Art vs Artist - 2019

Here’s something that happens on Instagram: “Art versus Artist.” At its most basic, it’s an image of the artist surround by samples of that artist’s work. Where I could find hard rules about sampling the works, I chose my personal representative favorites from 2018. So, is this the 2018 edition (the year of the pool of stuff posted) or the 2019 edition (the year that these have been curated)?

As my favorite eight pieces, this differs from the “Top Nine” a.k.a. “Best Nine” posts of 2018. The latter determined by a simple counting of likes.

(clock-wise from top-right)

STAN LEE TRIBUTE - This represents my caricature/ portrait work.

CHEF SKUNK - This represents funny animal comics. The character is Nick from the long on-hiatus strip Tags from the a new one created for my 2018 Christmas card.

LIFE DRAWING with MARKERS - From one of the sessions done later in the year, chosen because I think it demonstrates better mastery of “highlighter art” than sessions earlier in the year.

YELLOW RABBIT - Another funny animal. She’s Hilarity from the short lived Cartoon Monday strip.

MICKEY - A rare example of my digital (Photoshop) painting.

BUNNY the BIRTHDAY SQUIRREL - I can’t drawing Bunny for every birthday notice that pops up on Facebook, for example, but I do draw him fairly frequently.

BELLE and the PRINCE as a HOGWARTS STUDENTS - Here’s a mash-up idea that was suggested for one of my “What Shall I Draw Today?” sessions.

TUFF-GIRL - Of course, I need to shamelessly promotion my adventure comic, Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, with the title character and with her pup, Wichita. This piece was created as the marketing image for last year’s WonderCon comic book convention showing.

Check out my Instagram feed @monstergram7

Christmas Pidgeon - 2018

https://youtu.be/Kc3gvUdQxoo

Here’s an “at speed” video of me sketching a Christmas Pidgeon to wish you a Merrie Chrsimas and a Happy New Year. The last personalized pigeon drawing of nearly 50 drawn in this season’s batch of holiday greetings. Thrill to see pregnant pauses as I decide whether or not to add a Santa hat and then deal with the consequences when confronted with no good place to place a nail.

I thought that YouTube might give me the option to turn off the sound - it didn’t, not that I could find. So, please excuse the unprofessional audio of humming and utterances.

monstergram7 hits 250 Followers

Hey some time yesterday my Instagram feed, @monstergram7, hit the milestone of 250 followers! So  I decided to commemorate the event with this, my first uploaded video, a time-lapse of me drawing and inking a special piece of art.

Thanks everybody!

Although not a high number, relative to other Instagram feeds, it exceeds my modest goals for my feed to happen before its first anniversary. I, unfortunately, am not very regular with it. Okay, I’m not very good with the whole social media. If I did have a master plan, well, I’d probably have a proper web site for “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl.”

TAGS September 09, 1994

Sunday, 09/09: Storm the Castle.

a.k.a. TAGS Full page #9

Black and white: black India ink on paper as originally published.

The beach. Such a summer-time destination. 

With the objectivity of time, I’d say that this strip succeeds if only by having a beginning, a middle and an end, carried by dynamic changes in panel compositions of close-ups and wide shots. 

As this is the first time that TAGS goes to the beach, it doesn’t call back to any previous strip, nor, in fact, does it foreshadow anything to come. But then I usually used the Sunday editions to tell mini stories out side of what the daily strips were doing.

Panel 1: In the opening title gag, Checkov (dragon) is prominent as the featured player of the strip. Monster (monster) is the foil for Checkov’s shenanigans, buried in the sand mound below Checkov. 

The surf board has two stickers. One is inspired by the logo for Body Glove, maker of wet suits and swim wear. The other is a stylized hurricane symbol in a triangle.

The life guard tower/ station is made up and not well researched. At the time, there were no internet images searches and I had perhaps one memory of a beach trip taken when I was about 4 on the east coast.

Panels 2-5: Monster builds a sand castle from tight close-up shots to wider shots.

Panel 6: Pull back to show Monster’s elaborate castle with outlier village, if there was any doubt of what he was building.

Hold on. What’s that forbidding shadow? Okay, if this is a west coast beach and that’s the Pacific Ocean in the distance, then according to the shadows the sun is in the North-East sky? I really just wanted the shadow to be cast from the right side as a matter of left-right narrative flow.

