Peculiar Castle

This will be the last appearance of the stick until near the end of the story. I'm about halfway done with the November Nermia strips. Happy Halloween, by the way. If the characters were celebrating Halloween, they might go as:

• Moe: Buzz Lightyear
• Thidwick: Linus
• Merlin: Snoopy
• Bob: Woody

Hey, everybody needs a match! Linus and Snoopy go together (Snoopy takes away the blanket) and Woody and Buzz go together. (Have you seen Toy Story or Toy Story 2?)

Merlin is the Winner!!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Yay! Merlin wins!

The white "1" in the "trophy" wasn't originally in my sketch. But it was in my mind. Until I drew this strip, I was thinking, "How in the world can a dog make a trophy out of his ear, and put a space that looks like a 1 in the middle?" I added it in to make it funnier. Also, when I sketched out this strip, this was the only gag (or joke) I had in my mind. Can you think of any other gags that would have worked out?

Official Logo Box

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 8: Let's see...Merlin's in the lead!

All those "logos" that I've been doing are really just sketches for an official logo. Here's the official one! Moe's outfit may change due to the weather/holiday/season/whatever. Or, if he just has normal clothes on, they will match the colors of the shirt in the strip. Otherwise, he will be in his normal orange-and-red outfit. (Finally, a text color other than white!)

Some More Perspective

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 2: Right!

Another day, another strip, another perspective drawing, another blog post. I think I should have put shadows under the skateboards and the racetracks...in panels 1, 2, and 4. (In Sunday strips, the logo box is panel 1 and the "drop panel" (the panel next to the logo box) is panel 2.)

A Little Perspective as a Side Dish...

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Here comes the last obstacle! Are you excited?
Panel 2: There it is!
Panel 3: Skateboard Racetrack!

I had to do four or five perspective sketches for the last panel.

How Could he Miscount 3 Obstacles into 7?

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: No wait! I miscounted!
Panel 2: There's only one more obstacle!
Panel 3: What brought that on?

I like what Merlin's thinking in the last panel.

Blanket Keep-Away? Never Heard of It!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: 5.

Comment on this post and tell me what you think the next obstacle will be (seriously, though, not something like "Keep Away with a Blanket.")

WAAAA!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Just five more obstac...
Panel 2: WAAAAA!!!
Panel 3: That's okay. It was just a fake computer.

This is like what happened to my dad's computer, although it didn't break like the stick's "computer" did. The little magnet that held the screen onto the rest of it just broke off. I'm glad it didn't break all the way.

Only the Stick is Dissy!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 2: Uhhhhhhhhhh...
Panel 3: What's that sound?

Comment when you have a chance and tell me what you think of the story so far!

Spinners!

I bet he feels like he's in a rainbow in the last panel, doesn't it? I tried to make this noticeable, but I failed. Since he's getting his security back, and he loves his security blanket, I decided to put as many hearts in his dialogue & put hearts in his eyes. (I forgot to color them both.) And, to top it off, I tried to turn the shape of the talk bubble into a heart. Eat your heart out, Charles M. Schulz!

How Come we Never See the Buttons on a Far View of the Shoes?

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 3: Um, okay...

By the way, Merlin pulled Bob's tail in the middle panel. And I'm working on the November strips for the Nermia story now. Soon I'm going to put all the Nermia posts on my sidebar over there. →

Obstacle #2

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Here comes obstacle 2!

Notice that I've made the first letter of most of the words of the obstacles Big and Bold.

Happy Halloween, Not!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 2: Halloween? Never heard of it!
Panel 3: But we do have Christmas!

The curve of the top of the stick determines which way he is facing. (No curve means he's looking at us.)

What a Beautiful Sunset Sunrise!

Oooh, we finally have a break from that "Automatic Stick Translation" stuff! So Moe finally fell asleep, huh? I had to think a little bit to get a good font for the Z in the first panel. By the way, in case you couldn't read it, the bold word in the last panel says dawn!

Moe=Brr! Rest=ZZZ

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: What we have keeps us warm!
Panel 2: Thidwick has a blanket...Merlin and Bob have fur...I have a leaf...
Panel 3: All you have is your clothes!

I needed to ask my mom if any clothes were made of fleece to make this strip, and if fleece blankets could keep you warm. Thank goodness the answer was yes to both of them, and the strip worked.

