polarized double

HERE, I return to one of my favorite themes within the strip, namely the Eternal Madness that constitutes the enigma known as WAR. This particuar theme never goes out of date and is as relevant today as it was hundreds, and even thousands, of years ago---as I speak, I was alarmed and appalled to read a newspaper report detailing the preparations [on all sides] of a potential Nuclear Theater of War, out in the Iranian Desert, which was truly Horrific in it's matter-of-fact treatment of such an event actually transpiring. What can I do about this deeply worrying and important state of affairs? Not a lot, and not a jot-------apart from, that is, my 'power' as a cartoonist, which grants me the leeway to depict the Act of War as a bizarre charade [which isn't all that far from the truth, in my humble opinion]. I can't stop this madness and disease that makes up the scourge of Warfare, but I delight in reflecting the built-in absurdity of the situation. More on this selfs

The first entry in last week's global cartoon competition never went down too well, I'm afraid, garnering few overall votes---- I honestly thought it was going to be finished at the starting block. However the final decision of 'what stays in' is down to the professional cartoonists who run the competition, and they have decided to keep the strip in for the meantime [perhaps they reckon it decides a further chance ?]. So it's in the current running [Week 2, at the time of writing-------here's hoping that things pick up somewhat]. I have a lot of paid cartoon work on at the moment, which is 'sweetening' the blow----- Remember, the strip is  totally unknown out there in the big, bad world, and all folks have seen thus far are two isolated strips, containing just one of the central characters, with 'Baby Boomer' himself no-where to be seen as yet..... It would have been great to have got some sort of recognition, but in this business you need the th

The strip has been entred in an Intrnational comic-strip competition, and so this is as good a time as any to finally get a few of the old black-and-white inkings 'upgraded' into loving Digi-color. It was a long time in coming, but it has to be said that the strip definitely seems to 'come to life' once the color process is applied. There are 10 stages in the contest, with  134 applicants, mainly from the USA [the market that most of us 'toonsmiths are hoping to crack, of course] but some entries are as far-lung as from Australia. This is the second year of the CARTOONIST STUDIO-  run competition, and last year's winner was a panel effort, that got taken on by one of the Major Syndicates [CREATORS] as part of a development deal. I personally hand-selected a few BABY BOOMER strips myself [ as if there ever was an actual alternative to this!] which range from choice cuts from the early years, combined with more up-to-date material. The strip is basically 'time

Sorry, readers, I just couldn't resist this------- I love playing around with the endless possibilities within Digital-Manipulation, and I was delighted with the Dayglow results with this particular 'reverse-color' attempt..... Sorry for such a self-indulgent post, but in some ways I prefer this version to the original! OK, now I'm back off to reconvert it...................

A real behind-the scenes 'rarity' today, readers,  inasmuch that I have unearthed this 'early' test color dabbling, done a mere and scant few short months ago. The early weeks were pretty much hit-and-miss regarding picking up the techniques of computer-color, and various test swatches and doodle-dabblings had to be undertaken first, within a pure 'trial-and-error' basis. Today, thankfully, I have picked up enough knowledge as regards how to put a  complete color image together, but in the 'early days' there were a few unfinished items, most of them [perhaps thankfully] lost forever. Here's an early piece I thought lost I managed to salvage, though [I just retrieved it from an obscure thread within the generally ace COMICS UK site]: it's likely to remain unfinished, as I would approach the entire coloring very different today... This one is for the future Historians of BABY BOOMER [ some wishful thinking there, eh, readers! ]:

THIS picture has already appeared in black-and-white format within the site before, and here's the 'upgraded' color version, now that I appear to have got the basic gist of adding layers to the ink-drawings, etc. I feel bad about recycling earlier work, but this version was half-finished since late 2011 and I just wanted it completed and out of the way..... BUT!!!!!  There is brand-new material [unseen by anyone other than me] waiting in the wings to be added on here pretty soon: refreshingly, it takes on a new direction from previous outings.  Hopefully a good lot of the stuff will be in living color, now that my frustrations with digi-color are basically over...... There's a fair whack of stuff to come, and I intend adding it on here around comissioned cartoons I am working on at the moment as well [yep, it's all happenin'.........]