Ol’ George #90

 Ol’ George #90

Notes:

1. We’ve established George as a jazzbo, now meet George with a penchant for country songs about drinking to forget her. Does he have a lost love he’s drinking to forget? Good question. Maybe, someday…

2. There Stands The Glass was a big hit for Webb Pierce in 1953 and was his 5th #1 country hit. 

The Bottle Let Me Down appeared on Merle Haggard’s 1966 album Swinging Doors and reached #3 on the country charts. 

There’s A Tear In My Beer was written by Hank Williams around 1950, but his version was never heard until synced up with his son almost four decades later, because you know, can’t talk about drinking. 

Bubbles in My Beer is a classic Western swing hit from 1947 by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will) was recorded by George Jones in 1981 and sparks the debate: is it more depressing than He Stopped Loving Her Today? 

3. These are all songs that I have performed at Karaoke, mostly at Acadia, maybe some at Morrissey’s pub. I’ve got to mix it up, been staying with the yacht rock a bit too much. No one’s doing the classic country. Just you watch, I’ll bring it back. 

Ol George #89

 Ol George #89

Notes:

1. I got this idea while sitting at a bar and the other side of the bar was watching the World Cup on the TV behind me. I had my own vantage point of the game from the TV behind them, but I don’t care for sports. Never did, never ever. Believe me, I’ve heard it from my bar customers over the years. “How can you be a bartender and not follow football?” It definitely put me at a disadvantage.

2. This one has the most number of human characters created just for this strip. Also, half of them were inspired by other artists. I grabbed books off the shelf and swiped away. I’ll tell you who and let you figure it out: Walt Kelly, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, Julie Doucet, Steve Ditko. You’ll never guess where the lady on the left came from! If you do, let me know. 

3. It suddenly occurred to me that there has never been even a suggestion up until now that there is a television at Kelly’s. I guess it shows George’s indifference to them. Next week, we’ll go back to pretending they’re not there. 

Ol’ George #88: LobsterPhone

 Ol’ George #88: LobsterPhone

Notes:

1. In 1936, Salvador Dali created 11 lobsterphones with his English patron Edward James. Almost all are in museums now, except one at Kelly’s Bar & Grill, wherever that is. 

2.  So, George is holding a beer called Dali’s Beer. Dali probably didn’t drink beer. Spain doesn’t make a lot of beer. He was probably a wine guy. I was thinking of the Captain Beefheart instrumental “Dali’s Car” from Trout Mask Replica (1969, an album I greatly treasure.) And as I looked it up, I realized I’d forgotten about the 80’s band Dali’s Car, from some ex-members of goth bands. The album is called Dali’s Car, and there’s a song called Dali’s Car, which sounds nothing like Captain Beefheart, or suggests surrealism in any way. Also, the album cover is by Maxfield Parrish, who is nearly anti-Dali. Further down the Spotify rabbit hole, there was apparently a song from a late 80’s Thompson Twins record, long after they left my record collection, called “Salvador Dali’s Car”, which is one of the least surreal tracks you could ask for. Why the connection with the car? He wasn’t known for any car. Never painted one, that I know of ….Are these musical artists riffing on Beefheart’s title, omitting any of the ramshackle off-kilter atonal surrealistic blues? I mean, he’s known for melting watches, elephants on stilts, and Mae West, not cars. All I know for sure is that most pop music is terrible, and goth music doubly so. 

3. I haven’t found a lot of pictures of Dali in color. Why not? After I picked what colors to dress him in, I realized he looked like he was guest starring on Miami Vice. Too late, it’s done. 

Ol’ George # 87

 Ol’ George # 87

Notes on #87:

1. Nah. You either get it or you’re left scratching your skull. What’s really going on? I’ll never tell if I ever knew. 

Ol’ George #86

 Ol’ George #86:

1: 

I told you that these would get a little weird sometimes. They just enter my brain and I have to get them out. These concepts just might go further. Get ready. 

Ol’ George #85: Mirror Image

 Ol’ George #85: Mirror Image.

Notes on #85.

1. A few weeks back, a friend sent me a pic of some art of a cartoon cat seen at a bar, with the question “your work?” Silly Sam, you’ve seen my stuff. But it gave me an idea and I used the character. I have no idea who the artist responsible is, but whoever they are, I apologize and promise to give a cut of all related future profits, royalties and residuals.

