polarized double

A Cherished Dream regarding the future of the BABY BOOMER strip is the transition of the characters from my paper drawings into print: and long-term, if all goes well, perhaps we will see a large-scale,  mega-bucks, Hollywood Blockbuster --directed by Spielberg, no less-------featuring the strip's core characters in a lavish, CGI/hand-drawn animated spectacular. In the event of this not actually becoming a reality, I can always console myself with the fact that one of the characters actually 'made it' in the animated stakes: at least, in the form of a home-made 'animated avatar!' sorry it's a bit small: the scaled-down ACTUAL AVATAR is all that sadly remains in my archives. Please excuse the slightly clumsy 'JERK-O-VISION' production values, readers, --------this absolute 'rough-n-ready' presentation was assembled without the benefit of proper registration pegs, etc, but 'sort of' works....... in motion, no less! This avatar of JET BLANC ...

Heaven and Hell  turn up with occassional frequency as stylized backdrops in a fair few BABY BOOMER strips: again, the almost-limitless premise of the project means that these Afterlife locations are treated in an almost matter-of-fact, very casual basis, as if this sort of setting can be the target location of a cheap package Holiday! It is never explained exactly how B.B., Jet, Vibes or Veronica  manage to shift from their usual Downtown N.Y.C. location to the extremely alien trappings of Hades or cloud-bedecked Paradise: it is simply established as just another couple of scenarios in which the characters can inhabit and function in. There are equal amounts of gag situations set in both 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' in the Afterlife, and somewhat guiltily, I have to admit that scenes set in Hell are the most fun to work on: the appearence of the Devil himself is symbolized as having him appear as an almost Vaudevillian Villain, as he encounters the somewhat unimpressed ...

Depending on idea/gag requirements,  the appearence of the characters is sometimes tailored to fit the partickler situation: one of the main characters may win the State Lottery, for example, or at the other end of the 'social scale', be reduced to living as a tramp/hobo/down-and-out. This storyline device is spanned out over three or four tiny frames, meaning easily-recognized symbols of opulence--or financial hardship-----must come to the fore. Thus, in good times,   B.B., Jet, Vibes and Veronica can be seen in lush and tailored attire, and in bad times  they are reduced to wearing rags and carrying that old   cartoon cliche:   the knotted hankie around with them as need be. Comic-strips and fantasy is often about subverting accepted conventions and stereotypes, of course, and in the following cartoon we see three of the central figures down on their luck and downtrodden, but somehow have managed to overcome their poverty-stricken status and acquired a full-on...

This very controversial drawing remains the most doom-laden, destructive and pessemistic cartoon I have ever undertaken within the banner of the strip known as BABY BOOMER. What on Earth was I thinking of, coming up with this idea? Was I depressed, or experiencing a day when my faith in Humanity was at an all-time low ebb? I've no idea where most of my ideas actually spring from, and this cartoon remains something of a mystery. I have always loved drawing Atomic Explosions, however they are amongst the all-time taboo subjects of cartoonology, and best left avoided, especially if an artist is trying to get a foothold in a commercial setting: Death and Destruction on this scale is a bit of a downer,  to put it mildly. The experiment you see here is never likely to be ever repeated, so it's a true 'one-off' you see before you here: I am, however, still trying to work out how to portray Nuclear Explosions into my daily strips.....thus far, I have come up with a scenario inv...

The Second Instalment in my ' Illustrated War Guide' ' is a relatively restrained gag, that has already appeared within other forums. One commentator pointed out that the Drill Sergeant/Inspector/Whoever had stripes on his arms that were 'not accurate' or words to that effect;  I got the impression that perhaps he came from a Military Background [or something]. This would explain such attention to detail, however, if I spend too much time looking up visual references on GOOGLE IMAGES etc [which is very handy at times, it has to be said] then all spontanaeity in the original rough drawing will be lost, making for weaker and less effective cartooning. Such meticulous attention to detail is admirable in some ways, but perhaps is more relevant if you are drawing a COMMANDO comic or something.......in cartoonery as brazen as mine, the artist can get away with ' screaming blue murder'. The majority of my drawings are penciled in very quickly, in order to retain sp...

