Thats right, a Halloween Spooktacular. This year's Land of Le Beef Halloween cartoon is so spooky that I actually had to remove some of the spookiness so that it was safe for human consumption. Anyway, here it is. It's spooky.
Cartooning 101
I was invited to give a weekly afternoon cartooning/illustration class at the German-Swiss International School in Hong Kong to a small group of students. I've done three classes already, and so far there is no shortage of imagination and enthusiasm.
That's Not a Knife
This is a idea I have for a new childrens book, called 'That's Not a Knife'. It's about a leather-clad Australian straight from the outback, who travels the world in search of a knife. Sure, teaching kids about knives might not be the smartest thing, but I can almost guarantee you that this would be the cutest Crocodile Dundee fan fiction ever created.
I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that this will actually get made, but if this happens to be something that you feel strongly about and want to see it happen, please drop me a line.
The Couch and the Lamp
Everyday they would gaze at each other from across the living room, in silent admiration of one another. Slowly, day by day, their love grew; it blossomed. One day they packed a suitcase and started a new life together. It was beautiful.
Research and Development
A lot of people don't realize how much research goes into each and every Land of Le Beef cartoon that I create, so I thought I would share a little bit of 'behind the scenes'.
For example, this cartoon features a flamenco dancer and a flamingo. In planning for this one, I took flamenco dancing lessons for 3 months, learning the moves and the subtleties behind it. My instructor, Alejandro, was very instrumental in this part of the panel. As further research, I also went undercover and joined a large flamingo colony for a substantial period of time (see below).
image courtesy of Wikipedia
As you can imagine, it was a very unusual yet enriching period of my life. For hours at a time I would stand on one leg while pecking at the sweet sweet algae and aquatic plants beneath the water's surface with my giant beak. I even married a female member of the colony, and we had a few eggs together. It was a quiet, meditative life. Over time I thought that perhaps I would leave the human world for good and live out the rest of my days with my new bird family, until one fateful day when it was time to migrate. Slowly, one by one, they all started flying away. My flamingo wife, my flamingo kids, even my flamingo tax accountant; gone. Eventually I was left standing alone on one leg, watching my whole flamingo world disappear in a cloud a pink. I wept a single tear.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that a lot goes into these cartoons.