Uhh, the Name Isn't a Thing...

By the way, for anybody who is interested, now you can see how I draw the daily Moe strip!

In Progress

Now, for everyone who doesn't know me (and for those of you who do, too), I've decided (finally) to post the progress of drawing the daily Moe strip. To start, I've got a lightbox I use so I can see my layouts with.

I've got two layouts: one for my Sunday strips (top), and one for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (bottom).

Some times I listen to music while I draw the daily strip. Here are all the materials I use...most used on the left, least used on the right (same with my colored pencils. Most used shortest, least used longest, but yellow should be before light blue, not after).

From left to right, the drawing materials are: my main pen (Precise V5 rolling ball pen); my colored pencils used to color Sunday strips, my fat marker (Sharpie permanent marker I've mentioned in many posts); a paintbrush and the stuff I use to white out mistakes (I use the end of the paintbrush. What good would the front do?); my substitute pen, my pencil I use to rough out some strips, my blue-liner pencil (in case I can't figure out how to draw a pose from scratch); and then my ruler to measure exact straight lines. (Hey, nobody is perfect!) This is the paper I use:

I used to make sure I had the right pen, but then I threw away my old one and kept my new one. Then I start drawing away! Here's one of my recent strips half-done:

So then people (including you in Arizona), there you go. That's how I draw the Moe strip.

Where'd it Go?!?!?!?!

I don't think that's true...check out my sidebar...it's still got her name, doesn't it? WHAT?! IT DOESN'T?! Great.

What Just Popped Out of Her Head?

Julia does not have amnesia. People who do rarely forget their own names.

He Draws Fast!

Whoa. He made a mark in the air! Either that or the pencil drew on the panel. (Or both...)

Where Are the Borders?

I don't know why I didn't do borders. So, now that it's post number 300, it's taken me a little while (a tiring 15 seconds) to figure out what I should do. Then I took a picture of Moe, brought it into Photoshop, duplicated his head 299 times, placed them behind it (that took even longer...16.000000003 seconds, as I recall) and saved it for the web. Count 'em...there's 300.

Just so you know, in case you only counted 18, the one in the 0 counts, and most of the faces are obscured by other faces, which they themselves are obscured by other obscured faces. There really is 300 (Want more silliness like that? I got it from here).

Made by Sharker-Price.

Good grief, tomorrow's post is number 300!!! I'll have to celebrate by...getting 300 of...something...I gotta think quick...or talk to that smart Moe. Oh well, here we go.

Do you really think it is becoming a running gag? Do you know what Moe's playing with?

Our latest product! Little people with faces that look like our characters! We've got all characters except Bob, Bed Monster, and Merlin.* Warning: choking hazard. Small parts. Not for children under three years. Bonus: Thidwick comes with a blanket that is made from real fabric!

*We do not have these characters because they are not humans. Moe, Julia, Merlin and I tried to think of ideas, but we couldn't think of any good ideas, because Bob and Merlin have ears, but the human characters don't. Also, we couldn't think of any good ways to have Bed Monster's tongue hanging out, because if we just glued it on, it could come off, and if we just drew it, it wouldn't look good from the side. So I just decided not to do them. I wonder if they'll ever recover from being left out.

Whoa Be Quiet.

This is the first time I've done two panels instead of one or three.

Is That a Wheel, or Are Your Legs Running Really Quickly?

How fast do you think he is going? In the original strip...

ALL: All panels had borders, and the style was different (duh).
PANEL 1: Moe wasn't running, and his dialogue was just, "Wait! I LIKE the blanket-hitting!"
PANEL 2: We couldn't see the hand behind Moe, and there was a period at the end of his talk bubble.
PANEL 3: "Oh be quiet" was all one word, "Ohbequiet," and there was a period at the end of the talk bubble.

Yes...VERY YES!!

Did you know that the original version of this strip actually had Moe as a double-arm in panel 1? That means he had a sort of rectangle in place of where his arm would be, a fist on one end, and the pointing hand on the other end. And, guess what?