Panels 7-10: Checkov smashes the castle Kaiju (Godzilla) style. Panel 9 as a wide slanted rectangle (parallelogram) that cuts left across previous panel 8, the direction of Monster’s flight. While on the right end, the top corner literally points to the owner of the foreground hand, Checkov, triumphant in panel 10.

Panel 11: Checkov then goes on to bother sun bathing Brenda (mongoose) and Shirley (seal). Cue dramatic musical strike. Brenda and Shirley were chosen based upon the researched criteria of “who haven’t I drawn in a while?” I don’t know if mongooses like the ocean.

Panels 12-14: Next bit o’ fun… “Mossmen from 50,000 Leagues II. Brides of the Moss Men.” Of course, Moss Men are of the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” archetype, and explains the seaweed draped over Checkov. Oh, how sloppy with two different spellings of “Moss Men” in the same title. “50,000 Leagues” refers to the Jules Verne novel, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” “Brides of” refers to most famously “The Bride of Frankenstein” the now cliché sequel title structure.

Chekov (11th appearance), Brenda (7), Shirley (4)

TAGS - Sept. 02 & 03, 1994

09/02: Out of Ideas.

09/03: Tarts and Stops.

September 02: The elevator door goes “fiiish” and pushing buttons go “push.” Other than that, I had thought it interesting if not funny to send Monster haphazardly into rom-com territory. Here, Suzie (deer) makes her 4th appearance.

September 03: Monster squeezing icing on to desserts, presumably cupcakes, and on to his costume, hat, and ears. It was becoming a regular motif to have stuff stuck on Monster’s ears when he at his most creative. Polly (penguin, 25) makes a cookie sandwiches.  Brayn makes for an impatient conscience avatar.

This Is What I Drew Sunday – August 30

Here are the top 3 “liked” pieces from yesterday’s all-day session of “What Shall I Draw Today?”

#1 - Ellie and Carl as kids from Up: suggested by LJ Mandap

#2 - Yoda versus Darth Vader and Darth Maul: suggested by Christine Dennis Merritt

#3 - Rocket Raccoon and Baby Groot: suggested by LJ Mandap

And here is the whole Sunday set:

I think I’m ready for Long Beach Comic Con.

It’s not lost on me that this could be a sneaky way for folks to get free commission sketches (digitally through Facebook or Instagram). Given what’s readily accessible on the internet and sites like Deviant Art, “free” art is all over the place. I like to think of these as “suggested by” pieces rather than commissions, since I get to choose amongst the suggestions on what I spend time.

As usual the single and dual character pieces are drawn at collector card sizes of 2.5" x 3.5". The much larger pieces are at 5" x 7", a size chosen because I have clear binder sleeves with that size pockets (old style, jumbo photo size?). I doubt I’ll go bigger for a WSIDT piece. And before you all start getting a lot of crazy ideas with a gangs of characters and heaps props and extravagant backgrounds, I’ll say upfront, here and now, that you may suggest them, but I will not do it*.

For any one interested in purchasing one or more of these pieces of original art, you’ll have to catch up with me at one of my few comic convention appearances, like the upcoming Long Beach Comic Con.

Thank you once again to everyone who offered drawing suggestions and to those who voted with their Facebook and Instagram “likes.”

*Some things are deserving of breaking that rule, of course.

This Is What I Drew Sunday

Here are the top 3 liked pieces including a tie for 3rd from last Sunday’s inaugural social experiment that I call, “What Shall I Draw Today?”

#1 Jubilee (90’s): suggested by Steve

#2 Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad): suggested by LJ CaliCollectibles

#3 Monster Enjoying a Day at the Beach: suggested by Suzanne

#3 Tuff-Girl and Deadpool Fighting Over Tuff-Mutt’s Water Bowl: Suggested by Pandorina Blythe

Thank you to every one to made a drawing suggestion and for keeping it clean. And thank you for every one who voted with their Facebook and Instagram “likes.”

The next time I do this, I will provide more advanced notice.

TAGS - Aug. 31 & Sept. 1, 1994

 08/31: Talking points 

 09/01: Gats out of the Bag 

August 31: I reckon that this set up and punch line must have been used in The Wonder Years, The Brady Bunch or some such family situation comedy. Oh well.

Not that it matters to what’s happening in the strip, I’ll talk through the visual details.

