Points and Authorities the quarterly news letter for the great law firm Buchalter Nemer has picked one of my favorite cartoons that I’ve done in a while to be in their winter issue.  Although I posted this in October, the subject matter of the “light at the end of the tunnel” is perfect for times like these that we live in.  Of course if you watch or read the news you may not be that optimistic.

I like this news letter because it is very well designed and professional.  I don’t know if this was design on purpose by Buchalter’s designer or if it was a happy mistake but the colors of the motif on the front matches my cartoon perfectly.

I hope the Points and Authorities readers out there enjoy the cartoon and I look forward to continuing to contribute.  If you’d like to see the original post please click here for the “Left in the Dark” cartoon.

Rackafracka continues to show up in newsletters everywhere.  This time in a dental newsletter for Financial District Dental Care.  Dr. Micheal Hack (the owner and king of the wisdom teeth)has been in business for over 30 years in downtown San Francisco, took advantage of Rackafracka versitile subject matter to tell his readers a joke.  After he contacted me, I came up with 3-4 jokes and sketched them up for Dr. Hack to review.  He chose one and then I went to ink and color.  Custom cartoons are a great way to bring a smile to your readers even if its about the dentist.

If you are in a business where you are running a newsletter monthly or even quarterly to communicate with your clients or potential clients, consider a custom cartoon from Rackafracka.  It’ll be a splash of humor in your newsletter and they might even read the articles.  You can also choose from the cartoons you see on this website.

You can check out Dr. Hacks’ newsletter called Mental Floss by going to www.financialdistrictdental.com and check out the cartoon.

Once a week a podcast called “Gigcast” is automatically downloaded to my itunes and soon to my Ipod.  This podcast is hosted by JTShea and Scott Gallatin the creator of Madscott exclusivly about webcomics and the news about webcomics.  As part of this show they do a spotlight of webcomics that are hand picked by Brian Anderson the creator of the comic strip Dog Eat Doug.  Much to my surprise Fritz Cartoons we part of this spotlight.  Download and listen for yourself here.

Anybody that is new to webcomics should listen to this podcast.  You will learn a bunch of news and learn about a lot of websites built around the webcomic community.  They have done over 170 shows.  I was very happy that my comic was part of their conversation.  Check them out!

I was hired to make a custom Rackafracka cartoon for the San Francisco Softball League.  Rackafracka is on the front page and I encourage all of you to check it out!

Concept designed by Sharon Shanzer from Red Letter Day and copy written by Gil Zeimer from Zeimer's Advertising Shoppe

Rackafracka has made it into another newsletter.  This time in a senior citizen lifestyle newsletter called the Early Bird Alert.  Rackafracka cartoons are perfect for newsletters because they can adapt to many subject matters and appeal to wide range of readers.  For this cartoon, Gil Zeimer from Zeimers Advertising Shoppe, approached me about coming up with a cartoon regarding senior living.  I took some hints from what I remember from my own grandparents and I even called one of them just to chat with him to hear what he had to say.  Who knew that talking to my grandpa would be research?

My grandpa didn’t talk about getting re-married or renewing his vows to his wife, but our conversation led to a string of ideas that I thought of resulting in the finished cartoon in this concept design done by Sharon Shanzer at Red Letter Day Graphic Design.  The launch is a ways out yet, but I’m posting this with permission from Mr. Zeimer.

If you have a newsletter that you publish consider a custom Rackafracka cartoon for your next issue.  A color cartoon with a funny joke can really jazz up a static newsletter and ensure that your readers will continue to look through and read your content.

I got the call on Friday with the news that a Rackafracka cartoon has won the Foldsy Greeting Card Design Contest.  The Rackafracka cartoon Melted Snowman won the top prize for last months greeting card design submission contest.  The Foldsy community voted on the top designs and the top design wins $250.  The top ten design go on to be available for print and for sale as actual greeting cards will be available on Oct. 15th according to Foldsy.

You can view the winning cartoon here and I will announce where you can buy this card when it becomes available.  Please look to foldsy for new designs from Fritz Cartoons in the future and please vote for Rackafracka when you get a chance.  You can can also do a search on Facebook.com to find the Foldsy application so you can vote for your favorite design right from your facebook page.

Thank you to all who voted for me.  Please remember to support your local webcomic by voting and buying his greeting cards.

The front cover of Buchalter Nemer quarterly newsletter.

Rackafracka has found its way to the front page of Buchalter Nemers’ quarterly newsletter, Points & Authorities, and here is the latest version.  They contacted me and wanted a custom cartoon that could go with a theme that the newsletter would have.  The topic being that during this time of economic uncertainty a company can count on Buchalter Nemer to see you through it.  Being a full service law firm they can take care of anything that a company could go through during this economic melt down.

Anyway I was happy to approach this topic and it wasn’t that hard since this sort of topic reaches everyone.  My client is the one who said belt tightening over the phone and that is all I needed to hear.  I came up with the idea for this cartoon almost instantly.

Using cartoons in newsletter, direct mail, greeting cards are a good way to reach your clients and potential customers since the cartoon is easy to read, fun to look at and it adds a great way to illustrate your point to those who may not understand right away.  Another benefit is that if your reader likes the cartoon enough they will keep a hold of the publication and hang it in their office, or show their friends.  This can cause viral marketing that is the most popular way to spread the word about your company or message these days. I’ve been doing custom cartoons for several years now and can help you even write the joke.  Just tell me what the topic is going to be and I’ll do the rest.  Tell your boss or your marketing department to use Rackafracka in their next newsletter.

BTW, for you Fracka Fans out there who noticed the cartoon on the front page of the newsletter is smashed a little, I want to tell you that that is how they printed the newsletter and I’m not bitter.  For the correct proportion check it out here.

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 week Heather Mason of A Caspian Production, an event management firm, contacted me about drawing

Cartoons printed at full size 24" x 36" and mounted to gator board.

some cartoons for an up coming talk that she was giving for a small chapter of the Rotary Club.  The talk was on how to plan an event and why to hire A Caspian Production.

My job was to write, illustrate, color, and fabricate 9 panel cartoons that were to be mounted to 1/4″ gator board to be used on an easel for the presentation.  Four of the panels were just text and the other 5 were full color cartoons made to fit the outline that she provided.

This was a great job for me since Heather was great to work with in brain storming the ideas.  The subject matter is fun, and since in a previous life I catered for a catering company I know how bad a poorly planned event can be.

I drew the cartoons up this weekend and we printed and mounted the prints today and delivered them to Heather at a Burger King in Colma/Daly City.  I will keep you posted as she does on how well her speech goes but Heather did sound excited about how well her cartoons looked.  Plus she laughed which is what makes it worthwhile for me.

This week I’m going to post cartoons that I did when I was younger. Partly because I am moving and its forcing me to go through my old stuff and throw away things that I don’t need. This cartoon I did back in 1999. I had already graduated from High School and supposedly I was in college in art at Iowa State. But you wouldn’t know it by how bad the characters are drawn. My writing was a little bit in the gutter too.

I had invented a character called Kumquat Boy my freshman year in high school. I was still on the same idea. He had no personality except by name. I didn’t have any concept that I needed to be a writer first as a cartoonist and artist second. So Kumquat Boy never really developed. Except maybe into some poop jokes.