will appear as a Sunday panel in the beginning of August. #tripleselfportrait #normanrockwell #tradition
Here is the 2017 B&W version next to this year’s installment:
Bob continued his obsession at the end of the decade. Things in my life were settling down. We were all moved in to the new house, Lez, Lauren and I were becoming a real family. And yet, I still felt the need to be a little passive-aggressive when it came to Bob and Rachael Ray. And
It was around this time I actually had a shot of getting on the Rachael Ray show. It got pretty far too… I was talking to one of her producers about being on their marriage proposal shows. The premise would be that I was on the show talking about the comic strip… Lez would be in the audience. She’d think she was there just to see that. That’s when I would propose. (I managed to get a good proposal in later on) On the show. In front of millions. I was nervous. I was looking at rings. This all came about and would come about in a matter of 10-12 days. I was in the running to be picked.
The producers then asked if I’d be willing to shave off my ‘stache and beard… essentially giving me a make-over. I (like an idiot) refused… and the phone never rang again. I take a few moments every February since to kick myself for being so foolish. I never told Bob.
Something is wrong…
December 29, 2009
Toward the end of 2009 I did a series of strips where Lez get Bob a Rachael Ray spatula for Christmas. I thought it was a funny premise… watching Bob go nuts (sorry) over that particular item. The strips were very funny. Very funny. I scanned & sent them off… and proceeded to work on the next story. Another two weeks of strips finished. Boom… I’m on a roll. It was only when the Rachael Ray strips were to begin running that I noticed a teeny tiny error.
I had managed to spell Rachael Ray’s name wrong. In every. Single. Strip.
Going back and fixing it was possible, but not practical. I’d not only have to fix the spelling on the bad strips, I’d have to re-date the two weeks of panels I did AFTER these. Three weeks of strips changed. So, I let them run. Enduring the emails about my error. Know why?
Because I was going to a week of strips ABOUT the error. Take that frown and turn it upside down. Make fun of myself… because, why not?
Only problem was I had to crank them out in record time. Like two days. This leads right into…
2010
January 4, 2010
January 5, 2010
The benefit was I was now further ahead than I’d ever been. In the grand scheme of errors ever committed by humanity this doesn’t even rank. I used it. I really poured the Rachael on in early 2010. This made the Valentine story somewhat bleh.
This is me… from the beginning of my senior year in high school to this morning. There are a few gaps in the series – 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and oddly 2002 are missing. I could probably fill those gaps with something if I looked hard, but what you see are the “official” portraits of those years. Time flies… click on the image to see a bigger version.
My wife gave me an idea.
