Graduation
May 3, 2013 at 7:17 am | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentTags: basketball, cap and gown, chuck, college, comic strip, commencement, graduate, graduate school, graduation, hoosiers, indiana, indiana university, indianapolis, law school, life, little 500, living, milestones, ralph

Yesterday I turned in the last assignment of my undergraduate career, and tomorrow after commencement I say goodbye to Bloomington as an IU student forever.
Normally I’m a pretty sentimental guy, but honestly I’m not feeling any sadness right now. I’ve loved my time at IU and I know I’ll have opportunities to visit. I’m not going to be very far away attending law school in Indianapolis.
I’m excited about the challenges and opportunities that life will put in front of me, and IU will always be a big part of helping me grow along the way. I look forward to future Little 500s and basketball games – this time watching as an alum! Go Hoosiers!
My “goodbye” comic has gone over well. Stick a few landmarks in your comic and everyone starts getting sentimental! It came to be just as a classic “avoiding schoolwork” comic, while Lisa and I were brainstorming for a penultimate comic.
The graduation comic is a deliberate homage to the comic I drew in high school:
Alfred and Jimmy both make reappearances! The new comic is meant to serve the same purpose – Ralph and Chuck isn’t going anywhere. Sure, it might take them a while to find a new place to be published, and comics may be drawn more sporadically (I hear law school is no cakewalk) but Ralph and Chuck goes where I go, and I’ll never stop drawing!
Avoiding chores, analyzing outfits, pros and cons of the internet, final papers, and violent punchlines
April 30, 2013 at 9:01 am | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentTags: academics, boston bombing, cats, chuck, clothes, comic strip, debate, depression, final paper, fourth wall, graduation, grammar, internet, islamic extremism, men, outfit, ralph, religion, self-referential, violence, women




Looking back on my most recent comics, it looks like I was in a pretty self-referential mood. Three out of the five had the characters somehow acknowledging that they were in a comic strip. Really it was four out of six, if you consider the Calvin and Hobbes homage last week.
The first comic is an idea I remember coming up with a while ago, and I couldn’t tell you why I haven’t actually drawn it until now. I liked the idea of some characters staying “in panel” while another abuses the privilege of “breaking panel.”
The next one is partially based off of experience. Sometimes my opinion is asked of one of my fiancée’s outfits and my first response is “why are you asking me?” Although I’m not a comic strip character, I’ve pretty much been wearing the same clothes since high school. When I have to dress up I’m mocked by female family members for not understanding what’s allowed and not allowed. I’m the last person you should ask for fashion advice.
The next comic represents my range of emotions when thinking about the internet.
I had the inspiration for the final paper comic after finishing one of my final projects and writing the file name.
The last comic speaks for itself. I’m annoyed we’re walking on eggshells when it comes to what motivates these people. If it were the KKK bombing people, we would have no problem pointing to their sick ideology, so why do we pretend otherwise in instances obviously related to Islamic extremism? No intelligent person would argue that all Muslims are terrorists any more than they would argue that every white person is a white supremacist. Identifying the problem is the first step to solving it.
Derivative
April 28, 2013 at 4:06 pm | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentTags: art, bill watterson, calvin and hobbes, chuck, comic strip, derivative, homage, inspiration, nuance, originality, plaigarism, ralph, ripoff, wagon
Oftentimes when I’m at a loss for new comic ideas, I end up thinking about my favorite strips (including Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson) and all of the ideas that they made work.
This seldom helps, since then I can only think of all these great ideas that I wouldn’t be able to use without some pretty obvious plagiarizing.
For this comic, my internal musing about how difficult it is to come up with original ideas seemed perfectly suited for one of Calvin and Hobbes’ philosophical wagon rides. I was thrilled, since this way I could call it an “homage” rather than a blatant ripoff. Nuance is important.
Of course, talking about originality and nuance in art is also very well suited for a Calvin and Hobbes snowmen comic. But I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.
Good in white
April 8, 2013 at 7:51 am | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentTags: chuck, comic strip, hoosiers, indiana university, iu, ralph, sample gates, snow, white
Somehow this comic slipped my attention and never was posted. I need to get it up quickly before it’s entirely irrelevant!
It may seem odd to post this with spring (we hope) almost fully sprung, but a week or two ago and this comic wouldn’t have seemed so strange. Indiana weather is weird like that.
Maturity
April 5, 2013 at 10:35 am | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentTags: comic strip, ralph, chuck, responsibility, debt, law school, indiana university, iu on strike, protest, maturity, adult, student loans, graduate school, economics, free lunch, noise, pots and pans
As I wrestle with the issue of incoming debt by looking closely at graduate school choices and payment plans, others are taking a different approach. Specifically, the assumption that by making a lot of noise, somehow they can get some sort of a free lunch.
Things cost money. Sometimes you can’t pay for those things right away, so you take out a loan that you plan on paying back later. If you don’t think you can pay it back, then you don’t take it on. And whining about it doesn’t make debt go away. The laws of economics apply to all of us, and that includes Indiana University.
Simply demanding that tuition and fees be reduced won’t make it happen. Demanding that tuition and fees be reduced while shoving secretaries and stuffing flyers in purses won’t make it happen, either. What it does is expose immaturity and tells others that you’d rather throw a tantrum than actually consider realistic ways your issues can be dealt with. And sometimes the only way you can deal with them is by checking your own responsibility on an individual level. In fact, that’s supposed to be the first instinct of a mature adult.
A large post for a large absence
February 22, 2013 at 1:08 pm | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a comment







