THE AFTERMATH...OH LORD, WHERE ART THOU?

  There's an Old Saying back in beautiful Mexico that speaks of ancient wisdom and a profound  understanding of causality and the futility of circumstance...
    Incredibly, this archaic adage is as poignant and relevant in today's world as it was back in olden days when the first men began to imbibe for recreational reasons and not just for their mere survival...
  The indigenous people there still say, in their native tongue: "Dios Mio,  si con la Peda te ofendi,  con la Cruda me sales debiendo..."
  In our times, these magical words of ageless wisdom  roughly translate into: "My God, if with my Drunken Spree I have offended Thee, with the Hangover Thou art in my Debt..."

  You gotta respect and revere the wisdom that comes  from the awesome Culture that brought us both Tequila and Mezcal... and their Beer kicks ass too!

  ...And here's a little video I dedicate to my wife...She took this  picture and made a clear point about my ever widening waist...
  Thanks baby, mission accomplished: I got so depressed and felt like shit...
  On the good side, it also illustrates how hard I work at this Blog, of which nobody gives a rat's ass about anyway...

          TOTALLY UNNECESSARY NOTE: I started my Diet yesterday... I really did!

TURBO the TURTLE, CYBER POET VIRTUOSO...

  So, I was having a very dull conversation with a friend on my messenger, right?   Blah this, blah that, whatever- ha-ha, and we start talking about something actually substantial, or at least that's what I thought, and suddenly it hit me...I had my character's profile... Hurray for me...
 
  I've had this idea for a Cyber Turtle who's kind of an ADHD freako, hooked on taurine and hi-tech gadgetry and is sort of obsessed with High Speed Internet...Clever, huh?  You know, 'cause he's a turtle... and it's their nature to be slow...and it's all ironic... O-kay.

  Anyway, it occurred to me during my chatting with my friend (His name's Freddy... there, you've been credited) that he would also be into poetry and cultural musing about life in the virtual world...and voila', out came Turbo the Turtle...
  I'm thinking I'll make'em a regular in My Power Animals...

  Just thought I'd share that with you...

  ...And this is a video of my dog Douglas, who's presently a political refugee at my sister's house in Fontana 'cause we're not allowed any pets in our apartment,  due to the fact that our neighbors are assholes... Isn't he adorable?  Hi Dougie, love you boy!

SPIKEE & SNOWFUZZ: A LOVE STORY

   Okay, is it just me, or are personal relationships the hardest thing ever to endure?   I mean, some exceptions aside,  like concentration camps and living under a republican administration (although, in all fairness, it's getting harder to tell them apart from democrats, am I right?), hands down, the most excruciating, painful and generally, all around, unpleasant thing we all must deal with in our daily existence is our interaction with our sex mates... Period!

   It's hard work, man...It takes effort, commitment and then more hard work on top of that... I don't give a shit what's your inclination... You know what I'm talking about...

   And it's not only our perception of our relationship, but that of anyone in direct contact with us... Our friends, our families, some right-wing nut bent on sending us straight to Hell, or a relative asking when are you gonna have kids already (on occasion, it's the very same person!)...
 They all get a say on what a "healthy" relationship is...and that's just a little too much  social pressure for my taste...

  ...And I guess that's what I tried to convey with this little panel...
  Sometimes you can be very alienated by the very person that's supposed to understand you more than anyone else in the world... Or just be totally alienated by the fact that, despite your seemingly insurmountable differences, you're perfect for each other!



  Note: The little guy in the corner is a very old character that's been with me for a long time... His name's Murph the Rat and this is his first cameo appearance...applause...then silence...now I'm sad...

ATTACK OF THE FAN BOYS or KISS ME, I'M A WOOKIE!

  What can I say about this cartoon?  I don't know about you, but I've always believed that Chewie was naked...Don't you?
  Anyway...  I'm not sure I'd consider myself an actual fan-boy, per se , but I definitely enjoy the whole tribal concept of being part of a following,  an ancient brotherhood that share and practice a series of rituals and dark customs, unattainable and incomprehensible to the common peasant...  An exclusive club of secret members who's mandatory right of passage is both to test the very knowledge of their chosen cadre as it is to show an unparalleled passion and commitment to it...
  It's not enough to know a particular film, series of films, video game, comic book or music/musician, etc. to DEATH!
  No, it's paramount that this knowledge, this personal mission  statement,  must permeate every aspect of your life and that of those in immediate proximity...
  In other words: Fan Boys rule...

    I was very young when I first was blown away by The Star Wars saga, and much has transpired since then...But , all obscene commercialism and fanatical following aside,  I always remember the first time I read those first words on screen and heard the thunderous score from J. Williams...
  It was Awesome...

  And then I saw James Cameron's Aliens and that was that!

You gotta Love Pop Culture...not just Pop jokes!

