Grey's Anatomy

Okay, I admit it. I like Grey's Anatomy. Critics complain that it's sometimes exasperating, too soap-opera-ish, too unrealistic. But what I like, and I realized it last night, is the slow process by which characters grow and learn to accept each other. This part of the show is realistic. A self-centered, obnoxious person in real life doesn't suddenly become lovable and understanding. He or she may soften and become less rigid as time goes by, but there's always the seed of what they were at their core.

Last night, Meredith, the somewhat damaged, fragile title character who has a half-sister, Lexie, whom she didn't even know about for years, last night told Lexie, "You're my sister. You're in my wedding (party)." It took about two TV seasons for her to come around from resenting, hating and ignoring this woman for having their father around all the years she was growing up (he had left Meredith and her mother when she was young and started a whole new family) to actually bonding with her as a sister. It was a true Kodak moment. (For those too young to know what this is, look it up.)

I realize, as I reread the previous paragraphs, that it sounds like a muddled, silly soap opera. And I suppose it is. But it's also frequently funny, making me laugh at the same time I'm moved by a tragic turn of events. The nature of a dramatic TV show based on characters more than situations is such that those characters will go through more, and bigger, changes than regular people. It almost unavoidable over multiple seasons. Most of us don't have interesting enough lives to adapt into a year-after-year TV show. But the enjoyable thing in a series is when those little a-ha or uplifting moments occur when you don't expect them. In an episode in which two friends of 20 years were feuding, a doctor held a dying six-year-old in her arms for hours while the father was off trying to raise money for a hopeless shot at a cure instead of being with his child, a father cut off a trust fund for his daughter because she announced she was gay--and happy, and a doctor with a 5% chance of beating terminal cancer plunged into the depths of chemo therapy, my favorite moment was when a very flawed woman accepted her sister as if it had always been thus. A simple moment topped all the drama.

Lest I seem too much of a softie, however, I also like The Office and 30 Rock, two shows that largely revel in the absence of true, heartfelt emotions.

Earth Day

Well, it's here. One of my favorite days of the year. Partly because it's in the spring, and partly because it's meaning more to more people now than it has for years.

I remember the first one, around 1970. A lot of my classmates walked miles to school instead of driving or riding. It made a difference, but just for that one day. A lot of those same people grew up to buy large, gas-guzzling cars, move into big, poorly-insulated houses, and generally ignore the idea of caring for the environment. Too bad people didn't care about building better cars and buildings 'way back when the topic was raised so long ago. Think of the hundreds of thousands of houses that have built to what would now be sub-code standards, and the millions of gallons of extra gas used that have helped raise the current price of gas and pollute the planet.

Still, it's finally fashionable to care. One good thing I've read is that part of the stimulus plan will include making improvements to existing homes to make them more energy efficient. This is a case where creating jobs has multiple good effects: people get work and income, others save money, and the planet will be cleaner in the long run, which benefits us all. And people like me don't get quite so cranky.

So, on Earth Day, do something extra special and helpful that you wouldn't normally do. If you only do it one day, it makes a difference. And if it makes you think the next time, it could make a difference for a long time.

Overlap

I finished acting in a local play this weekend. Rehearsals, memorizing and set building consumed a lot of my time. And, of course, we had to go out for food and drinks after each show! The weekend's performances were well-received, but there generally follows a Monday letdown. This year, however, I have next week's trip to South Dakota to work on the Pine Ridge reservation to look forward to, so there's the excitement and anticipation of that to counteract any potential letdown. That, and the need to draw and prep more cartoons to make up for the lost week of very little drawing, scanning and coloring. I work several weeks ahead, but falling behind now will mean I'm behind several weeks down the line. So I don't have to worry about this week being a downer--just another exciting week. After a week where the play was the thing, it's nice to get back to concentrating on this bunch of clowns! (Not to imply that the actors and techies were a bunch of clowns--they also wore makeup, but they were all professional and skilled. Well, the actors wore makeup, not the technicians, except the women might have, but that would be normal makeup---never mind.)

Since several QlownTown subscribers who will also be going on the trip won't get to see next week's cartoons--there's no internet on the res--I'll print copies and post them daily on a bulletin board there for those who are used to reading them every morning (except for the last few days and some last week, as our server undergoes updating and repairs). It'll be fun to be physically posting these cartoons in real time, since they're usually posted electronically several weeks ahead and go out automatically with no control or effort on my part. Sometimes, someone will tell me in person that they liked that day's cartoon, and I have to ask them what it was; there's a slight disconnect between me and the current strip. Next week, I'll deal with my own cartoons in the same time frame as my readers.

We're ba-a-ack!

I guess the email snafu got fixed--at least for now. I received my emailed cartoon today, and I assume all the other members did as well. I gave me a big lift, first because I like the absurdity of the cartoon, and second, because I thought it wouldn't be fixed till next week.