Well, I haven’t been on this site for a while!
That doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy! Engaged life is about the same as before, except that if possible I’m even more concerned about the future than I already was. Apartment hunting has been fun, if educational into just how poor I really am. Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and Spring Break is on the horizon – as is graduation.
I don’t have any particular reason for not posting other than in general being very busy and preoccupied. I’ll work harder at getting these comics posted online in the future. Thanks for reading!
Cheapskates, the draft, and Mondays
January 27, 2013 at 5:45 pm | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a commentThe first comic is an idea that stemmed from the third proposal comic from last week. Chuck got Sarah a ring so small that she needed a magnifying glass to see it. It was an extra bit of background humor, but it led to this idea. Chuck as a cheapskate is amusing to me.
For the record, I got Lisa an engagement ring with three stones:
I know that there is supposedly some rule that says the ring should cost 30 percent of a yearly salary (or something like that), but I just tried to get a good ring at a cost that didn’t seem ridiculous to me considering that I have next to zero income as a college student. I largely agree with Chuck’s sentiment in panel two. And let’s face it, if the woman loves you enough it won’t matter too much what goes on her finger. Lisa loves the ring and her family and friends say that it’s perfect for her, so I think I did a good enough job.
My problem right now actually isn’t that she isn’t happy with the ring, but that she’s unhappy she isn’t able to wear it right now. There will be a comic on that next week!
The second comic was in response to the news that women in the U.S. are now permitted to serve in front line combat positions. Yay equality and all that jazz. In my opinion it’s up to the armed forces to determine what works best for them, since they’re the ones with the bullets flying at them. I don’t like it when the military is used to make a political point on issues that deal with gender/sexuality, because those issues have some real implications in terms of things like group dynamics, lodging, combat proficiency, etc. If the military feels it’s ready for things like that, great.
The point I was making in the comic is that not all sides of the “equality” coin are being discussed. I don’t see women clamoring to be compelled to register for the draft. That’s why talk of “equality,” at least on this issue, just gets an eye roll from me.
The last comic is one I intended to do last week, but it works best on a Monday. Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated each week.
I’m engaged!
January 17, 2013 at 7:15 am | Posted in Cartoons | Leave a comment

I’m engaged, and couldn’t be happier.
Lisa has always told me that the last thing she wanted was to be proposed to via a sports stadium Jumbotron while thousands of people were watching. She wanted us to be alone when it happened.
Of course, I know she still appreciates the grand romantic gesture. She’s a girl, after all.
This ended up being the perfect compromise, which was also perfect for us. I’ve been drawing Ralph and Chuck since high school, and we met in high school. Plus, how many people can frame original copies of their proposal? How many girls can say they were proposed to through a comic strip?
I think I can allow myself a little pat on the back.
Honestly, I was afraid the idea was a little too cheesy, but everyone I mentioned it to thought it was a great idea, and if the responses I’ve received from Lisa and others after the fact are any indication, it was.
It also made sense to me to have Ralph and Lily, and Chuck and Sarah, get engaged right along with us. Although this of course begs the question of how they get married (I don’t think they can all do it on the same day!), that’s not something I have to worry about for a couple of years!
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