Mort Inkingbot: Robot Cartoonist, terrible person.

I made a gag strip called Functionist Funniest and assigned a name to the non-existent artist. I immediately came up with a backstory for the character: this hack who phoned in laff-a-day strips, but only between phone calls with licensers in attempts to get "punchlines" from said strips onto coffee mugs and desk calendars. I did about 18 (so far). They were easy to do at weekly get togethers, as warmup drawings or while talking to other people, that I could complete in less than an hour or so. They were also influenced by was going on in another comic book.

Anyway, I was thinking of various artistic ("artistic?") plans ("PLANS?") involving writing and filming some adventures with the help of some friends, but it too would be influenced by things that I have nothing to do with. After meeting the wonderful writer of one of those things that I enjoy, I realized that whatever these plans were, they would have to feature original characters. Characters that could be themselves without me having to say beforehand, "oh, you have to read this" or "oh, you have to watch that," because that would be the WORST on several levels.

I really liked the idea of Mort. Think of all those strips in the 80's and 90's that weren't Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, or Bloom County, the ones that all looked alike. How some of those simple looking strips with forgettable jokes could be recycled every month or so and you'd probably never notice. Mort is one of those guys. He's a robot whose function is to come up with those strips, but is too busy begging his agent to call CBS or ABC to see about optioning the strip as a TV show between glasses of lunchtime martinis. He's just too much fun to be fan fiction.

So, Mort is now part of The Paul Show family.

Anyway, I don't know why I typed that out. I had a rough few years and I actually feel guilty trying to amuse myself drawing comic strips about me. Mort can do that for a little bit, and I can help him. So raise a glass of hard liquor with a chaser of red wine, but don't you dare put it on his tab or you'll be skewered in the next strip.

The Paul Show #119 - by request.

Introducing a NEW character, Mort Inkingbot. And by NEW, I mean he's been on my other blog. So in The Paul Show, he's my boss. I work on his strips. Or something. Whatever. Point is, the people at my cafe asked me to do a strip about my love of pancakes. They wrote the last line. So, there you go.

More stuff soon.

The Paul Show #118

There was going to be some narration but I decided to just let the dialog carry the story. Punchline's in the 5th panel, acceptance and moving on in the 6th.

Goodnight.

The Paul Show #117 - Observe & Report Alien Activity pt 2

Just something I witnessed last Monday.

I have summed up the guilt Batman feels.

The Voice update...oh who cares, here's some more Sad Batman.

Look to the links on the right, I added three pages to THE VOICE, in chapter 2. It basically ends the chapter because the script was written as some kind of play, and the scene was a short transitional one.

I drew these at Ultimate Con, where I had a table, selling some tiny prints of silly things. Hey, here's a few Sad Batmans I drew but hadn't scanned. Enjoy.

Sad Batman Returns

Been pretty busy. A good chunk of my doodling has been Sad Batman related. There's also some Dopey Robots. Anyway, here's a few Sad Batmans.

#115 - No answers, with TERRIBLE advice.

I kinda belted this out.

The Paul Show #114

Sad Batman.

The Paul Show #113 - A Street Fair, Everyone!

The Paul Show #112 - My L.A. Story

No I didn't do that in panel 6. The rest is true.

The Paul Show #111 - Observe & Report Alien Activity

No really, I witnessed this. The guy was pretty well dressed/groomed. He was plainly told how long it takes to make a pizza, but returned five minutes later and asked why it wasn't finished yet.

Had to write it down. Either he's an alien or I am.

Comic strip commissions and the Random Moments Drawings

The most important news I have is that I started taking commissions for comic strip drawings.

For $40 I will draw 6 panels about you, your spouse, your kids, a moment, a running gag, an inside joke, some facts about this person, in my exaggerated yet minimalist cartoony style.

Interested? An official, separate page will materialize soon. Otherwise hit me up on The Paul Show's FB page for samples.

IN THE MEANTIME!
-Working on new Hired Goons songs.
-Working on The Voice.
-Working.

I decided that every day I don't draw a new comic strip, I should draw SOMETHING, like a panel to something. And so I started. Then the commission thing started happening.

Here's the first random strip, for May.

The Paul Show #110 - self worth

Here's a short one.

The Voice - update

So after some life events and general adjusting, I've had some time to get back to drawing, as you may or may not have seen. (Please, have seen them.) I think I drew more comic strips in April than I had all year but I'm too lazy to go back and count. Some of these strips include continuing The Voice, which I hope to partner with Undercard Films to make a cartoon out of. Well, cartoon movie. Well, simplified animatic type cartoon. If I get permission I'll re-post the demo video Keith of Undercard and I worked on. In the meantime, please click on the image so you can check out the 3 pages I added to The Voice. Thanks!

The Paul Show #109 - you don't HAVE to see the movie.

HEY! It's Ron & Andy!

The Paul Show #108 - baptism by torture!

Inspired by recent brilliant ideas.

The Paul Show #107 - Prince Farting.

The Paul Show #106 - doll eyes.

Actual conversation. Well, not the 4th panel. That's just an observation, obviously.

The Paul Show #105 - Don't move during a three month long blizzard.

Every interaction with a listing agent/realtor in this comic strip? Verbatim. Yes, panel five too.

The Paul Show #104 - another true story.

I hope the people at my cafe know that I am making fun of me and not them.

The Paul Show #103 We keep ruining each other's childhood.

The Paul Show #102 - My increasingly hard time at rock concerts.

I've been sick for the past month. Wasn't able to sit down and draw in my spare time. So I have a few ideas I am going to commit to pen & paper but, feeling slightly better, I went and saw Carcass last weekend. It was awesome. I had more I was annoyed by at the show, but this kind of sums it up.

-paul

The Paul Show #101 - The CIA has a boring file on all of us!

If you can't read the text, please click on the image and the comic will appear in its full size.

The Paul Show #100 - The Lego Movie!

The Paul Show #99 - From Russia with Pain!