September 9th,2009
So I finally went ahead and did it. After months (years?) of curmudgeonly resistance to newfangled claptrap, I’ve finally joined the Twitter. Next, in my efforts to remain culturally current, I’ll be working on my impression of the Taco Bell dog and searching on Yahoo for images of Yasmin Bleeth.
You can immerse yourself in the mudanity at: www.twitter.com/Cory_Thomas
(While you’re at it, check out my infinitely more interesting wife: www.twitter.com/marlenephoto)
August 14th,2009
Did I mention that I’m open to commissioned artwork? Because I’m open to commissioned artwork. If you’re interested, contact me for details.
August 11th,2009
And while I’m shaping the old things for new readers, I’ve got a few new things for the old ones. I’ve always kept some things in WYH deliberately vague.
And neither do the rest of us.
In fact, we don’t know much of anything about the characters in the strip. Sure, we know their personalities or who they’re recklessly impregnating. But where is Jason from? What’s Kevin’s major? Where the hell exactly is Oliver Otis University?
Well I’ve decided to answer a few of these questions and you’ll see the results in the coming weeks. Oddly, I think it’ll help me write the characters better.
I’ll keep Otis U’s location vague for now, like Hill Street Blues. That show seemed to take place in 12 different cities simultaneously. Oh… and Cory. I can’t bring myself to do it. He’s too much ‘me’ to give a fake bio, but too little ‘me’ to give him mine. He’s going to remain just Cory, from somewhere. Sorry, Jason.
August 10th,2009
Recently I looked back on my work over the last three years and I realized that WYH took a turn that I never expected it to take. When I first started it, the strip was meant to be a wacky college strip, rich in social commentary, featuring interesting characters. Somehow it gradually transformed itself into little more than a soap opera. Days of Our Petty Teenage Love Lives.
It’s kind of like how the Real World went from discussing racism and AIDS to asking the tough questions like who’s thong that is in the hot tub. I’m probably just a couple personal tragedies away from going full Winkerbean.
And it’s hard enough keeping track of six major characters, but when half of them have such bloated, continuity-heavy storylines it becomes almost impenetrable for new readers. And, believe me, I need lots and LOTS of those. So… I’m pressing the reset button on the strip.
Now, that’s not as drastic as it sounds. I’m not starting over from scratch. All the backstories the five of you have been following are intact. It’s just that WYH has waaayy too much backstory. So I’m trimming the fat, tying up some loose ends and simplifying the narrative. I’ve gotta make this easier for new people to get into. It means I’m gonna start treating WYH like it’s brand new and try to recapture the essence of the earliest strips, but this time with better writing. Less continuity-based, more situational humor with light continuity and a little satire.
Well… at least until my cockatoo dies or I lose a toe. Then it’s all about the cancer.
June 27th,2009
Back when I was the editorial cartoonist at the Hilltop, I was also encouraged to write a few humorous articles for its editorial section. Kind of like a young, Black, woefully-unqualified Dave Barry.
In light of MJ’s passing, I thought I’d post up my thoughts about the man and the controversies that surrounded him. My thoughts from 5 YEARS AGO! Most of it still holds true today, so instead of typing it all out again, I give you… 2004 Cory:
I remember when it was still cool to like Michael Jackson. Back in the day when real thugs wore leather jumpsuits with zippers. That was when he dropped Thriller on the world like Deep Impact and single-handedly changed the face of music forever.
I wouldn’t exactly categorize myself as a big fan back then. My preadolescent brain was already crammed to the walls with comic book scenarios and make-believe superheroes. Needless to say I boarded the nerd bus pretty early on in the game.
Nevertheless, I did spend enough time glued, in a glassy-eyed trance, to the TV to recognize that MJ was indeed the man. It was impossible to escape the fact. His cultural influence at the time was undeniable. And the love that the world had for him was profound and sincere.
That was then …
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when things started to go wrong for Michael. Gradually over the years, though, public sentiment began to shift around the self-coronated King of Pop. Slowly, his image deteriorated as he slipped from fanatically deified icon to object of relentless derision.
Perhaps his eccentricities became too much for us to blink at. Or perhaps we could just never forgive him for legitimizing the Jheri Curl. Whatever the explanation, the love affair with Michael Jackson ended a long time ago, as we now scrutinize his Peter Pan persona with raised eyebrows and more than a little suspicion. We now shift uncomfortably in our seats, as we watch a giggling middle-aged ghost hovering about children like a slightly too-friendly Casper.
Now, for the second time in nine years, Michael is the subject of a criminal investigation. For the second time, some young boy has been placed in a room of salivating grown-ups as he sobbingly points to his teddy bear’s midsection, demonstrating Michael’s bad touch.
Jackson’s guilt or innocence was never resolved in the first episode. Yet the court of public opinion charged, tried and convicted him without the need for tangible evidence. All the necessary proof was garnered by just looking at him. With his superfluous indulgences and his outlandish persona, he was different. He mutilated his appearance to the degree of horror movie makeup. Frankenstein’s Monster with a perm. And that was all our xenophobic natures needed for us to form mobs and encircle him holding aloft torches.
