F Minus Weekly Roundup 5-21

Click here to read the comics from May 21st through May 27th

Monday: I know I'm going to alienate some friends here, but Monday's comic is for all the people that make you take your shoes off before coming in their home. What's the point of having a floor? Why not just attach monkey bars to the ceiling so we can all just swing around and never touch your precious carpet. You know what I'm going to do? Next time I get invited to your house I'm going to fill my shoes with motor oil and dog poop before I put them on. Then you'll beg me to keep my shoes on! HAHAHA! This is why I have no friends...

Tuesday: Hate Mail! I won't bother posting all the hate/love mail that I got on this one. I'm sure you can imagine what was said. Nor will I post my responses. All I have to say is that is one messed-up looking bird in that box.

Thursday: I giggle when I think about what those glasses might look like in real life. Upon reflection, I think I should have done this comic in color.

Friday: I knew I was going to be in Florida on this day, so I wanted to do an alligator comic. I spent a summer in Florida a few years ago, and I was dying to see an alligator. I never saw one. I even drove down "Alligator Alley" and got out every few miles wearing steaks on my shoes, but never saw a thing. Just some bullfrogs. I'm still angry with Florida about this.

Saturday: I was buying a tuxedo when I came up with this one. Is anyone else tired of hearing about penguins? There are a lot of other great birds that are getting ignored. (see Tuesday's comic)

Sunday: Another thing I'm tired of. Televised card games.

Reubens Weekend

Here are some of the photos from the 61st Annual Reubens Convention in Orlando, Florida. I had a great time and it all went by much too fast.
Here's a view of the courtyard at the Ritz-Carlton. The weather was perfect.














When I arrived, I received a tote bag full of toys, comic books, etc. The type of thing you'd only get at a cartoonists convention.



















The cocktail party begins.













This is Stephan Pastis and Erin Friedrich. Stephan won the award for best newspaper strip for his comic Pearls Before Swine. Erin works at Andrews McMeel Publishing and is working with me on the F Minus book, coming out this fall. By the way, how many cartoon legends can you find in the background? I count four so far...















Mark and I, with Rob and Amber Harrell. Rob's strip is called Big Top and he is also a painter and illustrator.













Mark Pett starts to lose himself in the music.














Lindsay and I at the award banquet. Behind Linz is cartoonist Sam Gross. He had the room next to mine and we met on our balconies. He informed me that he had decided to wear a jacket to the party. I was only a little bit afraid of him.













Mark Tatulli was nominated for best Newspaper Strip for his comic Lio. He also draws the strip Heart of the City. I had fun hanging out with Mark, and I got to meet his great family.














Hilary Price won the panel category for her strip Rhymes With Orange.














Kieran Meehan came all the way from Scotland for the awards. Check out his hilarious comic, A Lawyer, A Doctor, and a Cop















Two of my favorite people, Mary Anne Grimes and Lisa Klem Wilson.














My name was spelled wrong on the poster. Never a good sign.














Greg Evans, of the comic strip Luann.



















Rick Kirkman of Baby Blues.















Jean Schulz, wife of legendary cartoonist Charles Schulz.














I got to sit next to Dave Blazek and his wife Eileen at the awards. Check out his comic Loose Parts.















Mike Lynch doesn't smile for photos.



















Bill Amend wins the Reuben for Foxtrot



















Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury














I'm looking forward to next year!

Reubens Update

Well, I didn't win. But that's okay, I'm having the best weekend, and meeting lots of great people. I'm tired right now, but I'm coming home tomorrow, so I'll write a long blog with lots of pictures when I get back.

F Minus Weekly Roundup 5-14

Click here to read the comics from May 14th through May 20th


Monday: My parents have a dog named Max that has an uncanny ability for escaping a backyard. This was always a mystery until I once saw Max climb up some vines, walk along a narrow wall, jump into the neighbor's yard, then use their woodpile to get out to the street. This comic is for Max. I used the name Kipper because it's funnier.

Tuesday: It's always fun to draw what hell might look like. I once drew the gates of hell, and it looked a little bit like the front of an amusement park. Another time I drew the lake of fire, and included a devil observing it like a lifeguard. I suppose this comic is a behind the scenes peek at the daily administrative decisions in hell. Someone's gotta make sure everything keeps running smoothly.

Thursday: It was fun deciding what was going to be caught in the net. I figured a dolphin was a given. I like how the deer turned out. I actually threw the scary bum in at the last minute.

Friday: I thought I'd get some hate mail on this one, but no. So many people emailed me about how much they liked it! Which just goes to show: F Minus fans are sick. This comic was probably inspired by the movie Zodiac, which I really enjoyed.

Saturday: I drew this one in my sketchbook a long time ago and never used it. Recently a friend suggested I do a comic about those jokes printed on Popsicle sticks, so I dug it out.

Reblogging

This is a blog entry that I posted about a year ago on my old blog. It's still relevant today so I thought I'd repost it for those who haven't seen it. Enjoy!

Hurting clowns, one day at a time.

This was the comic that went online yesterday:



It's no secret that I dislike clowns. In fact, I find them terrifying. Ever since I was a child I have mistrusted their ghostly white faces, painted smiles, and oversized shoes. Not to mention mysteriously deep pockets, full of items waiting to make loud noises, squirt water on you, or give you a mild shock. So it's not unusual that they appear in my comics often, usually in some sort of unfortunate situation. However, this comic was not really about hurting clowns, it was about an unusual new year's resolution. It really could have been anyone on the ground there. A lawyer, a fast food employee, a moose, whatever. I just happened to pick a clown. Anyone can see that.

