Sometimes when I’m riding on the bus I get to thinking.  I can’t say how I really got to thinking about a monk going to the cleaners and finding out that his robe had shrunk, but none the less it did come into my head and so I drew it fast into my sketch book.

I like this cartoon because of the social impact it may have if in fact monks do send their robes to the cleaners.  My gut tells me that a true monk would not.  A true monk would probably wash his robe himself or do the opposite and throw some dust onto himself when he gets to feeling like weeping and gnashing his teeth for a bit.

Another part of me says a monk would not be so vain as to worry about how well a robe might fit onto ones body.  Although the vanity would have surface at some point as I don’t think I’ve seen any monks in sack cloth that are showing so much leg as Morty in this cartoon.

I like the bunny slippers in this cartoon.  It fits because I’d imagine that a monk who has taken a vow of silence or the like, would possibly have an impulse to have something to hide and if a monk were to care about the length of his robe then he most certainly would hide some slippers or rainbow socks or something.  I chose the slippers since I think a monk walking around the church all day praying would want to where something comfortable.  Who wants to tromp around a monastery all day in penny loafers?

My sketch in my sketch book is all wrong on how the monk looks, as I think the big belt looks like a Santa Claus belt.  The sketch book drawing also doesn’t show the other guys robe in its “proper” length so the joke isn’t funny without the revealing of the proper length of robe.  That is why in the final I put two monks with proper atire so as to put emphisis on the fact that Morty is not following proper monostary dress code.  I also don’t know if monks have hood draw strings on their sack cloth robes so I didn’t put it in the final.

This is not the story for you if you get weak in the knees when seeing images of roasted or cooked meet.  And I will admit that when I was at the Empress of China Restaurant at a charity fund raiser for Project Concern International on Saturday, I was a bit surprised when the 1st course of a 10 course meal was brought out and it was a roasted Tweedy bird.

I thought I saw a Tweedy bird

Now growing up in Iowa where the only exposure that I had to the Chinese culture was the local “King Buffet” which was just a glorified Kentucky Fried Chicken with sweet and sour sauce and fortune cookies, so it stands to reason that anything short of serving up a bucket of chicken is going to send some sort of shock to my system.  I’m not saying that I didn’t eat it…I’m just saying that it was something I hadn’t done before.

The charity event was a really fun time.  They had a silent auction as well as a live auction which another event I had never been apart of.  The live auction was exciting and there was a real battle for a couple of the prizes.  The auctioneer was Mr. Brooke Sivo from Bonhams.  He very much the professional and really had the auction moving.  I got to talk to him afterwards and he told me some things about auctions that I think will inspire some new cartoons.

The band was very good too.  For being a band put together just for that event they were very tight and fun to listen to.  Overall I had a really good time and because I went with one of the organizers from the committee I was there until the very end.

My friend Ray Simon invited me to his sponcored table at the Project Concern International Helping Children & Families: Then and Now Event held at the Empress of China on Grant Street in San Francisco.  I got to sit on one of the event planning meetings that Ray also invited me to and it is a great and thoughtful group of volunteers who have an international reach.  The event is tonight and I expect that it will be a good time.

This is my first event for PCI so I hope to learn a lot about this non-profit.  Most of my support of the group has come because Ray is a good friend of mine.  I was able to provide small signs for the event which were nothing glamorous but directional signs helping people find the place where the dinner is going to be held.

Here is a video that is from PCI’s youtube channel.

This is a twisted tale of parenthood.  I like the roughness of the animation and the twist at then end that makes it all worth waiting for.  This is my pick for the week.  What’s yours?

I was referred to Steven Cresci by my buddy from my BNI group, Richard Reinholdt.  Mr. Cresci was participating in the SAMCAR Annual Charity Spaghetti Feed & Auction and he needed an ad placed.  The story I heard was that he was in the shower where many ideas get dreamed up when he thought of a cartoon about Christopher Columbus with his three ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  He didn’t have a punchline, but he knew that for this event he wanted to have this topic.  One aspect that he wanted included was the “serving you since 1492″ on there but with “1492″ crossed out and “1982″ written instead.

Mr. Cresci emailed me and I was able to sit down with him to discuss his cartoon and how I can can customize the cartoon for him.

To the right is the cartoon that I came up with.  In the joke Christopher Columbus (shown in fancy clothes in the style of the time) is yelling at one of the sign painters who were in charge of spelling the names of the ships correctly.  Anyone who knows the names of the ships that Columbus sailed in will get the joke that the painter misspelled the name on the middle ship The Pinta and painted “Pinto” instead.

Below the cartoon I added a field of green with with text with Mr. Cresci’s information and then at the bottom in my handwriting I put the text “Serving you since 1982″ just like he wanted it.

I looked through the entire brochure and Mr. Cresci’s ad had the only cartoon, and it was the only one that was funny.  I think this was a very creative way to grab attention from your potential customers since on all the other pages there were boring recipies that anyone can find.  How many different ways can you make speghetti?  Isn’t it just noodles and sauce?  Mr. Cresci used humor and a colorful illustration to give the customer something to engage with by laughter.  It maybe something poeple hang on the fridge if they like it.

Last night my friend Matt and I enjoyed a catered evening of networking at the Cohen Rese Gallery here in San Francisco.  Matt is more of the fine artist than I am and he showed his stuff when chatting it up with some of the people at the gallery.  Even after several glasses of wine (which was fantastic) I remember that Matt like the works from Georgy Kurasov. Now what I liked was more of the works from Robert Kipness.  Being a cartoonist none of this art was my style, but I like to go to these things and appreciate what others have done.

I don’t think you’ll see my cartoons hanging in that gallery anytime soon…but look for Matt’s work to pop up in gallery’s around the city.