The subject of WARFARE:--------- especially in it's most extreme, 'all-out' sense [ ie: as in World Wars  One, Two and Three]  is yet another recurring theme within the daily strips, and source of never-ending potential for extremist gags [ I simply LOVE drawing tanks, missile-rockets, exploding shells, etc]  and although this very serious theme may not appear to be an immediate candidate for slapstick humor, it has of course transferred successfully into the worlds of Charles M. Schulz' PEANUTS with some dailies set in the trenches of  fully-fledged War Zones, and Mort Walker's  long-running  BEETLE BAILEY   of course, set in and around a U.S. Military Base. My own 'take' on this very loaded subject is to ridicule the wasteful and [ in my view] pointless and destructive elements of War in it's many guises: this subject has of course to be handled with extreme delicacy, but there is no doubt that this concept is among my favorite themes, and offers up ...

Creating Cartoon Horror-Iconography is yet another well-beaten path within the annals of cartoondom, with entire comics put out at one point in the early mid-70s [in the UK] : Shiver and Shake, of course, from 1973, and Monster Fun comic which followed a scant two years later. Sadly, my policy of not showing vintage UK comics---or any other copyrighted material------ on this site precludes me from adding illustrations as we speak, but I will state that these IPC comics were keenly devoured by myself at the time, and in fact I grew to prefer them, over time, to the over-familiar D C Thomson output of the same era. It has to be recorded that both of these comics had fairly short and brutal runs, indicating, perhaps, that their short-lived success proved to be the proverbial flash-in-the-pan. I can't think of a single 'horror-themed' newspaper strip that has proved long-running and successful, although that's not to say that it can never be done. LIO by Mark Tatulli may be...

An early 'Crime-n-Punishment' scenario theme-drawing of considerable vintage, this cartoon 'turns the tables' on the Noo Yoik cops who emerged so triumphantly dominant in the previous cartoon outing. Hardly the epitome of sophisticated  or 'highbrow' humor, these crime-related drawings reflect my own basically unpretentious sense of humor, which avoids  many 'modern' trends such as sarcasm or   irony, both of which are well catered for within much of today's printed and published output. IRONY is fine if handled well, but SARCASM has never especially appealled to me, either in real-life, or within mass-entertainment. This mode of 'humor'  definately has a following, but I do not count myself amongst these numbers. Give me that falling Anvil gag, or  a well-deserved boot up the a** scenario    any day of the week! I reckon the following gag has subconciously been influenced by TEX AVERY or somesuch purveyor of elaborate slapstick.

The following image is a must-add element inasmuch as this cartoon frame seems to have attained a degree of popularity [ it's the only BOOMER image that I ever came accross purely by accident, while trawling thru' Google Images] and in fact, more than one punter has remarked it is a ' standout' image. As so much of the cartoon bizness is built upon trial-and-error, [it's no good simply being a cartoonist, you also have to come up with stuff that will also please an Editor, and more importantly, the 'paying public'] and the following BOOMER/'COPS' image started off like any other: just another cartoon drawing, trying out something a wee bit different. Maybe it's the juxtaposition [ that's today's pretentious waffling over and done with!] between the 'innocent'   B.B. as a masked bandit  and the burly, street-sussed NYC cops that attract the interest of some onlookers---who knows?----but for whatever  reason, this approach has prove...

Sifting thru' the 'archives'  I possess [ironically, in order  to assemble this  very updated 'archive'] recently, I was pleased to retrieve some examples of artwork connected to the Baby Boomer project, and here's one I prepared earlier, that I had  all but  forgotten  about: Clearly a fairly early test-inking of KOONG KING and his gargantuan role within the BOOMER exploits, this was concieved as a LOGO 'of sorts' at one point [all that flag-waving action is very typical of the strip's identity and iconography, for some reason]. The image was shelved for motives lost in the mists of time, and has seldom been seen anywhere: a real curio from the 'hidden archives'  dusted off this very day for your 'delight and delectation'. The endless experimentation of test cartoons and gag situations has yielded many weird-and-wonderful images, and some of these will be salvaged from the scapheap if they are deemed to be worthy of inclusion. Out-an...