2. The anonymous kitty is drinking a can of Fat Cat lager, a brand I used to sell at The Blue Nile fifteen or so years ago. It had a label with a cartoon cat, also smoking a cigar. Are they still in business? Apparently so, if only in La Jolla, California. Or I may be completely wrong. (Although at Untappd, it seems that anyone checking in to Fat Cat since 2018 is doing so mistakenly. Lazy checker/inners.)

3. I have never shown anyone smoking in this strip because it is banned at Kelly’s Bar & Grill. How did Irma serve him if he’s illegally smoking? Maybe she didn’t? Perhaps he snuck the can in? And helped himself to a glass. Maybe he isn’t real? He just stepped over from the mirror universe. Maybe nobody is? Repeat to yourself, it’s just a comic strip, I should really just relax. 

Ol’ George #84: Like Sonny

 Ol’ George #84: Like Sonny

Notes on #84:

1. Somehow, I was always meant to love jazz. It’s hard to discover it growing up in the suburbs in the 70’s and 80’s, but I enjoyed anything jazz-like that I heard on the radio, like Sonny Rollins’ solo on the Rolling Stones’ record “Waiting on a Friend “ in 1981. I didn’t really get into Sonny until I went full-on into jazz in my early twenties, but the connection was swift and deep and permanent. 

When he passed away a few weeks ago, I knew I had to do a tribute and dusted off an old “hep cat” idea. I had to reference this genius, but which era? Late-life white Afro? Late ‘60’s Mohawk? Full beard? 

And I decided that my depiction of the Saxophone Colossus would be ink & brush with watercolor, while the rest of the strip would be the usual felt tip pen & colored pencil. These are skills that I am not a master of, but I did it and live with the mistakes. That’s supremely important. 

Sonny was a perfectionist in an improvised medium. How does that work? He was always finding something to say in the moment. It was never perfect…there is no perfect…but it was genius on call. Every sound from his horn was surprising. This is why I pity those who don’t enjoy jazz. So much popular music is formulaic and repetitive. Give in to spontaneous joy!

We listen to 50, 60, 70+ year old recordings and hear a man making sounds that you never heard before and neither did he. 

2. When I first conceived George, I had this litany of characteristics and it all leaned toward the curmudgeonly. A strip like this shows him at his happiest. He’s vocalizing along with Sonny’s great calypso number from Saxophone Colossus (1956), St. Thomas, and I have to say that if you hear that recording and neither move nor groove, well, I have to wonder about you. It should inspire a second line parade every time it is heard. 

3. In 2001, I took custody of a cat for the first time in my life and I called her Hepzibah, after the French skunk in Walt Kelly’s Pogo. Next up was a shy little girl black cat that I named Naima, after John Coltrane’s tune. A 4-year old ginger sweetie stepped into my life next and he was named Rollie Boy. Some years later, his doppelgänger walked into my world and was dubbed Sonny Boy and for years I had both Sonny and Rollie in tribute to my favorite tenor saxophonist. 

4. I have one more thing to say: listen to Sonny. 

Ol’ George #83:

 Ol’ George #83.

Notes:

1. When I paid tribute to “Star Wars” in #77 with the appearance of some cantina denizens and to “The Empire Strikes Back” in #80 with a Yoda (and Baby Yoda) cameo, I knew the next step to conclude our trilogy would be to bring in some “Return of the Jedi” characters for #83. Were there Jawas in “Jedi”, lurking around Jabba’s palace? Maybe. Do I have to go watch that scene for the 5000th time to find out for sure? Go ahead, twist my arm!

2. It kind of looks like Ewok #2 is having a Monster energy drink, doesn’t it? That wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to make an alien-looking can design and that’s what I came up with…now I can’t unsee it!

3. Why is George urging Irma to call Animal Control on this intergalactic menagerie? Isn’t he an animal? Well, no, anthropomorphic cats exist in the classification between man and animal, both at once, while never neither. That doesn’t make sense, right? Good. 

Ol’ George #82: The Scream

 Ol’ George #82: The Scream

No notes this time. 

Ol’ George #81: Here, Kitty, Kitty

 Ol’ George #81: Here, Kitty, Kitty

Notes on 81: 

1. I really haven’t shown George being a cat all that much. It’s bound to happen. Just don’t expect him to follow stereotypes, that’ll push his buttons. 

