Mike Dawson Comics

The Panthers are back in The Lair, with a lengthy discussion about drawing political satire cartoons. Plus, we run down the list of 2012′s upcoming Nerd Movie Releases, and talk about what looks exciting and what doesn’t. The Hunger Games? Seriously, it’s a movie about kids fighting each other to the death, and people can’t wait for it to arrive? And what about that Hobbit. Plus: Mike went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, and got into an altercation with a livery cab driver. And lots more!!

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Andy Finkle! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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The Holidays are behind us, so Alex and Mike creep groggily back into The Lair to catch up and discuss the things that happened over Hannukah, Christmas and New Years. Warning: the first ten minutes or so are particularly rusty, as the Panthers shake off all the egg-nog and candy-canes and struggle to get their heads back into the game. Hear about Alex’s Ukelele, Mike’s Cello and Superior Singing Voice, and an account of a visit to the Metropolitan Opera. Also: a listener call is answered, and Alex poses an ethical conundrum for us to ponder. Happy 2012 everyone!

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Aaron F. Gonzalez! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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Troop 142 got a nice shout-out on an NPR Best of 2011 blog yesterday, which did actually translate into some book sales, I believe. I don’t know what amazon sales rankings really mean, but I know that I jumped into the top 100 for Graphic Novels for the first time ever. Again, I don’t know what these numbers really mean, but it was all very exciting nonetheless.

(I actually suspect a lot of sales came from friends who’d forgotten that I’d recently published a book until I posted about the NPR list on Facebook. A couple folks responded that “ah, yes, they really oughta finally buy that thing off of amazon…”)

In other news, I’m not sure that I’m going to be posting anything new on this blog for the remainder of 2011, as there’ll be no The Ink Panthers Show! episode next week, and then before you know it, it’ll be 2012 already.

Also, I am not sure yet when I’m going to resume posting actual comics up on this blog again. I have to admit, keeping the work offline for the past couple months has probably been creatively beneficial. I’m happy to report that I’m knee-deep in a new story and I’m feeling generally very positive about it. A couple days “staycation” this past week, where I just holed myself away and just drew and drew, really did wonders for my feelings of momentum and progress. I’m excited about the work, and am thinking maybe I’ll have something I feel good about showing sometime soon.

Here’s a video of me lettering a word-balloon, to tide everyone over.

Next year, I don’t have a ton planned. I’m going to be attending the big Angouleme Festival in France at the end of January, and will be doing some signings in Paris following that. My wife will come join me out there after all the comics business is done, and we’ll have a little mini-vacation to celebrate ten-years of being together.

In terms of other conventions, I am not sure what I’m attending or not. I imagine I’ll still make it down to SPX in the Fall, and am hoping that TCAF in Toronto is a possibility.

Nothing is changing with The Ink Panthers Show! I think this past year was really great for the show. We had some wonderful guests, and I think really had some strong episodes with just The Panthers (Tony “The Desert Panther” Consiglio is included in that. We should change his name to The Honorary Panther). TIPS is continually a work-in-progress, and Alex and I are always trying to figure out what is the best balance of solo-Panthers shows vs. Special Guest episodes. I think it’s probably best we keep aiming for that pleasant mix of both.

TCJ Talkies will return in January. It’s probable that those are going to be coming out at a slightly slower pace. The biweekly schedule really began to catch up to me at the end of this year, and listeners may have noticed a bit of a slowdown. My plan is to roll them out at a more relaxed rate, but we’ll see. I’ve found that I feel worn out before I record an episode, but once it’s done I get all excited and motivated again. I think I just really like talking about comics!

Happy New Year everyone!!

It’s the final Ink Panthers of the year, and iFanboy’s Josh Flanagan joins us in The Lair to give us the rundown on the best movie, tv show, book, comic, music, and Death of a Major Evil Foe of America, of the year! It’s quite a list, so have a pen ready – lots of recommendations coming your way. Plus: some followup on the recent discussion about The World’s Most Famous Little Person Actor, The Falkland Islands War, Stephen King’s On Writing, and lots and lots of Holiday Cheer.

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Nathan Bulmer! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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Back by popular demand, The Desert Panther, Tony Consiglio invades The Lair to tell us all about his recent studies of animal behavior. We talk about How to Escape a Pit-Bull Attack, What Kinds of Animals at the Zoo are the Best, Which Immense Creatures trigger our Lizard Brain Fight or Flight Mechanisms, and a lengthy discussion about Cattle Breeding, which also explores the differences between a Cow, a Bull, and a Steer. Also in this episode, Second Life, and Christmas Card round-robins that spark outrage.

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Shawn Brook Williams! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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An explosive episode! The Ticking and H Day creator, cartoonist Renee French creeps into the Lair for a very mature conversation about some important things. Such as, how everything would be better if instead of twitter, we had I Am Legend zombies swarming the planet. Yes, the zombies are unpleasant, but at least they aren’t barraging you with minutiae about mundane things all day and night. They are nice and quiet, and don’t feel the need to overshare. Then some grown-up discussion about bodily fluids, and then some even more grown-up discussion about man-nipples, and then probably some even more conversation about bodily fluids again. We can’t get enough of it!

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Peter D’Retalia! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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This episode is either super-fun or super-irritating, depending on your familiarity with all of the worst songs of the 1980′s and 1990′s and your patience for Mike and Alex’s poor recall of pop-culture facts. First up a discussion about the recent passing of one of the last surviving Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz, and some questions about how casually famous people have extended stays at one another’s houses. Then, we make our way through the Worst Songs list, and decide which picks are fair (The Macarena), and which are not (“What’s Going On” by 4 Non-Blondes. C’mon! Leave 4 Non-Blondes alone!!!). Also, buried at the back of the episode is a small item where Mike mentions telling his daughter that the full name of Ariel from The Little Mermaid is “Ariel Brownwater”, and her Dad is called “Triton Brownwater”. It would be appreciated if all parents of pre-schoolers who listen to the show could help propagate this piece of misinformation.

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Ian Anderson! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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Mike and Alex are alone in The Lair and they have a number of important things to discuss. First up, a revisit to Mike’s failed and now-it-turns-out backfiring raw food diet. He should just stick to his regular diet of locally produced cheeses and salted breads. Then, does anyone want to be told that they are a bad driver? Is it just one of those things that everyone just assumes that they are good at? After that, Alex has a spirited defense of our nation’s 39th President, Jimmy Carter. This one’s got it all!

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Rio Aubry Taylor! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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Reliable cartoonist, David King, (Lemon Styles, Danny Dutch) calls into the Lair from his home in San Diego to talk “stud tails” and Ugg Boots. Mike tells everyone about his visit to the Occupy Wall Street protests, and smugly points out that he is a cyclist, thus putting himself in a higher category of human being than Alex and David. Alex discusses provocative in-your-face Fine Art, and then it’s time for a Public Service Announcement from the Ink Panthers about the dangers of sitting on one piece of furniture for too long.

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This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Sam Henderson! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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It’s a very masculine musky Lair the Panthers are creeping back into after a week off. Mike is worried about turning into a straight-laced, uptight Dad, so does his best to make the conversation “raw”. This means mostly talking about “grundles” and other man-things. Other Slush Pile topics include: Having the same name as an unpopular video game protagonist, impressing strangers on a subway by bragging about your regenerative powers, getting people fired by lacing their food with drugs, and a Ruling on Twitter-Spoiler-ering. Then, we slow things WAAAAAAYYY down with a dry discussion/debate about the causes of World War II and the Holocaust, but don’t worry, we pick things back up again by the end when we determine whether we would or would not go back in time and brutally murder Infant Hitler.

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