That’s what bothers me about the reactions to this latest accusation. Very few seem to question his culpability. He’s already been condemned based on unsubstantiated claims, as if the money he swims in like Scrooge McDuck doesn’t make him a target for extortion.
Maybe it’s all true. Maybe he is a dangerously twisted kid-toucher. If so, he deserves to have the weight of the law dropped on him like a grand piano. But, in the meantime, here’s the extent of what we know about Michael Jackson … Dude is weird. That’s it. He’s psychologically damaged, he’s physically a mess and he’s the loneliest man alive. And when he looks in the mirror for whom to blame, he can’t even find himself.
I wish there was some way to really know what went on behind Mike’s closed doors. I’m sure, now that he’s gone, every landscaper and pizza delivery guy is going to try to cash in on “his story.” But all we really have is a men who left behind a legendary legacy of music. So much that a not-even-a-major-fan fan like me can feel the vaccum.
June 20th,2009
I may actually have won myself tens of new fans last week. Turns out nobody cares about what I’m doing over here until I disrespectfully mock the work of other people. Then it’s all one big, sweaty lovefest with lotions.
So this series of strips from last week seemed to go over well with people. It was originally planned as a week of trailers for movies I made up like Ghost Wedding or My Pet Dad. But then I figured those wouldn’t be funny (or interesting) to anyone other than me. Then an idea for the Bailey trailer shot me in the ass and the rest of the week followed from there.
This isn’t the first time I’ve done one of these fake comic strip trailers, though. Anyone paying attention a couple of years ago might remember this blockbuster:
Crappy art. Not as funny. But it’s where the idea was born. I like that I had more space to flesh it out. Maybe I’ll revisit the idea some day as a series of Sunday strips. A lot of stuff didn’t make the cut, after all. From the 300-style Hagar the Horrible movie to the Copland-ish corruption thriller with Sam & Silo.
This could turn out to be my trademark. Like Garfield and lasagna jokes or Snuffy Smith and unbridled inbreeding. I have to be careful not to wear it out, though, by doing it too soon or too often. Nothing is more crucial to a sequel’s success than timing.
June 20th,2009
…Yeah… I know.
Anyway. I was going through some boxes this morning, trying to reduce the clutter that substitutes for decor, and I came across what may be my oldest surviving piece of artwork.
I must’ve been about 9 when I turned out this homemade card (judging from my older brother’s Jheri Curl), so I guess this is what 25 years does to notebook paper.
My mom got me started drawing, but my dad was the one who started my love for comics, bringing home something for me to read almost every day when I was little. He didn’t live to see me become a comic artist, but I wouldn’t be here without him.
Then again, I wouldn’t be anywhere. Unless I was adopted like I always suspected.
April 27th,2009
“The movie’s most disturbing aspect, of which the filmmakers could not have been unaware, is the physical resemblance between Mr. Elba and Ms. Larter to O. J. and Nicole Brown Simpson. It lends “Obsessed” a distasteful taint of exploitation.”- Stephen Holden, NY Times, 04/25/09
…
April 21st,2009
As you may have suspected from seeing this week’s series of strips: Yes, I phoned it in. I needed a break. And I’m not eligible for one until 2011, so…
Still, though, in lieu of an actual storyline, I figured it would be a good time to reintroduce the characters to new readers. Every now and then I feel the need to reset and get people familiar with who they’re reading about. I usually try to find interesting ways to do it. And, inspired by my new love affair with The SuperFogeys , I thought some mock super-hero database bios would be kind of cool. Well, really, I thought they would be kind of not-much-work.
By far my favorite character introduction strips, though, are these from 2007. Cory has a camera and some free time:
(I probably should be saving this stuff for the new book, but consider this a preview.)
April 20th,2009
If you need proof that today’s comics pages are stuck in a freaking time warp, check out this list of the most popular comic strips of 2008 (I got this from D.D. Degg on the RACS newsgroup, who got it from somewhere else):
The most popular DAILY comic strips:
#1 – Garfield
#2 – Blondie
#3 – Zits
#4 – For Better or For Worse
#5 – Beetle Bailey
#6 – Baby Blues
#7 – Hagar the Horrible
#8 – Dilbert
#9 – Mutts
#10 Peanuts
This list was compiled by Media Research Associates. They looked at newspapers with circulations of 50, 000 or more , broke out their notepads and wrote down what comics these papers are carrying in their comic sections.
So that’s it. That’s what the majority of Americans who read the comics page are being offered. 3 of them came out back in the 90’s and the rest are practically heiroglyphics. And I can assure you that most smaller papers aren’t any more progressive.
It’s like running the Donna Reed Show or Bonanza at primetime and then wondering why people aren’t watching TV. God forbid the program director get a call or three from an angry Gomer Pyle fan.