We are now publishing our strips in books! The design follows the "MOE" logo in those Sunday strips.

Post #295

Notice the shading on the Moe logo.

Define "Fun".

It took me a little while to get the stuff in panels 2 and 3 right.

On the Splut Of Twelve, the Spell Will Be Broken.

Guess what? Since this strip was made when Moe was just a pre-pre comic, this was the first thing that Moe's dad did that came from my dad.

REAL-WORLD REFERENCES

• The title refers to the movie Cinderella. In panel 3, the splut occurs at the same time the clock changes. In Cinderella, her fairy godmother gets her ready for the ball, and then says, "You must understand: on the stroke of 12, the spell will be broken."

In the Vent

By the way, check out the previous post!

Whoa, Moe's legs are floating! How does he do that? The original heater vent was on the wall. Do you know where Mom's going? To turn the heater vents on! Ha!

Notice the Teacup-Like Sketch.

I was flipping through my sketchbook this morning and I found these sketches of Bed Monster as the cake for Brennan in Search of His Mother.

So, my original idea was to have two of the legs as the bottom of the cake, and his arms would fill in some of the spaces between the bottom and the actual cake. But that didn't go over so well...to me it almost looks like a teacup. I think the ones in the second row are my best ones. So, for the final strip, I tried to copy one of those, but I can't remember which one. I think it was the one on the left.

Thud

Can you believe I'm almost up to my 300th post? Neither can I. Well, here we go...

In the original panels:

Panel 1: Moe's eyes weren't pointing in different directions, and his leg wasn't on the floor. Neither was the other one. (Ha ha ha!)
Panel 2: Moe wasn't lying down, due to the fall. Apparently, he had landed on his feet. The sign, bubble, and panel didn't have shadows.
Panel 3: We couldn't see the floor.
All: The floor was complete lines, whereas here there are spaces between it and another object, and Moe was wearing his pajamas without dots. That was because I hadn't created the ones WITH the dots yet. Also, there weren't any shadows.

He DOES Have A Neck!

Sorry about the lack of post.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Man, the background in panel 3 is almost pure white! The original scream in the first version was, "ARRGH!" I changed it, for some reason.

The Beginning of Some of my Old Strips

So, most of these strips up until September (some of the Sunday ones aren't the ones I'm talking about) actually originated in Moe when it was a pre-pre comic. I edited it, of course, to meet the blog's needs. The original strip had just 4 panels.

Panel 1: Moe is asleep with 4 teddy bears next to him. The clock is ticking.
Panel 2: Moe sits up and yawns.
Panel 3: Moe turns around suddenly and we can see a ! over his head.
Panel 4: Moe looks at us, and says, "My blanket's gone again!" or something like that.

So, this is one of my first instance of inanimate objects coming to life. The first was where Thidwick was about to smash the Skateboard Racetrack in the Nermia story. Maybe I could make that some sort of running gag.

How is that Possib---/\/\/\---Time to go.

By the way, the ---/\/\/\--- stuff in the title is supposed to be static. The original title was going to be:

How is that possible? Time to go.

...but Blogger wouldn't allow that many spaces. And if you don't think that's very long, you should see the HTML code for it. So, by the way, this was the strip that was originally going to be on this date, but I switched dates. For more information, click "this date."

That's 4 Pairs!!

This came from a night with my mom and dad. I decided, hmm, maybe I'll change into socks first. Then I got the idea. At first I thought Moe's clothes would be socks too, but I decided, nah. I had to do a blue line for Moe in panel 3. A single pair is on his...

Head and nose.
Ears.
Hands.
Feet.

The description for my calendar schedule for this strip was, "Moe changes into socks...a lot of socks!"

Pop!

In my original sketch, panels 1 and 2 were combined into 1, so the strip had its normal number of panels.