No need to be NEGATIVE about it! It's not all way-out wackiness and outlandish spectacle within the frames of BABY BOOMER, though, as the following illustration testifies to: a good healthy number of the strips are down-to-Earth and restrained, and even--dare I say it----- domesticated  in a good number of occassions. A high proportion of the gag ideas center around highly recognizable everyday/consumer/ typical situations we all experience in our day-to-day living. The only real difference within the strip's outlook is the obvious concession of the fantastic [ as in 'fantasy' ] or at the very least, unexpected , element of hopefully surprizing  humor or 'spin on things' coming to the fore somewhere within each daily strip offering. Here we see a typical kitchen/early-morning scenario, only it's been pepped up a bit by the introduction of a seemingly alive free gift version of the Statue of Liberty, who 'herself' plays an active role as 'supporti...

Below we see the Mighty KOONG reduced to the level of not only backdrop character, but in this case as 'convenient prop' , in a sharp example of the surrealist qualities so often served up by this strip's impossiblities and implausibilities. A decent,  if atypical, example---within  a true, one-off gag situation---- of something completely unexpected and absurdist cropping up within the central character's chaotic and crazy world, made even more remarkable inasmuch as the main characters appear unaffected and unfazed by the basically anarchic events.

Okay, that's the 'mainstay' characters and basic premise of the BABY BOOMER strip established and explained within this site. Asssuming that your brain-stems are not throbbing after taking in all this surrealism and inked-in Anarchy, perhaps it's time to 'slip in' another couple of elements that crop up----with considerable regularity------within the strip's frame work. There are a couple of recurring themes [he added, pretentiously] that serve to establish the overall anarchic tone of this comic-world, in which anything [ at least, within the bounds of taste and decency, and, of course,  Obscenity Laws!] can, and does, happen. Almost as a backdrop to the outlandish events served up by your willing collaborator/cartoonist, the reader can sometimes savor the sight of the hulking KOONG KING, who stalks the streets and 'scrapers of Noo Yoik on an almost casual basis, popping up into the strip with the regularity of a passing tomcat , or passing drunk. Or pa...

Here's a duo of early-period strips ready to supplement the previous additions. Enjoi!!

However, all this pseudo-intellectual waffling [a common human failing within many blogs, and this one is no exception, Dear Reader!] can account for nothing if the cartoonist/author simply cannot deliver the desired 'goods', which means the finished product, of course. In our case, the desired effect is a tangible, readable comic strip that hopefully can encapsulate the surreal comedy I am trying to put accross: No more slavering or havering, time to actually show the finished results: The above examples represent a pretty accurate cross-section of the strip's comedy aspirations and intentions: basically, the format is extremely open-ended and loose, and although the bulk of the scenes are set within 'domestic' downtown NYC, the strip can, and  often  does, take off into surrealistic flights of fancy, wherever the cartoonist's mood seems appropriate at any given time. It is important, however, to have a unifying set of themes with recognizable, recurring charac...

Some much-needed sex-appeal [there-----THAT got yer attention, readers!] within the generally wholesome fare that makes up the nucleus of the BABY BOOMER imagery and iconography, our decidedly attractive young 'catwoman' was a relatively late entry within the formatting of the strip, and the last of the four central characters to come into being. Veronica is quite different in concept to the other three pivotal figures [ JET BLANC, VIBES and B. B. himself all look as if they have stepped out of a late-60s period D.C.Thomson comic, or perhaps even a 1930s-era Max Fleischer 'Popeye' or 'Betty Boop' animation]. No such claims can be brought forth in the case of our Vero, who is very different in appearance: she seems almost 'semi-realistic' in her feminine body-form, at odds with the other three main character's 'dough feet' and 'pure cartoon' character construction. It's great having a tangible female character to work with, however...

The Second and final VIBES  character sheet to date again strikes out in a typically surreal tangent, as he appears alongside 'himself' somewhat impossibly, to nevertheless fine implausible effect. I'm darned pleased with the overall cavortings depicted below, which illustrates my restless imagination fairly adequately...... ------what WAS I thinking of, as these images sprung forth from my psychotic psyche? Your home-made psychiatric warblings are most welcome!