2. After I created this nameless character who antagonizes George, I wondered how often that I had drawn a human male without facial hair. So, I made a list. Zippy the Pinhead (#27), who has stubble. Norm from Cheers (#31), but who wants a bearded accountant? Superman (#38), who shaved with heat vision. Zaphod Beeblebrox (#42). Donald Trump (#3 & 51). Batman &Robin (#54). And the other thing they have in common is, I didn’t create them. Then I thought of the weird hallucination in #71 and remembered that I put hairs on his chinny chin chin. I guess I just feel men need facial hair. Sounds like a challenge. Who shall be my first bare faced male character? 

Ol’ George #80: Drink On, He Gets

 Ol’ George #80

Notes on #80:

1. I wanted to do something for Star Wars Day, May the Fourth Be With You, which was yesterday. Also, a few weeks ago, #77 paid homage to the year A New Hope was released. What came out in ‘80? Empire Strikes Back, which is where Yoda comes from. The thing wrote itself. This means that you may see a Return of the Jedi guest appearance in a few weeks. 

2. This has nothing to do with the strip. I took this photo after I placed an early Bad Kitty sticker next to a Yoda/beer sticker on top of a feminine hygiene disposal unit in a restroom at Arbeiter Brewing, last spring. Shortly thereafter, I used the same stall, as I often do, and apparently someone liked the Yoda sticker so much that they peeled it off. I put a Devil Made Me Drink It (another of mine) in the open space. I think that they are both still there. 

Look at that “painting “, though. Is that a can of beer next to Yoda? No, it looks all the world like a Bandwagon THC seltzer from Utepils. Look behind Yoda’s right side, those appear to be more Utepils cans. On the left, I can’t tell. None of it makes much sense. I suspect that this is A.I. 

So, don’t tear off stickers when you can just ask Chat GPT to make your image for you. And head over to OddMart and buy some of my stickers made with my real human hands! 

Ol’ George #79: The Ayes Haven’t It

 Ol’ George #79

Notes on #79: 

1. It’s quite possible Irma never even noticed that George and Chester went vertical (which also happened in #63 and #75). She liked  #78 because Chester revealed George’s many flaws, which she sees through every day. 

2. I find it quite adorable that my characters think they have any agency in their lives. But I’m most surprised by George, who revealed to Balonious way back in the legendary episode 35 (7/1/25), that the puppet master is me. It’s all in service of the gag. 

3. It wasn’t enough to give us Bugs Bunny in the ‘30’s. Fred “Tex” Avery also brought into the world Droopy Dog for MGM in 1943 (original name: Happy Hound.) You have to read Droopy’s line in his voice. If you can’t, find a friend who can. If that doesn’t work, get better friends. 

4. This is the most characters I’ve used in a single strip, 11, one one-off guest star and ten recurring regular cast members. Well, it’s only the second time for Wendell and Charlie, but they’re in the club now! 

5. Will Ol’ George be all vertical, no horizontal from now on? The vote was to be unanimous and Droopy spoiled it. Sorry if I forgot that part. It will shift on the whims of I, the Puppet Master, boo-hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Ol’ George #78

  Ol’ George #78

Notes on #78: 

1. This one feels like a Peanuts strip, and I was originally going to draw the two of them philosophizing on a bridge, a la Charlie Brown and Linus. George would be asking why people don’t like him, just like CB, but that’s not really George. He’s not one to find flaws in his character or seek out self-improvement. 

2. Even though George thinks that webcomics have ratings, his despair over the strip’s lack of popularity leads him to find a solution in others, not himself. 

3. Sometimes, the characters swap positions. This is because in panel one we are observing from behind the bar, though Irma remains hidden. In panel two, the viewpoint has switched, as if we are viewing from outside the bar. Panel three, back to Irma’s eyes! Panel four, too, but the friends have moved, just so Chester can Plop! to the left, even though the right would make more sense, and now I have to admit that I am mostly making this up as I go. 

Ol’ George #77: Scum & Villainy

 Ol’ George #77: Scum & Villainy.

Notes on 77: 

1. So, I thought, what should I do for #77? What happened in’77? Star Wars did. When I saw it in theaters at the age of nine, that cantina scene blew my  mind. So many aliens. All those cool intergalactic creatures! I had to wait for the trading cards to get to the orange series before I could see them again! Or that viewfinder cartridge that showed a portion. No other movie had that before. It’s why I became a devoted Star Wars fan.

So, the character we now call Ponda Baba was once Walrus Man, when he got an action figure in ‘79. His buddy Dr. Evazan didn’t get one until much later, when I was done with toys, but I had WM, who looked nothing like the film version, plus Greedo, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth. I wish I had done a little better job drawing WM, (his head should be larger) but it’s such a short amount of screen time. Obi Wan made quick work of those two. (Or did he…sigh…in later edits, we can hear them moaning and groaning, still alive, at scene’s end.) 