However...

Yesterday I received an email. I can still hardly believe it. Here it is, as I received it:

"About the clown laying on the ground and the guy standing above him with the boat oar in hand saying "Well, there goes my New Year's resolution", I don't get it! Are you saying there are those who like to beat up clown?
Since I am a professional clown and have been for over 16 years I take offense when anyone makes remarks of any kind to give anyone the idea of hurting one of us.
We work hard trying to help cheer up children. In fact thats why I got into clowning in the first place... (When my brothers and sisters and I was walked from the hospital down the streets of Houston to the circus by the Shriners ( we were in an automobile accident), to be cheered up by the clowns and the circus. I remeember how good it made me feel and how it brought one of my brothers out of his semi coma...) ...I wanted to be able to do the same for other kids.
Anyhow your cartoon maybe good at other times but this is the first time I've seen it and it upset me so much I thought I would relay my hurt to you."

Okay, it's me again.
First of all I think it's odd that the plural form of clown is simply, "clown". As in, "Oh look, a flock of clown. Let's cross the street to avoid them."
Second: Parenthesis within parenthesis? Come on!
Also, what is a semi coma? Isn't that just sleepy?

Anyhow, this particular clown seems to think that I am racist against clowns. And you know what? Maybe I am. Okay, maybe to sick children clowns are funny and lift their spirits. That's fine. But to healthy children like me, clowns are just scary.

Please note that I do NOT advocate clown violence. Besides, we all learned from Steven King's novel IT that nothing can kill a clown anyway.

But here's the weirdest part. The same day this comic ran, I was driving down the road and saw a super-creepy clown crossing the street! Just walking around like a normal person! Why do these things happen to me?



John Wayne Gacy
Killed over 30 people

F Minus Weekly Roundup 5-7

Click here to read the comics from May 7th through May 13th

Monday: This one reminds me of my grandparents, even though they don't really look like that. I think I was buying airline tickets to Orlando the day I came up with this one.

Tuesday: A friend that I've known since childhood recently had a baby, and named him Colin Timothy. "Earthlove Rainflower" was a name I came up with a long time ago, and I jotted it down in my sketchbook. I finally found a way to use it.

Wednesday: I think the bathroom couple will make multiple appearances. This is their second comic.

Thursday: I was a little worried that it wouldn't be clear what she was doing here. But nobody asked, so I'm going to leave it alone.

Sunday: My favorite part of this comic? The little rogue macaroni on his paperwork.

Farticle

Check out this new article about F Minus in the Arizona Daily Star.

F Minus Weekly Roundup 4-30

Click here to read the comics from April 30 through May 6th:

Monday's comic: Lorenzo is a guy that works with my brother. Here's to you, Lorenzo!

Tuesday: I've been thinking about taking some sort of martial arts class. Although I've heard that the final test for getting your blackbelt is pretty rough. That's what spawned this one.

Wednesday's comic is based on an actual chicken named Mike the Headless Chicken. Read about him at his website, miketheheadlesschicken.org -Be sure to attend Mike's Festival, May 18th & 19th in Fruita, Colorado.

I didn't get any complaints about the language in Thursday's comic. I guess people just don't get upset about the term "dumb ape" anymore.

Sunday: Another clown. A recurring theme for me. They terrify me. There's going to be one on the cover of my book coming out later this year. I could use some counseling.

Farticle

Check out a recent article about F Minus and one of my favorite toons, Pearls Before Swine.

F Minus Weekly Roundup 4-23

Click here to read the comics from April 23 through the 29th:

I received more mail about the chimpanzee comic on Thursday than anything else. People like chimps! They are also fun to draw because they are so similar to humans. Is there anything funnier than chimps doing people things? I can't think of anything. Check out this video.

Yes, that is me in the police sketch on Tuesday, which a few people noticed. I think it's the third time I've drawn myself into a F Minus. The sketch artist in the comic is Karen T. Taylor, who is a forensic artist and instructor. I was lucky enough to take a few of her classes. You've probably seen some of her work on America's Most Wanted. She wrote a great book on Forensic Art which you can find on Amazon.


April 25th was Administrative Professionals day! Someone emailed me convinced that Deborah (from Wednesday's comic) is based on his wife of the same name, who is also a secretaaa...administrative professional.

Hate Mail! Somebody emailed me expressing their dislike for the "heart-attack" comic on Monday. I'm guessing he recently had a heart attack, or he knows someone that had a heart attack, or perhaps he was actually stabbed by a guy in a heart costume. I'm afraid I just have to accept that any topic I draw a comic about is bound to coincide with the lives of a few of my readers in some unfortunate way. (I've had entire cities hating me because of this, but I don't want to talk about it.) If I draw a comic about a giraffe, some guy somewhere in the world will read it and get offended because his child was recently abused by a giraffe. What can I do?
note: I probably won't ever do a comic about giraffes because they are tall and wouldn't fit in the "widescreen" format of F Minus. A dead giraffe, maybe.

Here we go!

Hello! My name is Tony Carrillo. I am the creator, writer, and artist behind the daily comic F Minus, which is distributed by United Features Syndicate. This is the first of hopefully many F Minus blogs. Every weekend I plan on posting a comic roundup, where I will talk a little bit about the comics from the previous week; where different ideas come from, behind the scenes info, and letters I get about particular comics. I'll also use this blog to post F Minus news, events, and inane details of my life. Such as: Today I'm wearing mismatched socks.

For more F Minus fun, check out the F Minus Website, the F Minus Myspace Page, and get a full month of comics as well as a brand new F Minus every day at Comics.com.