Dad's Ears are 100% Rubber

I like these posts with titles like, "This Dad is 100% Rubber" or "These Ears are 100% Rubber...again." It all started with "These Ears are 100% Rubber," which, as a little goof, was what I originally typed for the title of this post. I didn't want any posts to have the same name, so if I want the same title, I'll add a "2" or an "again" in it, or something else that has to do with the title. (Do I have this thing for links, or what?)

Disinfectant...only $19.95. See the I Want Moe Attention store for more details.

Look at the pictures on the wall. Hey, Moe has a Toshiba-Laptop computer! That is because their old computer got destroyed in a thunderstorm. Do you think it will work? Well, check out our new product Moe is using and find out:

It does! But now it's free.

Splish, Splash, I Was Taking A Bath...in Just a Cup Of Water!

Almost everything in the "Silliness" label comes from my dad, like this strip, except for the fainting and the glass of water spilling.

These Ears are 100% Rubber...Again

This came from just doodling early in the morning. For no reason, I happened to draw Merlin whacking his ear with his other ear. Then I came up with this strip. But, it took me a little while to figure out if he was going to do it with his hand or his other ear. Now I'm beginning to think he did it with his other ear to make the other ear quiet down, or as punishment for that ear for telling the other ear that there really was dragons, or both. In my original sketch, Merlin was thinking all of his lines. I changed most of them to talking, since Merlin couldn't talk when I sketched this strip. Goof: The black outline of the two panels without borders is cool, but it extends into half of the orange panel.

Talking Lesson #97...He Succeeded!!

I can't believe it. Merlin talked when he wasn't trying to. I did that "A-HA!" thing in panel 3 last. That means Merlin's only going to talk for about 1 day? Well, that's 365% of a year, isn't it? So Merlin finally talked. And in only 97 lessons! That's gotta be a world record! I owe it all (and so does Moe) to our first-ever published book:

Talking Lesson #2

I liked drawing the floating Moe heads in panel 2. Each word was originally going to be a separate panel, with all of Moe. Then it would have been 7 panels! I like Merlin's bodies in panel 2. He's getting hypnotized or dizzy or something like that, and his ear is getting all twisted up.

Talking Lesson #1

The moral of this strip is: Never expect someone to show you or do something that it's learning how to do, but just barely started. The original dialogue for panel 2 was, "Do I really have to? I don't even know how!" It's been a long time since I saw Moe faint. I had to count up the seconds and say the dialogue out loud so I could do the (almost) exact number of seconds it was when Merlin said it.

Moe Predicted Correctly; Bed Monster DID Reveal His Love for Something!

Wow, lots of things this week are things from Moe Predicts! That music in panel 2 is hand-drawn, just like Charles Schulz does it, and it's my own song. I made it last year...I call it "The Way to Go." It took me lots of thickening to get the treble clef to look right. Try to play this on your piano. Here's the key:
e = eighth note; E = quarter note, E = half note, E = third note; E = whole note; + = blend the notes it is between together. All Cs are middle Cs.

CCEEGggGECEDDEDCDEFGgecegecegecegfedccC

Moe Predicted Correctly; The Enemy DID Reveal His Name!

The dialogue, starting with the words "My name is Jocken Fred," are supposed to be heard in the rhythm of "We All Sing With the Same Voice." I did the sketching out for this months and months ago. But my calendar for 2006 was all filled up, and I was in the progress of planning out January's strips this year, but for some reason, I decided, "Nah, I'll wait until a little bit later." Finally, I found a spot. This was the day I got another new pen. I didn't want to waste too much space, so I drew a picture of Moe and Merlin in the background. And, look at it again in all three panels...it changes! Another extra joke! It also almost follows the same joke of the main strip, because in the last panel picture, Merlin ends up "pow-pow-powing" Moe. And, one more thing. Moe has black pants on, just like the enemy. Do you suppose his shirt is red, too? Because Jocken Fred's shirt is.

Nail In The Morning 2

By the way, for those of you who didn't see the blog yesterday, go see it...

I finally got the scanner fixed, but I still haven't had a chance to update yesterday's strip. I usually try to do a new background each time Moe steps on the nail(s).