I pondered whether to make the attacker naked or not. I originally drew the cartoon when I was planning to present the dailies in black and white, so drawing clothes never mattered. Then, when I colored it, I thought, "Man, that guy is naked!" I thought of adding some clothes and smudging them to indicate movement, but since the humor in the cartoon is really based on the absurdity of the situation, I figured why not keep him nekkid? Makes him even crazier. I may be the first person to draw a widely-distributed naked clown. Maybe that's not such a wonderful distinction.

The cartoon was inspired by a true-life typo in an email that our website editor sent to the employees where I used to work. There were some changes being made to the site, and some pages would be unavailable for awhile. She wanted us to warn customers whom we might send to the site that this would be happening. She ended, "Please excuse the incontinence".

I wrote back that some people might be disappointed, but I didn't think they'd have that strong a reaction.

Problems

There have been no new Daily Cartoons sent out the last three days. This follows a couple of days of the site being partially down after someone hacked into the server. (Coincidentally, I had asked, several weeks ago, for a full copy of the site from my server provider, since a friend's site had disappeared completely after their server went down. I still haven't received my copy.)

I've emailed my provider for the past several days, but he hasn't replied. I tried calling him, but his answering machine picked up, so I couldn't talk to him. I was going to leave a message, but his mailbox was supposedly full, so I couldn't leave a message, either. I receive the daily emails along with all you members, and that's when I get to experience my own first-hand response to the strip. I pencil, ink, scan and color it, and at the end of that process, I can't always see objectively how it's turned out. But getting it in an email in the morning, I can gauge a more gut reaction, and say, "I should've done this differently" or I really like that detail" or, heaven forbid, "Oops. That wasn't as funny as I thought it was".

All this about the website problems is to explain that if anything else goes wrong, you were warned. I assumed (silly me) that when a website goes online, the server will provide a reasonable level of service. I hope that this will all get straightened out and you'll receive uninterrupted service from now on. Until then, I'm trying to come up with a funny cartoon about this. It doesn't seem very humorous right now, but maybe I can at least get a cartoon out of the frustration.

On the lighter side, this is a side benefit of drawing a comic strip. When something goes wrong, it can be fodder for a joke. An opportunity to make lemonade from lemons. Or mashed potatoes from potato heads.

Comic strips as a daily ritual

I just looked through the several comic strips I subscribe to or check regularly online. I get about two dozen emailed to me, and have bookmarked several more. Sometimes I'm busy in the morning and just want to get to work, and it seems as if looking through them will just waste my time; but then I remind myself that I need to come up with a new cartoon myself every day, and I am frequently inspired by other artists' work. (Sometimes I am bummed by other artists' work, however--in the year it took to develop the strip and site, Mother Goose and Grimm featured four or five cartoon ideas I had already drawn! Occasionally, I can twist the gag into something new, but sometimes, as with our mutual Hatchback of Notre Dame, there's nothing more to be done with it.) I came up with two new ideas based on other people's stuff today, so reading comics actually becomes Constructive Work for me!

But I read one today, on the Argyle Sweater site, about a black sheep with a clogged dryer lint filter, that just made me laugh. I do these strips because I enjoy a good cartoon, where the art, concept and wording all come together. I find too often that there's something I don't like about a cartoon I've done--usually something in the execution of the drawing itself--but when I feel I've nailed it on all counts, I get a rush of satisfaction. For example, there's a bear cartoon coming up next week that I actually like as much as I like other people's work. See if you agree. Then buy it on a shirt, or a mousepad, or a mug. I may do that myself.

The fun part for me--okay, one of the many fun parts--is when I realize that some part of my formal education is actually being put to use in my work. When I went to art school, I learned about composition, and when I was a theater major taking Directing, I also learned about setting a scene onstage. Sometimes, when I'm trying to decide how to illustrate a situation, I'll find myself using that training to compose the scene. It surprises me when I realize that being an art student, and then a theater student--both of which so often lead to careers in completely unrelated fields--actually help me with my work. It's as if my education actually paid off! This is normal for people who studied medicine, law, teaching, etc., but for a lot of us artsy-fartsy and/or liberal arts types, it can be a revelation.

(Interesting digression: I just had to inform my computer's Spellcheck that "fartsy" is a real word. There's probably a cartoon in there somewhere.)

I have to clean my office for Easter. See, I work in a room adjacent to the dining room, and we're having company Sunday. I like to maintain a certain level of messiness in my office--I know where things are, and when I come up with a new idea, it goes onto the appropriate pile. It's good for an office, bad for company. Draping sheets over everything won't cut it, so into boxes, drawers and cabinets go all the stuff. Then Monday, I'll have to figure out where everything is. That might result in a cartoon, too. If you see an office-cleaning cartoon in a couple of months, you heard about it here first. And if Mike Peters does the same thing in Mother Goose and Grimm first, boy, will I be bummed!