Battlepug Rides the L Train

Don't step in the drool.

We are quite honored to be included in the fan art section in the back of Mike Norton's Battlepug Volume 5: The Paws of War
Battlepug has long been one of the kids' favorites: a cute dog that is enormous and able to eat enemies, other ridiculous animals, a little girl who swears, violence and tasteful nudity, what more could lower and middle school boys wish for?

Thanks Mike!

You can see our other Battlepug or Pug napkins at those links.

Dr. McNinja with Miniature Hippo

"America, do you not want tiny hippos?"

We caught up on one of the kids' favorite web comics, Christopher Hastings' Dr. McNinja last week.

The Doctor's nemesis, King Radical sees it as his mission to make the world more "radical." One of the improvements he offers is tiny pet hippos. I am going to resist the urge to explain that any further, as I won't have much success.

Speaking of lack of success...I foolishly thought a tiny hippo would make for a pleasantly easy drawing subject. There is something about this napkin that reminds me of drawings I might have made in say, sixth grade. Maybe there are several somethings. The rainbow background does come from the comic itself, but my 12 year old self would have been pretty enthusiastic about that as a background solution for almost any drawing. Dr. McNinja's eyes and eyebrows are often slightly oversized and expressive in the comic, but in this slightly more realistic context... well, they say preadolescent girl to me. And the mangled hand....And the purple hippo.

My younger son pronounced it "Weird. Just weird." Normally, I might not take that as a criticism, but here, I have to agree.

Cybil, the Homicidal Feline from Liō Comic, With Nerf Blaster

Killer Kitties agree, "It's Nerf, or nothing."

Our younger son was recently reminded how much he likes the cat in Mark Tatulli's Liō Comic. We were revisiting a previous Cybil napkin that is included in the show "Popular Monsters" at LIU.

While small, cute, furry things with weapons are always popular with our sons, I had not appreciated just how much the younger son liked this particular cat. In the comic, she is constantly up to no good, threatening the veterinarian with a hypodermic, wielding a grenade, various guns, or a chainsaw while wearing a hockey mask.

In this image, I was trying to top her previous napkin appearance where she was holding an axe. I considered arming her with some sort of a gatling gun (a favorite image at our house thanks perhaps to Axe Cop), but decided to draw a less dangerous Nerf weapon instead. I chose the Nerf Elite Vulcan / Havok Fire Blaster which might be the pinnacle of ridiculous foam dart weapons. It appears to retail on Amazon for the notable price of $450. I drew it in monochrome rather than the standard Nerf N-strike colors of bright orange and yellow for a slightly more menacing effect.

But if anyone is asking, it's a toy gun.  Cybil could no doubt do plenty of damage with just foam darts anyway.

Judy and Yoshi from Dr. McNinja Web Comic

Last night we were catching up on "Paleontologists, Politicians and Prologue," the latest installment of Christopher Hastings' webcomic, Dr. McNinja.

The kids love the over-the-top randomness of many of the characters and events in the story.  The Doctor's secretary and driver is a large gorilla named Judy. Gordito, Dr. McNinja's 12 year old moustachioed sidekick, rides Yoshi the raptor.   When we came to an image of Judy the gorilla giving Yoshi the raptor a piggyback ride while he imitate Gordito, both kids said, "I want that on my napkin!"

I was just not capable of rendering the exaggerated facial expressions of both characters late last night.  The picture is a lot funnier in the comic.

Flying Creature from Doctor McNinja

The kids were very taken with the weirdness of this flying Dinosaur creature
in Dr. McNinja's "Paleontologists, Politicians and Prologue."  The female, eye patch and epaulet-wearing president of the United States uses it to exile her treasonous vice president to space, while she and Dr. McNinja ride in its mouth.

Interest was expressed in having this creature on a napkin. By the cold light of the morning, it was clear that my rendition was more lame than fantastically weird. Too much pink and purple too....

Pugbuster with Giant Pug

Iron Man's Hulkbuster Meets Battlepug:

As previously mentioned, Iron Man's super-sized anti-Hulk suit was one of my sons' favorite parts of the recent Avengers movie... And giant dogs are always good.

Over the weekend, our older son kept telling me I should draw this "Pugbuster."  The main appeal of the idea seemed to be the name. We were all unclear on whether "Pugbuster" meant that the Pug was wearing the armored suit, or whether the suit was designed to fight a Pug the size of of the Hulk (and the size of Battlepug, one of our web comic favorites)

I am indecisive, and I enjoy drawing Pug faces, so I said yes to both scenarios.