1) “Happiland” is, of course a stand-in for Disneyland and the themed amusement park in which the TAGS characters work. This I’ve mentioned as necessarily informative, but this is the first time I’ve shown the park’s logo here on a monument marquee*. In fact, I hadn’t a logo designed until knowing that these two characters would be sitting outside the Park and the layout seemed to necessitate a sign of some kind.

2) A monument sign for Happiland, even as a location specific, non-marquee one, doesn’t/ didn’t stand-in for any real-life feature. I just seemed appropriate - cozier, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like the one at the Walt Disney Studios at the Buena Vista Street entrance (Google it if you must). Saying that, however, is misleading, because I’m sure I didn’t have that in mind.

3) The building in front of which Monster and Rodney are seated, IS a stand-in for Harbor House, the Cast-Member (employee) entrance off of Harbor Blvd. At the time, Disneyland had mechanical time clocks, and each employee had paper time cards. Upon arriving and departing work, each Cast-Member had to get their cards time stamped in Harbor House. As a physical location that was the sole entry and exit point for a majority of Cast-Members, Harbor House was THE location of convenience to meet other Cast-Members, especially when cel-phones weren’t common. Now the process is digital with magnetic stripped I.D. cards.

4) In the right most section of the building sits a security officer.

5) The silhouette to the left of the marquee, would be a topiary of the Park’s raccoon mascot. Like the monument sign, the topiary more has a counterpart at the Disney Studios than the Park.



September 1: This is absolutely all soap opera stuff. With TAGS lacking the promise of, or I not having the commitment to making it become a long running series, teasing out Monster’s crush seemed a poor plan and instead I thought it ought to be resolved in some way. 

[cliff-hanger! Dunt-dun-dunn!]


*A little history: In 1994, the second marquee of blue and pink with white letters had stood already for five years off of Harbor Blvd. in Anaheim at about featuring an electric message board. Five years later, b.t.w., that one went away with the construction of Disney California Adventure. The first marquee for Disneyland had large individually boxed letters and stood along Harbor Blvd. through a few color palettes beginning in 1958.

Rodney, African Lion, makes his 6th and 7th appearances in these 2 strips.

TAGS - Aug. 26 & 27, 1994

08/26: End. Over. End.

08/27: Tableauxs and Cheers.

August 26: There are sixteen characters in this one strip!

The strip also introduces the idea that the hand cars tow some sort of converted carriage that accommodates several passengers. 

This suggests that the hand car races are a relay event. If in the tradition of Disneyland’s Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes this also a theme park attraction by day, then only two persons are driving multiple cars carrying the weight of 6-12 persons – and up and down hills at that! Come to think of it, I don’t doubt that frequently the canoes are likewise only paddled by their two Cast-Members. 

Otherwise, this is a bridge installment to get out of the races and into Stacy’s pancake diner.

Note: this is an even mix of the two teams, but only Al and Monster are wearing white “Defiant” team tee-shirts, while the others are wearing black “Pump You Up” tees carrying over an idea from 08/24.

Roll call (L-R): Rudy (pig, 8th appearance), Al (beagle, 7), Edie (squirrel, 9), Murray (cheetah, 11), Rodney (lion, 5), Bingo (snake, 6), Nick (skunk, 16), Barron (stuffed bear, 16), Checkov (dragon, 10), Connie (cardinal, 4), Jill (reindeer, 5), Michelle (weasel, 5), Heidi (gopher, 9), Monster (monster), Polly (penguin, 24), Carolyn (raccoon, 7).

August 27: Basically, morning races aren’t for every one. 

Yes, in panel two, amongst the “Cheers” are scribbled “mumble”s.

Yes, in panel three, Al is holding a toasted bread slice.

Roll call: Rodney (6), Al (8), Heidi (silhouette, 10), Rudy (silhouette, 9), Monster (silhouette), Michelle (silhouette, 6).

TAGS - August 24 & 25, 1994

08/24: Sweet Tees

08/25: Doze Were the Daze

August 24: True story: I used to volunteer to design and have printed team tee-shirts for folks at the restaurants in which I worked at Disneyland, including the canoe gangs for the annual Cast-Member canoe races. Not an interesting fact, but it’s true. Not true would be that participating teams were called “gangs.” I do subscribe to the idea that uniforms help make up a team.

