Cereal Varnish

If you are a fan of The National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation film then you will no doubt recognize that Comso's line in the above panel is taken from this scene from the movie:

Lunchtime Fun

This is a photo from a recent lunchbreak here at the In the Sticks studios. As you can see, our office intern (Thelonious Monkey) is having a blast!

Preview of Saturday (9/18) strip

This week the staff on prison work release here at In the Sticks will debut a new (hopefully regular) Saturday feature; Cosmo's Infostat (patent pending). This is in no way a complete rip-off of USA Today's great Snapshots feature. We consider it a loving, non-copyright infringing homage.

Clip from 9/5 strip

Here's a small preview of Sunday's strip. Guess which famous person these features belong to. Here's a hint: it's not Joaquin Phoenix.

Preview of Sunday's Strip

This week's strips are based on the Washington Post series "Top Secret America". Interesting reading, for sure.

Upcoming Strip Preview

Note to Turtles; You are Screwed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/science/earth/15necropsy.html

The Future Scares Me

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jon Meacham
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

John Stewart's interview with Newsweek's Jon Meacham, which is up for sale (Newsweek, not Mr. Meacham). They have a discussion on the future of print (i.e. newspapers, magazines) which is always an interesting topic for cartoonists.

Wookie Alert

Here's a close-up of Dewey's Chewbacca action figure from Sunday's strip.

Tighty Whities

Here's a close-up of Del's Spiderman Underoos from Friday's strip. (Strip? Perhaps I should rephrase that.) Click the image for a larger view, if you dare.

Dogleg to the Right

In the Sticks is going political. Here is an interview on GoComics.com about the strip's shift to include current events with a politically conservative viewpoint. (I had to steal that blog post title from the press release.)

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Monday, April 12th will bring some changes to In the Sticks. Stay tuned...

World's Most Expensive Golf Cart

A $52,000 golf cart debuted recently, made by the same factory that produces Porches. I'm not sure who would buy one of these, but if you did buy one, would other golfers find you obnoxious if you brought your own golf cart to the course? I think these expensive carts will mainly be used by old folks to get around their retirement villages. The retiree who can afford one of these will be picking up some fine widows. It sure beats a Jazzy Scooter any day.

(Not a recommended usage for your $52,000 golf cart)

Golf Tee Art

Here is a close-up of Dewey and Cosmo's golf tee Pointillism (basically a bunch of colored dots on canvas) artwork from Sunday's strip. (Click the image for a larger view.) A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is probably the most famous piece of Pointillist artwork. And at 6ft x 10ft in size, must have taken an incredible amount of patience to complete.

The Once-Ler

In Monday's strip Dewey is jumping into a Once-ler brand dumpster, which is a reference to The Lorax, an excellent Dr. Suess book. Side note: The Lorax happens to look like this famous actor.

It Came From Above

I hope a family member or someone you know has never been abducted by a hawk, owl, or winged mammal. If so, Sunday's strip is not for you. I don't know what happened to this kid, but I like to think he was dropped off somewhere pleasant. Either way, he probably lost that hat. This is more a lesson not to dress you small child in clothing that makes him or her look like lunch to a large predator.

Candy Bars of Yore

I'd like to know what led to the demise of The Chunky Bar. Was it just an 80's fad like Tab Cola and Geraldine Ferraro?

And furthermore, why do candy bars periodically have to have their recipes changed? I remember, as a young lad working as a bootblack in the streets of London, (OK, I made that part up) the candy bar Wathchamacallit had its ingredients changed, or reformulated, as Hershey's calls it. This ended my era of Wathchamacallit enjoyment. Now I suppose if you're already making a candy bar called Wathchamacallit that probably gives you license to throw whatever the hell kind of ingredients you want in there, but to me it just wasn't the same.
Maybe I'm just an old man ranting about the way things used to be and upset over today's new fangled snack food items. But more importantly, I'd like someone to tell me what "fangled" means.

Flip the Executioner

This is a good look for Flip. I have a feeling he doesn't just use this outfit for Halloween.

Professor Cosmo?

Featuring today's strip, Cosmo Blue Jay would like to officially announce his candidacy for the open position of professor of poetry at Oxford University, which you can read about here.

He's experienced in ballads, odes, haikus, you name it. He even owns his own rhyming dictionary and knows a bunch of words that rhyme with Oxford (if you count the word fjord). He would even be willing to double as University mascot if provided a small stipend of grub worms.

Nasal Flare-Up of Love

Dewey suggests Del show his love through nostril flaring. According to this scholarly article on the scientific research site "links2love.com" nostril flare is an obvious sign that, according to these researchers, "he's way into you." Or he has severe allergies. Who knows.

But if you think about it, this makes perfect sense. What is the time of year when relationships are most likely to blossom? Without Googling it, I'll say springtime. Which is also allergy season, or when nasal flare-up is most likely to occur. The point? If you fell in love with your significant other in the spring, you may have fallen for each other not through subconscious body language, but thanks to pollen buildup.

