Halloween Cartoon

This is one of my favorite Halloween cartoons I have drawn. It's been rejected, rejected, rejected. I think it's too hostile. I don't know.

I'm teaching an elementary school-level cartoon class. We all draw together. We draw a lot. I worked out that we did one finished drawing every seven minutes. Anyway, one thing that we sometimes draw is a "what happens next? cartoon. We all draw the first panel. For instance, we draw a big shark telling a scuba diver, "You look yummy!" And then I ask the kids to draw up a second panel on their own, showing what happens next.

Most of them draw the poor diver in the shark's tummy. So, most of them are drawing carnage and a grim death. But that's OK. I mean, the scuba diver is just a cartoon character. Same applies to the poor jack o'lantern above.

Above: a partial view of my "cheat sheet:" sketches I doodle before teaching a cartooning class. It's like my own little teacher's edition. Note the shark saying, "You look yummy!" to the scuba diver. 

I guess that's why I like cartoons: you can be hostile and funny and get away with it. They are only pencil marks on paper. 

One of my favorite "what happens next to the yummy diver" responses came in a class last month:

Look at the terrific writing in this cartoon! The diver defuses the situation and swims away, leaving a very confused shark. Love it! 

Speaking of swimming away, I'll be away from this here blog until next week. Please consider dropping by again soon.