2. I don’t believe I’ve ever shown George using “growlix”, as Mort Walker dubbed them, before this in a strip. (In a sketch for a sticker, yes. In an actual sticker, kind of. In an upcoming sticker, also kind of.) He prefers to let his words do the work. But in a situation like this, it’s best to leave it to your imagination. I want to say this is a family strip, but George has used profanity before, under extenuating circumstances. (So have I, and Irma, Geni, Chester, and Cuddles the Cockroach.) I like that he used a Jedi mind trick of his own, without resorting to violence. 

3. Is George in the cantina in the Star Wars universe, or are those characters at Kelly’s in George’s universe? In the notes for #3, I suggested that George visits another Kelly’s on Tatooine, just to have Wuher, the bartender, show Trump and Vance the door. And then they won the election. And a hundred million voices cried out in anguish. Sigh…I’ve pretty much disowned that one. 

4. While we’re on the subject, there’s something in that scene I just don’t get. Wuher sees Luke and the droids and shouts at them from across the room to get out of building. Once they’re outside, Luke bellies up to the bar and gains the bartender’s attention by tugging on his shirt….and is promptly, if gruffly, served. In what galaxy does a bartender allow a patron to reach across the bar and grab them? Had George Lucas had so little experience in bars that he found this acceptable? 

Ol’ George #76: The Absinthe Drinker (Fine Art Funnies #1)

 Ol’ George #76: The Absinthe Drinker (Fine Art Funnies #1)

Notes on #76:

1. I’ve been sitting on these ideas for far too long, and it was time to get going on them. What if characters from fine art paintings met George? What would happen then, huh? Well, we’ll see, won’t we? At last count, I had about five of these, and I will sprinkle them in among the others.

2. This one is now the most multi-media strip of all. Pencil, ink (pen), colored pencil, crayon, oil pastel, marker. This one will force me to go out and get better versions of these materials. 

3. George previously said he’s not into inter-species stuff, but don’t misconstrue him. He’s not into her sexually or romantically. They’re just hanging out…as friends….for now. Seeing where it’s going…you can say someone is cute without being into them….

Ol’ George #75: Dreamin’

 

Ol’ George #75:

Notes on #75:

1. I consider every 25 strips as an anniversary. For #25, I offered a tutorial on how to draw George. For the fiftieth, we brought Krazy & Ignatz into the strip. And this one is unusual in several ways. 

2. In began when a friend requested another sticker drop out of me. ( I’ve done seven designs altogether in the past 14 months. Currently, you can get them by seeing me in person or purchasing them at OddMart, 2520 Lyndale Avenue, Minneapolis.) I asked them for a suggestion and they gave me “a Bad Kitty beer bottle.” I liked the idea, but changed it to a label with George’s face on it. After sketching it, I decided it should be #75, with panels on the sides, colored with pencils, as usual, but the bottle, would be watercolor. And it would be narrated in rhyme, naturally. 

3. I’m going to give this design another go before I turn it into a sticker. It won’t be too different from this, except that it’ll be better. 

4. Have I done one with four smiling Georges? That’s weird. 

Ol’ George 74: Buzzless Buddies

 Ol’ George 74: Buzzless Buddies 

Notes on #74:

1. I was aware of the People of Color problem in my strip, and I wanted to fix it. There’s only been one, back in #26, Thelonious Monk. He could return, but I never thought of him as a regular cast member. (Lie. I’ve always nurtured an idea of a strip of some kind where Monk is an incidental character.) And I thought back to an idea that’s been in the stock pile for over a year.

2. The man I’m calling Charlie is based on a customer at the store where I work. I’d helped him several times with his searches for N/A beers. His type was bottled European lagers and his favorite was the German Clausthaler. One day I just happened to be filling in on a register when he came up with his 6-pack and said almost verbatim the words I’ve put in Charlie’s mouth. I never wrote them down, just committed it to memory. Told a friend and co-worker, they asked if I would show it to him once I’d drawn it. No, because I would never be able to conjure a decent likeness from memory, and I could just imagine the reception: is that supposed to be me?

So, why did I put it off for over a year? Because of the work involved with designing a character based on a real person I barely knew. And I think I did an alright job. As long as he never sees it. 

