Monday Heat

Here we go to round out the latest of my old Sunnyland strips. Meanwhile, here in Houston, the drought waxes on and the heat is coming to dog-pile all of us. Hopefully, you have an A/C unit or yer in a part of the world where the heat is not problem. I'm still fighting the urge to turn on my A/C unit. How long can I make it?

 

Yeah Yeah Yeah, I have a pink bluetooth headset, what, ya wanna fight about it?

Here's a strip darker in tone.

Ever watch the Wizard of Oz and on the lion's turn to sing his song do you notice how conveniently they pull the makeshift cape and crown when mentions being king? Or how there's a carpet conveniently there to roll out?

Okay, for this last strip, it's a doozy: four pages. Okay, but not only that but it touches on local politics. Okay, so I like dissecting some issues and politics, but I really had no intention of writing a political strip. Just an anecdote, no punch line. This really happened when I took my grandma to the doctor and took her car to get washed in the meantime.

Yeah, true story. I didn't know who he was until he flashed his badge. And he really spoke that way too, cussing and attitude and all. So, here’s to Officer Castillo, and hopefully next time i get pulled over in the ‘hood it’ll be by him, and hopefully he’ll remember who I am, which I’m not really counting on. For the sake of keeping Sunnyland fictional, I changed the sheriff mentioned's name to Davie Davis. In actuality he was talking about former Harris County sheriff Tommy Thomas being a 'no non-sense kinda guy'. He referred to the current HC sheriff Adrian Garcia as 'Mickey Mouse' in that arrogant, condescending way. Click the links and you decide.
That about wraps up the back strips in Sunnyland. Next time I post Sunnyland it'll be something ya never seen.

Get Sunny

More Sunnyland from the archives! I know what yer thinking; "When is he gonna start posting new comics? All these strips are dated 2007 and such." Well, good question. All these 'From the Archive' posts are as much a refresher for you as they are for me. It seems like I've been away from working on these fun, short strips and that I myself must get reacquainted with the characters and scenarios all over again. Plus, (and I'm sure other comic creators will agree) it's fun to create comics, post 'em, forget about 'em, and then come back to 'em just to be blown away by your own creation. Not only that, but these archived strips serve to familiarize the new audiences with my world and my characters. I thought you woulda figured that out by now.

Next up, Rob and his appointment:

 

Rob and Shelly head for the cinema, online to have an anti-piracy yes-man get in the way. You can tell this one's dated by the mentioning of Bush. Although, has much changed since then?

 

This next one is for the old school gamers. What fun!

 

WOULD YOU?

Last one for today shows the trouble with tropical storms. Currently, there's a drought here in Houston so I think this is something we all look forward to right about now!

'Til Next time!

Soak Up Some Rays

Hey folks! I'm back with more sequential goodies! As I delve into the comic archives of my old site, in an effort to bring new readers up to speed, I've rediscovered another title worthy of a retrospective. Sunnyland started out as a strip in the University of Houston paper when I was a student there, and ran for about 6 semesters. Originally, the concept was the misadventures of the roommates who also work together as caricature artists at a boardwalk attraction in the fictional city of Sunnyland.
Rob, tall and constantly wearing sunglasses, is the chain-smoking, drug-addled alcoholic who represented a more free-spirited approach to situations. Arnie, short and stumpy with his hair slicked back, represented the more rational side to what was going on. Throughout six semesters, these characters along with many other supporting ones graced the pages of the Daily Cougar 5 days a week, getting into adventures including (but not limited to) chasing leprechauns, riding out storms, going to rehab, drinking mysterious potions that made you gigantic, and just commenting on a lot of the silly stuff going on in the world at the time. Sunnyland also gave a home to many other characters I had previously written about in the issues of Chingazo (my comic zine) and presented ways for me to incorporate them in a new setting.
Sadly, at the dawn of MY last semester as a student Sunnyland was cut from the paper when a change in editors took place, and I didn't "reapply". As a result I didn't give Sunnyland a proper send-off to the UH audience. But I did continue to draw the strip for my own site, complete with themes and language I couldn't previously use. Here we go into the archive of post-Daily Cougar Sunnyland. Enjoy!

 

 Sometimes, Sunnyland veered off into funny unrelated anecdotes.

This one features Juju and Hambone, regular characters in my Chingazo series, and friends of Rob and Arn.

It's fun to use your comic strip to act out behavior you probably wouldn't do in real-life situations.

At one point Rob went to rehab. There he met Shelly, an ex-heroine addict and they hit it off ever since. Shelly's cool in that the addition of her character now allowed me to narrate and comment on my own relationships in real-life.

Okay, more Sunnyland next time!