The Golden Bear

The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus just turned 70. As for Dewey, In the Sticks' own golden bear, well, he's not telling.


In related news, Dewey just heard his cousin, a filmmaker, has been nominated for the coveted Golden Bear Award for his documentary work on Behind the Music: The Gummi Bears.

Back When Del Was a Woman

OK, so maybe Del himself was never a woman, but for a short time his role was filled by a woman named Linda, who was the golf pro at Blooming Dogleg Country Club. I like to think she left to pursue a better career, perhaps in the snow plowing industry. Also, Cosmo was known as "The All-Knowing Bird of Enlightenment". This was thankfully shortened to "Sweet Bird of Truth" for brevity's sake.

Grandpa, tell us about a "VCR"...

Yes, that is a VCR tape in Friday's strip. Record players, typewriters, VCRs, Joan Rivers... I suppose everything grows obselete at some point in time.

Reality TV

I'm not a big fan of reality programing, except shows that show real Americans, doing real things we can all relate to. I'm referring to, of course, COPS. I'm not sure who would want to be on a show that expose you every negative personality trait, but there are obviously plenty of desperate people who will doing anything for a little exposure.

Del's Doppelganger

I was watching yesterday's coverage of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament. That's right, I was watching golf on TV. Some say it's as boring as watching paint dry, but if you're sitting in a poorly ventilated room, watching paint dry isn't so bad, if you know what I mean.
One of the top 20 finishers was Troy Merritt, who looks a lot like Del. Obviously, this is a coincidence; I don't think Mr. Merritt intentionally grew sideburns to look like Del.

Camouflage

Sunday's strip is about urban camouflage. Who hasn't experienced a moment when all we wanted to do was hide from a boss, the police or a psychiatric counselor? And of course, it just happens to be the day we are wearing our hot pink sweater which does not blend into our office surroundings.

Clothing makers should design camouflage uniforms for everyday life. For example, are you sick of getting overwhelmed with office memos? Why not disguise yourself as the memos? Nobody will be bothering you then.

And what if you are walking down a sketchy looking sidewalk late at night? Chances are nobody will mug you if they can't find you.

Dorf on Golf

This reminds me of a Simpson's qoute:

Homer: "What's a Tim Conway?"

Tim Conway: "Oh, about 120 pounds."

Sunday's strip

Sunday's strip had some hidden "jokes" that were too small to be legible. Here, I use the term "jokes" meaning "probably not that funny, so why did I even bother?" Anyway, here they are- fake snack items and a Wheel of Fortune puzzle:

Scroll down for the answer to the Wheel of Fortune puzzle.

Answer: Ren Hoek of Ren and Stimpy

Update

This recent In the Sticks comic documented the various ways to wear one's pants. This, however, is how a real man orders pants. If it works for a president, it will work the next time I go to Sears.

Writing

This is what the writing and layout process looked like from today's strip. Click on it for a larger view, although good luck reading it. I have developed a technique for handwriting that is so small and illegible it could be used for covert CIA transmissions.

You can see some minor changes from the finished version, such as Dewey's "I'll go get some" line in the last panel. I changed it to "I'll go get those tees" as I thought the reader might forget what Dewey was talking about ten seconds ago in the first panel.

Wednesdy's Strip

Here's the rough version of today's strip. This is about the most straight forward idea I ever had for a strip, and it's a pretty good one to use in the first few months as it works to establish the relationship between Cosmo and Del.



Del is eating No-Doze-O's cereal-the only breakfast food with as much caffeine as five cups of coffee. Kids go crazy for it and even crazier after they eat it.

Monday's strip

This is the rough version of Monday's strip. Cosmo is much more menacing in first panel of the final version.

Who hasn't considered sculpting some wild topiaries (also a great name for a band) in the front lawn a la Edward Scissorhands? If your neighbors are especially annoying, you could even aim your lawn sculpture in their direction.

Woody Allen...The Comic Strip

Way back in the late 1970's, when the Yankees were good and a Democrat was in the White House (can you imagine?) a comic strip featuring Woody Allen hit newspapers. Here's an interesting excerpt from the cartoonist's book on the strip: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/18/woody-allen-comic-strip

Pants

Pantsless passengers, threatening underwear...the news couldn't be more exciting this week. In Thursday's In the Sticks strip the debate on proper pants height rages on.

Kids wear their pants too low? Old folks hiking their pants up to their bypass surgery scars? These railway passengers decided to steer clear of that whole Trump toupee and leave their pants at home.


Now we all know that any jokes about dropping bombs in your underwear while at the airport is completely off limits. Especially if you are a moron.

And speaking of college football, Monday's Orange Bowl may have been a match up of the two worst looking uniform pants ever.

But all is not lost. Some like to stick to the classics. You guessed it- indecent exposure.