Brrrr...

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 2: Here. This should keep you warm. It always keeps me warm!

My original rough had a big Z in all the panels, indicating that Thidwick, Bob and Merlin were asleep.

What a Beautiful Sunset!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panels 1 and 2: How should I know?
Panel 4: Not now! Are you crazy?!
Panel 6: Oh.
Panel 7: I guess we could get 50 winks of shuteye.
Panel 7: Not really...
Panel 3: We sticks have to sleep longer than people do.

To make the sunset in panel 6, I started off with drawing the sun. (Really? Amazing, isn't it?) Then I colored it yellow. I drew a yellow glow around it. Then I drew some orange around it. Then I drew some red around that. Then I drew some pink around it. (To do the pink, I just colored red lightly, because I don't have a pink colored pencil.) Then I put some gray (black lightly) around the borders of the yellow glow and the orange glow. The result? A beautiful sunset!

Finally, the End of The Maze!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Yes! We finally made it!
Panel 2: Just six more obstacles!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Good news! We only have to go 136 more yards!
Panel 2: Aren't you excited to get closet to the castle, guys?
Panel 3: Guys?

Striped Z. What do you think? I wonder what they're dreaming about...

POST #100!!!!!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: About 103 yards.
Panel 3: Whatever 1000 minus 103 is!

That's 897 yards! You don't believe me? Try it on your calculator.

And now, in honor of my 100th post, I had to think of something to celebrate. I tried talking with Moe himself, and he came up with a funny idea, and here it is:

He's lighting a cake with 100 candles on it! (How long do you think it took to do that?) All of the characters must be more than enough wind power (okay, breath power) to blow all of those out!

Obstacle #1

Oooh! Tomorrow's strip is my 100th post! I've gotta do something to celebrate!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: Our first obstacle is coming soon!
Panel 2: The Maze!
Panel 3: This will be the longest!

That's a huge maze! I'm guessing it's around 1000 yards across...that's about 3000 feet! The original last panel was going to be something like an above view, with Moe, the stick (I love it that we just call him "the stick"), Thidwick, Bob and Merlin all as faint dots, and an entire view of the maze. But, normally, I can't draw this very well, so I had to switch it to this, to still show how big the maze is, but not draw all of it.

So What WILL it Take?

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 2: Probably about an hour...
Panel 3: That is, if the obstacles weren't there.

So what will it take, like, 3 hours?!

It Must be Cold Up There!

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 1: To the tooth fairy's castle.
Panel 2: It's right on top of that mountain.
Panel 3: We're going to have to get through lots of obstacles to get there!

Watch out, Moe! You almost stepped on the stick! (panel 1)

Return of the Stick II

"Automatic Stick Translation"

Panel 4: Hey guys!
Panel 5: I've been listening. I know a way you can stop that tooth fairy!
Panel 6: Follow me!
Panel 7: The tooth fairy isn't very smart.
Panel 8: I bet we can trick her or distract her, and get the teeth back!

Boy it's been a long time since I had Moe trick Julia. I like Thidwick's expression in panel 8: it looks like he's thinking "Wow, I didn't know that!"

Two kids and two pets ...in two strips

It may be obvious (or maybe it won't) that I did not use my lettering guide for the second panel. Comment and tell me if you think Moe faints well enough to get on the "Top 10 Best Fainters List," and where he would be.

Bugged-Out Eyes!

This question mark's font name is called "sketch." Look at the exclamation point! It extends out of the thought balloon!

Speaking in Code

All right...the "http://moeattention.blogspot.com" is back now. Soon the "http://" will go away.

New Joke

My original joke was going to go something like this:

1st panel: (same)
2nd panel: Merlin: "It looks like it was written around 600 BC..."
3rd panel: Merlin: "It's written in strange symbols!"

Why were they going to be written in strange symbols, you ask? Because that's the way people wrote around 600 BC. At least, they're "strange symbols" to us, because that's not the way we write.

Dog and Fire Hydrant? ...You Know the Drill.

Hey, did you ever know that Bob has pads on his front paws (hands)? Did you ever know that Bob has pads on his hind paws (feet)? I always love it when Merlin's ears stick up like they do in the second panel.

The Nermia Story Continues...

I like the

?

in the first panel. If you zoom it up, you can see that I've put little lines in between each little "block," I guess you could call them.