And you know what is weird? I haven’t seen him since. I hope he merely moved away, and didn’t fall off the wagon or have any other dire fate befall him. 

3. In the first sketch I ever did of this as-yet unnamed character, I went no further because he seemed too young. He also wore a hat with the letter O, for some reason. I imagined his name started with an O, hence the hat. But I hated that. I’m glad I changed it because some might confuse it for a zero as in zero percent alcohol. Now, it’s a T for no particular reason. Maybe he’s from Texas, or Tenn-o-see, as Waylon would say. Maybe it’s for his favorite team, and I hope no one out there has that color scheme. 

4. Given the familiarity between them, I imagine George and Charlie have known each other awhile. Maybe since the times of whooping and hollering. Maybe he’s been there all along? Watch as I pull a Lucas and go back and insert him into all the old strips. Put him place of Riblet and Balonious. (No, just kidding.)

Ol’ George #73: Monkey Business

 

Notes on #73:

1. I went meta again. Does everyone in this particular strip know that they are characters in a comic strip? Well, they do now. Does who appears know? No, they don’t. If you’ll recall, the knowledge blew Balonious’ mind. 

2. Little Punch, the world’s favorite monkey, only seven months old,…drinking a beer?!? Yes. It’s a comic strip after all. You should see it when he shares with his orang-mommy, it’s so cute! 

3. Wait, didn’t I hint earlier that George had a secret crush on Irma? Yes, and he’s trying to keep it that way! 

Ol’ George #72: Terrapin Trouble

 Ol’ George #72: Terrapin Trouble 

Notes on 72: 

1. Churchy La Femme and Albert Alligator (from “Pogo”, don’t you know) are the first reptiles to grace these panels. May there be many more. 

They are also the first Pogo characters with speaking roles. Aside from a cameo by the titular possum in #62 and an anonymous bug in #55. There are more to come. 

2. One of Ol’ turtle’s great worries was Friday the 13th, no matter what day of the week it fell on. I often forget that not everyone reads and re-reads as much Pogo as I do. Who remembers that about Churchy? It would help if any of the attempts to continue the characters were successful after Kelly’s 1972 death, or that there were any well-known works in other media (the way so many know Peanuts from the animated specials). One problem is that it is impossible to write like Walt Kelly. I had to edit Churchy’s dialogue, because I honest can’t recall any of his characters ever saying “y’all’s.”

I remember “rowrbazzle” as a favorite Albertism in my early readings, but only recently discovered the beauty of “moomph”, an alternative harrumph. “Foo!” is a lovely stand-in for “phooey”, although spoken by Pogo. The nature’s screechers in the swamp don’t speak a regional dialect, they have their very own language. “Veritabobble catastafoo “ was stolen directly from a strip, probably out of Churchy’s mouth. 

3. Long ago, I said George is called Ol’ George after Geo Herriman’s calling himself “the Ol’ man.” Not really. It’s after the way all the animals in Pogo call each other “Ol’” as in Ol’ owl, Ol’ Deacon Mushrat, Ol’ Pogo, Ol’ mole, Ol’ Fremount, the boy bug. Etcetera. 

4. Where did Churchy’s beer go in panel four? What happened to his right arm? Why doesn’t Albert have s beer? Oh, these questions! 

Ol’ George #71

 Ol’ George #71

Notes on #71

1. No notes, 10/10!

2. Just kidding. 

When I wrote this and started drawing it, it occurred to me that many of you won’t get it, some of you will hate it, and a few of you will completely cut me from your lives, disown me, and/or privately wish for my death. I find that very unfortunate and am more than a little ashamed of you. It’s just a cartoon, after all. One of my most meta. I warned you this was going to happen. 

Who knows what is really happening here? I won’t tell…I probably don’t even know. 

3. I’ll tell more about the sign in panel two. It refers to the 1954 Dr. Seuss movie “The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T”, wherein the titular Dr. Terwilliger, an evil piano teacher played deliciously by Hans Conreid, has captured 500 children and is forcing them to play a giant piano. It was a big flop, this first and only live action film of Seuss’ lifetime, but I love it. One of the final songs (yes, it’s a musical) is a high camp number called “Do Me Do Duds” where Hans announces to his manservants how he would like to be dressed up for his grand concert. It closes with: “Dress me up in pretzels, dress me up in bock beer suds!” 

And that might be the last time beer is mentioned in the works of Dr. Seuss. (Prior to his kids’ book career, Seuss did a good amount of beer advertising art.)