This morning, looking at the napkins, my older son told me that I blew it- that I should have made the giant Pug Hulk green. My younger son said that the suit should have had an armored Pug face on it. I explained to him that I had considered that, but after finishing cleaning up the kitchen at midnight, I chose the easier path of just drawing a dog's face.  Drawing the rest of the suit had been challenge enough. He said, "Oh it's not hard, you just draw an Iron Man helmet and make the yellow part look like a Pug's face.....

Maybe next time.

Ghost Terrier

Four legged fluff from beyond.

Even since a viewing of "Ghost Busters" a couple of years ago, my older son has had a healthy interest in the topic of ghost hunting. We saw Jordan Wittt at last weekend's comic arts fest and had to check out her web comics about the Organization of Ghost Hunters and the story "The Ghost Dog" in particular.

Our younger son is only mildly interested in ghosts, but dogs are another story. The ghostly canine in Jordan Witt's web comic looks more like a husky, but I thought perhaps we should go smaller and cuter.

Sometimes I can feel myself weakening on the topic of a pet dog. I did really enjoy living with a cat or two during my childhood and early adulthood...and that was even despite the peeing on my mail, the depositing of live rodents into my bed, and the barfing into my accordion file folders full of tax documents. I would like my sons to be able to experience some sort of furry, somewhat gratifying pet.

Cats are out of the question if I want my husband to continue breathing, so that leaves us debating the possibility of a "small, washable, trainable dog." But I can barely manage the care, feeding and training of my sons, and I seriously doubt the wisdom of adding another source of body fluids and bad behavior to our home.

If one were available, a ghost dog would truly be the best solution.

Bear Hug with Teddy Bear

"You sleep with a little stuffed version of yourself?"
Or: Cute and funny meets realistic, and realistic does not prevail.

Our younger son desperately wants a pet.  Our older son, however,  is pretty clear that if he were confronted with the choice between playing a video game or dealing with a real animal, the video game would win every time.

Nevertheless, they are in agreement in their appreciation of animal cuteness.  They spent the weekend repeatedly calling up the insipid Youtube video of "Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom" (by Parry Gripp of "Nerf Herder." Glutton for punishment, are you? Here is a link to the video)  The video features clips of mostly small and furry animals eating, accompanied by an incessant, and incessantly annoying, soundtrack of Nom Nom Nom Noms.

I considered drawing a baby animal gnawing something for today's napkin, but decided that minus the soundtrack, the image would not achieve the appropriate level of precious hilarity.

But, let's be honest, the real problem is the way I draw.

In place of one of the Nom Noms, I drew a bear like Wink, a character from the kids' preferred comic of the moment, Rob Harrell's "Big Top. I thought the fact that Wink sleeps with a stuffed version of himself (available at the circus concession, of course) would provide a cute animal opportunity.

The kids were unimpressed this morning. Archer helpfully pointed out that my version was too realistic. Ansel took a napkin from the backup pile.

Dragon from Kid Beowulf

It's easy to be disapproving if you are a dragon.

We've been reading the first book in Alexis E. Fajardo's "Kid Beowulf" series, "Kid Beowulf and the Blood Bound Oath." It is a sort of prequel to the classic Beowulf story which imagines a back story for Beowulf and Grendel that involves a sarcastic dragon living under the mere.

Looking at the Kid Beowulf website this morning, I discover that I have made the dragon the wrong color and neglected to provide him with wings.

Poultry Carcass Man

While my sons think themselves too old for Dav Pilkey's magnum opus, "Captain Underpants," they are always happy to revisit his "Dumb Bunnies" series. The Dumb Bunnies are, as you might imagine, a family of comically stupid anthropomorphic rabbits. Dad wears tightie whities, Mom's in a bra, the baby is either picking his nose, wearing his shoes on his head, or driving the family car off a cliff. Sublime stuff as far as Archer and Ansel are concerned. (Note to Mr. Pilkey: My children would force me to buy an infinite number of "Dumb Bunnies" books, should you ever deign to publish more.)

In "The Dumb Bunnies' Easter," the family performs a toxic mash-up of all the major holidays: nailing valentines to the window, painting fried "Easter" eggs with cans of black spray paint, and most relevantly, "carving" the turkey like a Halloween pumpkin. (You were perhaps wondering how the Dumb Bunnies could possibly be related to this image?)

Ansel really likes the creepy poultry jack o lantern, and suggested it should be yet another web comic character. In his scenario, the carcass is like the "headcrab" from the video game "Half-Life": a parasitic intelligence that affixes itself to a human host and then assumes control of the body.

I was thinking it could be a situation like that of the DC comics' character Doctor Fate, where putting on the helmet grants one super powers at the expense of independence. I hoped this might put a slightly more positive spin on the idea of possession by roast fowl.