VIBES is the Second key player within the strip, and this cartoonized canine being acts as neccessary stooge to the more strikingly-designed Jet Blanc, who often dominates stages Right, Left and Center. However, such is the free-form nature of the BABY BOOMER strip, that old Vibes very often appears in many strips all on his ownsome, acting or reacting to some typically bizarrre or unexpected event that has worked it's way into that particular day's strip. Vibes [ his name is clearly culled from late 60s counter-culture, although this strip is refreshingly drug-free at every level ] is generally a good-natured, decent sort, if prone to bouts of laziness and occassional outbursts of anger at some of the more preposterous situations. Here we see the original Model Sheet  I created to define his mutt-like persona, which was turned out in the very early days, after only a handful of strips had been completed. I'd love to start a new Model Sheet on this character, seeing as how ...

Here we see the second official Model Sheet prepared in the early days of the strip's evolution:  this one's a bit more  surreal and inventive than the previous 'all-purpose' entry, and gives a good indication of the willingness of the strip to break conventions and accepted traditions of generic comics situations.  The fact that Jet interacts with' himself 'here in two of the examples above is just something that occurred to me randomly while assembling this montage: it's merely a typical example of the go anywhere strip premise I am so enthusiastic to explore. To date, these are the only two Model Sheets of Main-Cat character Jet's persona: if truth be told, a couple of more recent examples on this score wouldn't go amiss: I'll see what I can do on this score. These images are definately pivotal and essential within the BABY BOOMER strip's early history, however.

Let's get this out of the way first: the theme of CATS have been done to death in all walks of cartoon fantasy, whether it is within the realms of comic strips or animated cartoons. I did hundreds of rough sketches before even beginning any 'proper' inked-in drawings of my characters, to make Damn sure that what I was putting out was unique only to me, and not a carbon-copy of what other dudes and dudettes were producing either now, or in the past. However, a fair amount of punters immediately proclaim: 'Korky the Cat!' [ a well-established one-time feline cover star of British 'fun' paper the DANDY, who first appeared in 1937 and is enjoying a stylized comeback in 2011] when they first clock my cat-character, JET BLANC. There are definately similarities in the construction of these two characters, but certainly no more than Jet's similarity to vintage animation star 'Felix the Cat', who just simply happens to be a mostly-black cartoonized cat, a...

If I can possibly help it, absolutely NO outside imagery by other cartoonists will appear on this site, unless, of course, relevant comparisons with other works appear inevitable. A large backlog of  my own self-written and drawn cartoon drawings -----which accounts for  a few hundred finished strips-------are already completed, meaning a wealth of material is 'ripe for the culling', ready to be inserted here. With no further delay, let's plunge straight into the basics regarding the overall tone and intent of this strip, BABY BOOMER: What is this strip all about? -----it's basically a reflection on the madness exhibited by the Human Race, which never ceases to amuse/confound me. People  throughout the World are capable of intense creation, destruction, wisdom, ignorance, explosive mania and heartfelt emotion.......on top of a whole bunch of other stuff, like War, Passion, Stupidity, Snobbery, Oneupmanship, Love, Lust, Sloth, Invention, Greed, Mistrust, Discovery, Devot...

SECOND things FIRST, and to avoid any needless confusion, time to plunge straight into the why, the wherefore, the motivation and intention behind the madness  of this strip that will unfold, over the coming posts via the 'wonder-web'. BABY BOOMER is borne out of my own frustration of working in the established fields of comics production [in the UK] and also in large-scale theatrical animation, [the dude who directed 'E.T.' once had an olde-stylee Animation Studio in London, where I worked awhile]. As grateful as I was to be priveliged to witness these creative powerhouses while still fairly young, it was evident I had no real interest in turning out work already well established by those who had trail-blazed a path before me: I yearned to 'create' my own stuff, that springs from my own warp-speed [or at least, warped,}  imagination, with concession to no-one else, thank you, apart, of course, to all those who have inspired me cartoonwise, and continue to infus...

Welcome to the first-ever images and background info on my self-created, waiting-to-be-unleashed-upon-a-waiting-World newspaper comic/cartoon strip: BABY BOOMER.   Featured herein we see the first-ever Model Sheet of the central character, which was amongst the first-ever 'polished' images turned out regarding the strip concept. There are four major players within the strip, and  although  'B.B.' is the titular 'hero', he plays but a small part in the overall manic proceedings. The strip is a highly visual, ' anything goes' concept, with much surrealism and 'phantassie' at the heart.