DARTH EGREGIOUS & THE POWER

  THE FARCE IS STONG WITH THIS ONE...

GIVE IN TO THE DORK SIDE...

                                        ...Even better...

     ...This is awesome...My first actual video...Cool track too...
                                        (Thanks Dan!)

POWAAAAH! ( Read out loud in Emperor's Palpatine's voice, please... )

  Thought I'd share this bear I just made on my endless quest to waste my time and that of others...I believe it came out quite cool and evoking...

  I'm sure the pixels show too much, but that's the crappy software I have to work with, so not much can be done about that...
  On the other hand it made me laugh, it's mildly ingenious and I reiterate its intrinsic coolness...Power!

PUNK PANDA!

  Being from the 80's myself, I've always been amused by the current's generation arbitrary borrowing of iconic imagery, fashion and, dare I say it, even music...
  I always crack up when I see kids walking down the street with green hair, all spiked-up, covered in skull and bones parafernalia, tatooes and chains, in tight skinny-style jeans that don't even fit and listening to Metal/Punk bands and songs that are easily 20 years old...in some instances, older than their moms!
   Don't get me wrong, I'm all for nostalgia...I'm the king of melancholic remiscence...But that soundtrack?   It's from an old movie...Our old movie!  And it just seems that this generation should get it together and come up with their own beat, instead of plagiarizing the ancient talents from back in the day...

 
    Granted, it's tough for you kids out there with this celebrity obsessed media bombarding your asses 24/7, and the Hannah Montanas, Jonas Bros. and Justin Beibers (hope I spelled that correctly)...
  Tough luck, kids...Get yourselfs a culture of your very own, for god sakes...
  The one you're borrowing?
  It belongs to someone else...

APOCRYPHAL DIARY OF A GRIZZLY.

  I hope I'm doing this right, but I'm fairly certain I'm not... Well, this is my latest, perhaps dumbest creation... It's the first, hopefully, of many... hopefully not as dumb...

  His name so far is Grizz, but that's pretty much what you would call a "working title" sort of thing... Some friend/family types have confided in me that they can discern that it's the very poor depiction of a bear, so I'll proceed with that assumption...Hence the moniker, short for grizzly...What can I say? I'm the perpetual sucker for the obvious...
  How he came into being was that I found myself out of work as so many in these troubled times (frankly, it's not such a sob story--I'll cover it one day, if this thing goes anywhere), and consequently, had gobs of time in my hands, an exacerbated sense of loss and a very low threshold for personal fulfillment and purpose.
  You might say the ground was fertile for creative expression... Or further disappointment.
  
  Many, many...many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away a bunch of friends/acquaintances would kindly comment on my artistic prowess, to which I would shrug, fain indifference, act like it was no big deal...
  Truth be told, I was flattered, and thought how cool it would be to have any of my works actually published...
  Alas, time, a long period of substance abuse (honestly, can't say it's quite over yet), normal/everyday  family dysfunction, financial responsibility and, ultimately, marriage would stand in the way of my dream...
  Nah, my dream sound too ethereal... And ambition seems so shrewd and mercenary... My aspiration sounds more humanistic and has an altruist ring to it...
  Yes, all those factor got in the way of my aspirations... Or so I rationalized.

  Bullshit...Truth is, my biggest obstacle was myself.

 
  Guess it was time to get some real feed back and see if my shit was worth a damn...

  My first step was to begin using my computer for something else than just checking out porn and silly videos (I mean, not just...), and started checking out some graphic design software, and then something astonishing happened: I realized I'm a total moron and have no idea what I'm doing...
  As a matter of fact, I'm sure I'm doing something right now that anyone with medium level savvy in Internet functions would deem both neophyte and neolithic...but I suppose at this point, my sense of disorientation is stronger than my sense of... well, than any other senses I have!
 
 I began to toy around with those programs (the aggravation I suffered was epic!), trying to figure them out, messaging with more knowledgeable friends (short list) and basically pulling my hair in desperation until the PC would work out on its own, literally out of pity for me...
  And that's how I arrived at the illustration above...and how proud I was to have completed it.  Nah, no big deal...
  After a while, It ocurred to me that I could develop a sort of comic strip, or even post other projects that are a bit more complex...It would be a start...and here it is.
(The following are notes for my possible demographics)
  -To friends: Sorry it took me so long to finally put my shit out there to be trashed by all, but I'll follow your advise and delude myself into believing I got any talent whatsoever...Hopefully you'll all get off my back already.
  -To family: Uh,well...What can I say? Hi Mom...Hi Dad...You guys will probably never see this 'cause you're both PC illiterate, so there... To those of you who always believed in me, here's me trying...To the others, love you anyway...
  -To anybody else: You must've been google-ing something cool and accidently arrived here...It's okay, don't panic... but you're here, so might as well trash the place...Peace.

  And here's what I got so far...Remember: this is just an exercise....