Skull Pinata Head Guy

Ansel is developing a real taste for the macabre.  He spent the hour before bedtime last night wearing a skull head pinata (from last year's birthday party) with various drapery, trying to transform himself into a "jump scare."  When he finished wearing the head, he carefully composed it on the couch (note the placement of the tv remotes- even death's heads need their media) for maximum shock value for his brother in the early morning.

He decided that this skull guy really should be a character in our ever developing- yet still nonexistent- web comic.  I really liked the idea of a creepy individual who wears an old pinata on his head, but I suspected that Ansel had a literal skull in mind.  I tried to split the difference in the drawing.  There is some suggestion that it's a pinata, but Ansel still thought it was cool and not silly.

The main horror of this skull guy's visit last night was that he left little scraps of white tissue paper strewn all over the apartment.

 

Defeated Robot Mummies from "Cleopatra in Space"

Robot Mummies: a promising combination- like Vampire Ninjas, or Zombie Cowboys, or Viking Werewolves...

I had tried to convince Ansel to read Mike Maihak's web comic "Cleopatra in Space" at least a couple times before, but it was not until we received the actual old fashioned bound paper book published by Scholastic (Book One: Target Practice) that he was finally and completely sold.  He instructed me to purchase Book Two immediately.  I have not had the heart to point out that it will not be available until April 2015.

Near the end of Book One, Cleopatra (transported from the distant past to the distant future) singlehanded lays waste to an army of  evil robot mummies.

There seemed to be a lot of potential  in Robot Mummies, but clearly the pile up exceeded my drawing capabilities last night.

Chim Chum with Fish

Our kids had to read every frame of the web comic "Chim Chum and the Portly Samurai" by Adrian Ropp. The series covers the often anachronistic adventures of a samurai and his sidekick/antagonist Chim Chum,  a cute fox.

This image is based on  #394  The actual panel pictures the samurai and fox sitting in a boat fishing,  and the caption is spoken by the samurai: "This is what you get for trying to gross me out by putting worms on your head."

The premise was amusing enough that Ansel was able to overlook the fact that my rendition of the fox was not particularly cute.

Gronk With Skylanders Lunchbox

The boys have really enjoyed reading the webcomic Gronk by Katie Cook.

This is somewhat surprising as there are no weapons or battles, and it features primarily female characters.  It is mostly age appropriate and cute and funny.

At least there is a monster, albeit one with a blond hairdo.
And lots of gross jokes about cat litter and cat vomit.

Octobear Meets Sharktopus

 My kids have not seen "Sharknado."  Can you believe it?

"Mom! Come on!  A man cuts a flying shark in half with a chainsaw!"  How could we possibly resist that?

I admit I definitely have a different standard for movies than for graphic novels.  I have read a great many age-inappropriate things to the kids.  (if it is a book, it must be just a little bit good for them, right?)  We even read Ethan Nicolle's definitely adult-oriented "Bearmageddon" featuring the above "Octobear." 

Brief exposure to even the most ridiculous movie imagery, however, can easily result in a child who is afraid to walk his full bladder  across a darkened bedroom to use the bathroom because alien face-huggers or land sharks could be lurking in the Lego box.  Perhaps we will hold off for a bit longer on "Sharknado" and its very tempting close relative "Sharktopus." 

But the creatures are funny enough for napkins.

Octobear

Last night, Archer came across an image of a Bearmageddon style Octobear in the sketch pages in the back  of the most recent Axe Cop book,  reminding him and Ansel how much they like Ethan Nicolle's other web comic "Bearmageddon."  Full of blood, dismemberment, profanity and pot jokes, even after I have edited it for lower school consumption, it is still age inappropriate...Much to my kids' delight of course.

I tried to cute up the Octobear idea for today's napkin, but Ansel was definitely not impressed.

Axe Cop's Wexter with Fire Breathing Dragon

Dragon vs. Dinosaur:  Sadly, not appropriate for Quaker first grade lunch.

We finished reading Axe Cop's "Revenge on Rainbow Girl" last night which included a huge battle featuring Axe Cop's Gatling gun-armed T-Rex and a red dragon.

I discovered last night that there just aren't that many images available online of dragons fighting dinosaurs. It's just one of those mysterious missed opportunities in the internet common culture.

Napkins in "Axe Cop Gets Married"

We are honored to have some napkins in the pin-up section of the latest Axe Cop release.

You can see these and the other Axe Cop napkins at this link.

Axe Cop, Battlepug and Dr. McNinja

 

"Why must I be plagued by these ridiculous animals?'

We've been catching up on several web comics that we follow during bedtime reading over the last couple of nights.  

Axe Cop, Battlepug, and Dr. McNinja all embrace the ridiculous and often include "inappropriate" content... making them particularly delightful as far as our sons are concerned.