“Defiant” is pretty much a nod to the ship from Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Not because I was a great fan of the show, but more for the franchise and it just sounds like a real, formidable war ship.

“Pump It Up” is a nod to the Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon series of sketches on Saturday Night Live, “Pumping Up with Hans and Franz”, and because of the pumping action involved with hand-car racing.

Al’s Defiant gang is comprised of these randomly chosen members: Al (Captain, beagle, 5th appearance), Michelle (weasel, 4), Barron (stuffed bear, 15), Bingo (snake, 5), Connie (cardinal, 3), Heidi (gopher, 7), Rudy (pig, 7) and Monster (monster)

August 25: Drawing short straws means that these members aren’t racing today. 

Monster is generally agreeable to a lot of things. I think the follow up strip should have had Heidi and Polly upping the crazy things they could get him to sleepily concede. Alas…

“How-Yoohie!” is yet another nonsense word I coined just because I could.

In this strip: Al (6), Heidi (8) and Polly (penguin, 23).

TAGS July 31, 1994

Sunday, 07/31: Fire the works.

a.k.a. TAGS Full page #8

Black and white: black India Ink on paper as originally published.

This full page strip was originally published in a July issue of monotony, the newsletter I created and ran for about a year to have some place (and schedule) for a comic strip. The subject of fireworks best correlates to Independence Day, however the Sunday date landed on the last day of July. 

Yes, the dates were a bit arbitrary. Usually the daily strips were in a series of six consecutive days. At least they were always paired for consecutive days, none landing on a Sunday. The full page editions fell on a Sunday, as they should, following a series of four or six dailies.

Panel 1: Such a poor execution. In Monster’s right hand is a small American flag. In his left, a book of matches, from which he has flicked and struck matches which flame up in mid air.

Panels 2-9: Having drawn this for black and white reproduction, the panels alternate rendering styles to emphasize the initial bursting of fireworks contrasted with moments of less intense colored blooms falling with trailing pops and crackles. The contrast also suggests the lag between seeing the explosion and hearing its thunderous clap. I probably should have written the quoted comments in bubbles.

Panels 10-13: Casting Monster as a demanding twerp was less my intention than for him to be in the Charlie Brown role. P.11 should be “But…”; p.12 Monster continues to stand alone with smoke wafting in; p.13 Monster says, “Gats.” 

This strip also features Tanya (otter, 4th appearance), Tom (griffin, 2), Suzie (deer, 4)

TAGS July 27 & 28, 1994

07/27: Fun o’clock A.M.

07/28: Better with Bacon.

July 27: In the summer, Disneyland host a little Cast Member team building activity that is the canoe races. Before the sun rises, well before the main gates open to the day’s guests, teams clamor into the Davy Crocket Explorer canoes and are timed in one circuit around Tom Sawyer Island. There is the men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions, but wouldn’t you know it that the D.C.E. Cast Members invariably take the men’s prize every year. 

It’s tough pulling a canoe through the waters of the Rivers of America. It’s tough getting eight to twelve people to synchronize their rowing. Finding eight to twelve people to form a team is difficult. I often thought the most difficult thing to do was waking up early enough.

The TAGS equivalent to the canoe races are the hand car races on Jebidia S. Coyote’s Sidewindin’ Hand Cars. Hand cars being the things requiring people to pump a crank to it to roll along train tracks really isn’t a viable attraction for folks on their vacations, nor for a company worried about liabilities. Not to mention that at four riders per hand car, it wouldn’t be much of a “people eater”.

It is, for a comic strip, sufficiently physical and has potential for some visual gags.

July 28: Stacy’s diner (introduced in the March 08, 1994 strip) is the perfect place for teams to cool down after a heated hand car race and have some breakfast. 

If hand car races require more than a minimum of eight people on a team, then I suppose it’s some sort of relay race. 

Al (beagle, 4th appearance), Bingo (snake, 4)

TAGS July 25 & 26, 1994

  07/25: Din That Special

07/26: Deco-Rations

July 25: If there’s an art and/ or science to marketing a celebration, then the Disney Parks does it as well as anybody. As commentary, that may be why it’s the 26th anniversary and not the more recognized milestone 25th, and how Happiland isn’t going to let it pass with commemorative ribbons, button or little toothpick flags.

