Mike Dawson Comics

Three new Troop 142 pages posted. Give it a look, won’t you?

The Desert Panther, Tony Consiglio, is back with an HOV-Vengeance, in this jam-packed episode. Mike discusses marital issues (not his own), Alex asks exactly how much Nurse should be in a “Sexy Nurse” costume, and then we debut a soon-to-be-classic new segment: The D!@k Chills. What are they? How do you get some? And who really feels any remorse about them? Comments Welcome!

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A sizeable Troop 142 update this Monday morning. As I twittered about all weekend long, my wife and child were away for a few days, so I had a ton of time to buckle down and get some pages good and drawed.

Having that sort of time to work was for me a “grass-is-greener” kind of thing. Yes, I would love it if I could spend such a long dedicated amount of time at the drawing table on a more frequent basis. On the other hand, I started to get a little bit of cabin-fever in there too. It was a gorgeous day on Saturday, and I know if the family had been home we’d have been out in the park on our bikes or something. At least on Sunday I had a game of Magic: The Gathering planned, so I’m not 100% “All work and no play…”

Anyhow, I really liked this sequence, so I hope you’ll take a look.

Super-Spy cartoonist Matt Kindt drops by the lair for some laid-back conversation. Matt explains how the Kickass trailer ruined the movie for him, while Alex tells us how things are going with THE WIRE WATCHING CLUB – three folks watching the groundbreaking TV series for the first time. Then, Mike asks for some basketball playing advice, such as “If I play basketball this weekend, will I break my hands?”. Comments Welcome!

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Things are moving slowly this week RE: Troop 142, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to get any new pages posted. Instead, I’ve decided to post a sequence that isn’t going to make it into the final book, where the Troop wakes up early to participate in a Polar Bear Swim.

I probably drew these pages over two years ago, and even though I think this scene is funny, I’m not sure that there’s a place for it to fit into the story anymore. And, aside from that, my drawing style has changed enough since then that I think it would be pretty noticeable if I just dropped it all in somewhere. I’m pretty proud of some of the pictures of the kids swimming in the water, though, so I’m glad to be able to show this stuff off, even if only as a “discarded scene”.

The Panthers crept from their lairs this past weekend, and attended the MoCCA Art Festival in Manhattan. Mike debuted a brand new comic (and a brand new table prop), and Alex appeared on a panel and explained what the “Very Best Comics Written By His co-Host of the 00′s” were. Get the inside scoop on what the show was really like. Comments Welcome!

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I feel the urge to write a “con-report”, but I dropped the ball more than usual this year: didn’t take any photos, and didn’t spend enough time walking around and checking out the show as I should have (not by a long shot). So, once again, despite the fact that I had a great time at the show, I’m seeing pics online of the comics and tables that other people took, and I’m wondering “How did I miss that??!”. For example, how did I manage to not get myself a copy of the wonderful looking Pood Comics #1? The comic on the cover of that looks great! Why did I miss it?

So, there’s not much I can add to the discussion about the show, except to say that it seemed Very Well Run. I griped about the organization of the show last year on the Ink Panthers podcast, so feel like I should formally acknowledge that I thought this year was a huge improvement and return to form. And, I thought having the show in the much cooler month of April worked out very well. The weather was pretty much perfect, and it felt like it was reflected in everybody’s good moods.

The only downside to shifting the show up a few months is that I keep thinking to myself “I had a great time at the con this last weekend… it sure is making me look forward to MoCCA this Summer… oh wait…”

OK, it’s the day before the MoCCA festival, and in honor of the big show, I’m posting the first 5 pages of the next TROOP 142 chapter.

I’m looking forward to the convention this year. I’ll have three brand new minicomics, collecting the completed chapters of Troop 142, and will of course be selling and signing copies of Freddie & Me and Ace-Face. Don’t expect to see the Freddie Mercury statue this year. He’s been retired. Instead, I need to find a large Baden Powell doll to start displaying at my festival tables. Either that or I start wearing my own Boy Scout uniform to shows, but I am pretty sure that’s never going to actually happen.

Either way, if you are coming to MoCCA this weekend, look for me at table E19, and come and say hello.

Over the past few months, some listeners to The Ink Panthers show have started creating artwork inspired by the podcast. I feel very lucky to have listeners like this, who enjoy the show enough to spend some of their time creating pictures for us. Frankly, I’m humbled. Here’s some of the recent pics:

The Ink Panthers Show! by Tyler Price Whited.

“Gags and Tiger Bear”, by JK Woodward. James is a super-talented artist, who has actually created a number of sketches based on things we’ve talked about on the show. Check out his blog to see more. This pic was inspired by the recent episode with Liz Baillie.

Ben Granoff wrote this entire comic strip based off on a conversation between Alex and Tony Consiglio about some of their experiences as students at The School of Visual Arts.

And, finally, my good friend Gary put together this poster of Alex and I, in poses far more action-oriented than actually ever happens in our sedentary lifestyles.

This week, Liz Baillie creeps into The Panthers Lair with us to talk about her recent Punchbuggy Tour, playing the ukulele, and using the internet to fund projects. Then we see how well we’d all fare if we had to survive in the wild. Q: Do you, or do you not fight back, when attacked by a cougar? A: We’re Panthers. We can take a wimpy cougar! Comments Welcome!

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