Gerry (beaver, 3th appearance), Corina (poodle, 6), Fern (kangaroo, 5)

July 26: Herein is the first and last appearance of manager, Monica, for the sole purpose of having a “suit”/ authority figure. Also for the role, the suit characters are taller than the regular TAGS cast. If you think about it, the height difference, while visually convenient for communicating hierarchy, doesn’t make a lot of sense, when the TAGS cast aren’t intended to be children as Charlie Brown and gang are in Peanuts.

Barron (teddy bear, 14), Hans (fox, 5), John (greyhound, 3)

TAGS July 04 & 05, 1994

07/04: That’s What Sneeze Said

07/05: Polly Alley Sniffle All Day 

July 04: Polly (penguin) suffers from the symptoms of seasonal allergies, and yet manages to conduct herself for a positive guest experience by stifling it just long enough. This certainly is derived from my own struggles with pollen season. It’s been almost a dozen strips since Monster had been placed in a prominent roll in TAGS. This was an effort to develop the cast of character more. There’s not particular reason that Polly was chosen to have hay fever. If anything, I must have felt it was her time to by featured in a couple of strips which converged with my want to try some allergy gags.

July 05: If it isn't the sniffling and sneezing that comes with hay fever that gets you, then it’s the drowsiness and other potent symptoms of the counter-acting medicine. Carolyn (raccoon, 6th appearance) is the front-of-house lead doling out breaks. In her hands is an over-sized break sheet which are really more pocket-sized. One would think the size was necessary to contain the word “BREAKS”, but it just reads better that a tiny scrap of paper. Polly (22) has has marks on her nose which if successful stands in for a red, irritated nose. If not so successful, Polly looks like seagull. Oh for the want of color.

This second strip in particular is another example my fascination with using sound effects as visual elements. The joke structure there may require a fourth panel payoff. Sara at what is referred to as “bevees” has had two previous appearances, but obviously doesn’t need to bee seen (i.e. take up valuable panel space) here. See, there’s a reason for almost everything?

Off of the top of my head, I think my technical pen must have been clogging up or some thing. That’s the only reason I can think of for the scratchiness of the art. 

Many Times and Many Ways

Merry Christmas!

I’m still working on those holiday greetings.

Here above, is a totally misleading sample of some of my work so far - rough sketches colored in Photoshop. This year I’m returning to the TAGS characters... in national costumes. Atypical of TAGS art, but necessary for the theme, are pants and shoes.

Now I've gotta get back to it.

Happy new year, too!

TAGS June 5, 1994

Sunday, 06/05: Jill’s not impressed.
Black and white: black India Ink on paper as originally published.

As I’ve probably said previously, I tended to use the expanded format of TAGS’ Sunday editions to explore storytelling with more pantomime and less dialogue. This is inspired by I don’t know what. It, I don’t think, was newspaper comic creator heroes, Charles’s Peanuts, Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace or Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. If I were to site any thing it would be the few story board examples I was exposed to in books like The Art of Walt Disney(1) and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation(2).

Here Jill (reindeer, 4th appearance) and Vern (horse, 4) spend time in the Impressionists gallery of a fine art museum, and I go for the obvious joke of having Jill do impressions of the other gallery guests to keep herself occupied.

I would some times muse that I should just have made hoofed characters like Vern and Jill wear gloves a la Porky Pig. It would have and still would make little things like gestures easier to draw and be communicative.

In panel 1, I hope that even in this black and white rendition the painting is easily identifiable as a TAGS version of Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island La Grande Jatte”.

All of the ancillary characters were inspired by the crittatures that were featured in my defunct BackStage and Stagelights comics, the lunch period doodles I wrote and drew when I worked for Disneyland Restaurants.

(1) Finch, Christopher. Lasseter, John. The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to The Magic Kingdoms and Beyond. Harry N. Abrams, new edition 2011 hard cover ISBN: 9780810998148. Cover price $85.00

(2) Thomas, Frank. Johnston, Ollie. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Hyperion Books, 1995 hard cover ISBN: 9789990080506. Cover price $60.00. 2000 soft cover ISBN: 9780786885060. Cover price $29.95.

TAGS June 01 & 02, 1994

 Previously in TAGS [May 30 & 31, 1994]

 06/01: Simile Emily

06/02: Mirror Marie.

June 01: Nick (skunk) is piecing together some facts: a) Emily (tiger, 4th appearance) has a twin sister, Marie; b) the girl that Nick saw back in strip (05/30) whom he thought was Emily ignoring him could in fact have been Marie - proof pending.

June 02: Marie (2nd appearance) can’t quite match the familiarity radiated by Nick (15). Not that she should, since she really doesn’t know him. And all settles back to status quo.

 I feel that there needs to be a fifth panel added between #2 and 3, just for an extended pause.


This series came about because Ron caught me erroneously identifying the tiger in the “Ski Trip” poster as “Marie” (Jan. 01, 1994), when previously I must have identified the tiger as “Emily” (not in the strip, but probably either in my newsletter, Monotony or the first collection of TAGS). I erred because, for the most part, I was only keeping track of characters by memory.

I took the opportunity to introduce Marie as Emily’s twin sister. Which by chronological canon still doesn’t make sense because if both Nick and Marie were on the same ski trip in, say, January, their first meeting could not be three months later. Well, there were over 30 TAGS characters at that ski trip. They probably just hung out in separate groups, and Nick thought that was Emily any ways.

The series also draws on an actual occurrence when I mistakenly greeted a girl as her sister with whom I worked at Disneyland, pretty much just strip (06/02). The awkward part was the 50 or so feet we both walked in the same direction after clarifying that we did not actually know one another.

TAGS May 30 & 31, 1994

05/30: Passing ’gers. 

05/31: Ignorance and bliss. 

May 30: Here, Nick (skunk) gets slighted when as friendly greeting fails elicit a similar response. Wars have been started for less.

I think the reduction of Nick in frame from panel 2 through 4 works rather well, and the lack of establishing backgrounds* communicates a small amount of feeling of isolation, especially in the last panel. As I now analyze the strip, having the girl walk of to the left adds to the resultant feeling, with Nick being his farthest from her in the last panel, yet still looking in her direction. This wouldn’t be achieved if in the first panel Nick were walking to the left and she to the right. I’m quite sure that I didn’t plan this, nor I doubt that my storytelling layout skills were sharp enough to intuit it so. Lucky.

* Near the clock house, where folks clock in and out and workers of different shifts may pass. Nick has clocked out.

May 31: Break room. Supposedly on the next day form the happenings of the prior strip, Nick (13th appearance) crosses paths with Emily (tiger, 3).

Yeah, it’s quite unreasonable for Nick to carrying such a grudge for such a small occurrence, but comedy isn’t rooted in the actions of reasonable folks.

TAGS, May 13, 1994

- Truth and Condiments -

India Ink on paper.

With a restaurant that operates sixteen plus hours a day including prep and closing and with a staff of close to a hundred crew members working overlapping shifts each of 4 to 8 hours long, the resulting combination of folks taking their breaks at the same time are at once random and limited. The break room setting became the most common device for mixing up the characters, exploring how the they might interact, especially when not dealing with the core “go to” characters.

In one such break room scenario, Monster sat with his imagined rival Even (Welsh Corgi, 5th appearance) with a discussion spurred by the appearance of Monster’s crush, Polly (penguin, 20). The subtext involved Evan, without realizing it, was the catalyst for Monster’s expressed insecurities. The failings of my Tags production schedule meant that there was only one strip prior to set up the Monster/Evan dynamic.

“The Apple Tree” dance was totally a high-school convention that had no counterpart in the operation of a major theme park or much less a restaurant operating within a theme park (which was where Tags was set).

There were a few strips where Monster was the quiet observer. Unfortunately, there’s no room in a daily strip series for a quiet observer unless he’s effectually a bit of property/ set dressing. If there’s one thing I like about this strip then it’s the opportunity to show Monster’s inner Charlie Brown.


Panel 1 (L-R as board pieces): Shirley (seal, 3), Suzie (deer, 3), Polly, Fern (kangaroo, 4), Bingo (snake, 3), Monster, Evan, Guy (dalmatian, 3). At the top is Monster in a Naval Commander’s uniform. The Submarine is of course designed after the Battleship game piece.

TAGS, February 06, 1994 - color

Digital composite of India ink and watercolor, 

with digital color of the logo.

[link: Black and white version] as originally published.

As I retroactively color these full-page strips, the order has been hap-hazard. That’s just facts, and not so much an apology. I suppose I apologize for taking seventeen years to get around to coloring them at all.