What It's All About

I have been receiving a lot of positive feed back regarding the strips featuring Quincy and Trina, but just so ya'll good folks out there won't forget what this blog was created for; I thought I'd drop in an incomplete picture of the three main characters of @home. Solomon is the guy with the bald head (it's a long story). Anyway, I promise that @home is not gone, I just need time to update the old drawings. I don't think they are drawn very well. Besides, I know you wanna find out how what happens with Quincy, Trina and the Alien(?).

Sharing the Work Load

Isn't just like a woman not to want to pull her share of the load? I hate to come across as a sexist, people but here Quincy is doing all of the grunt work and he ask Trina to complete one simple task. One task and she can't even do that. I mean, what up with that? C'mon now, Trina gurl...You gonna have to start pulling your weight or else we gonna have to drop you little tail for the roster.

The Best Laid Plans......

Do I seriously need to comment on every comic I post? Seriously, I'm asking. Doesn't the comic speak for itself? Is there some rule, in the book of Blogs, that says that each blog entry has to have a commentary attached to it? Huh? Is there? Because, seriously folks. I'm just gonna say it. I'm not that deep. Sometimes these ideas just come to me because I'm a little bit touched in the head. I don't have much to say and I feel like ya'll are expecting me to comment on each and EVERY COMIC THAT I POST AND IT'S JUST TOO MUCH PRESSURE FOR ONE MAN TO TAKE. AHGGHHHHH!.

Whew...Now that I said that, how cute is Quincy. He really came into his own as far as a personality. His interaction with Trina is priceless.

(Seriously, people. With every post? Really?)

Aliens!

Kids are so cute. Quincy is just a little bit of a drama queen. I think it’s great how he over-reacts to feeling the baby move in his mother’s stomach. It’s really his parent’s fault what happens next, for not bringing him up to speed about the pregnancy. Then there is Trina, who is one of those kids whose parents told them about the birds and the bees at a young age. She knows a baby bearing belly when she sees one. Because of this she doesn’t react to the obvious living being inside of Quincy’s mom and she’s not up for the Drama that he is bringing to the table. I’m just gonna say it…Isn’t it just like a woman to leave a man hanging in his time of need? (Escuse the underlined text. I have know idea what happened there.)

Panic Attack

While feeling his mother's belly, to see how much air was in the basketball she swallowed, Quincy feels the baby movie. Thrown into a panic, because he is afraid that there is something alive in his mother's tummy Quincy calls his dad, at work, in a panic.

As you can image, there is nothing like getting histerical phone call, from you son regarding your pregnant wife. Good Job, Quincy.

It Bounced

I really thought the whole concept of little 6 year old Quincy being so naive that he did not know where babies come from. Of course I didn't learn until I was in my twenties my damn self. As in life, for every dumb kid there is a smart kid to balancing them out.

Okay, that's not fair. Quincy is not dumb. Just ignorant and as we all know. Ignorance is bliss.

Stay tune. It only gets funnier and cutier. Trust me.

Told Ya So

This is a comic that begins the tell of how Quincy learns that his parents are expecting a new addition to the family. I was in my early twenties when I came up with this little story. I thought it was cute. Still do. The syndicates didn't seem to care for it though, because they never picked up my poor babies. Check it out. I promise that I will bring them back.

Cast and Characters

You have meet all of these kids before; Quincy, Trina, Jonathan, Jennifer. The only one who you should not know is Tina, Quincy's baby sister. We are gonna take a break from @home for a while and I am going to be featuring some strips from one of my other comics. Hope you enjoy.

Perception is Everything

Just so you know I was not being lazy. The reason I did not do a post yesterday is because…well, I guess I was being lazy.
You see, although I have many, many comics to post, I don’t like the quality of some of them; thus I have to redraw them. Now, keep in mind that I work nights and am currently attempting to illustrate a children’s book that I wrote (in the hopes of getting it published). That being said, I still want to provide you, my loyal readers, with quality work.
Check it out, from here on out I will now post the before and after comics. You be the judge.

Weighing In

The miracle of life is such a wondrous things. So, how come all I can think of is the fat jokes?

Solomon is a good man. Loving, caring and good natured; much like his creator. However, sometime he says some of the most inappropriate things. He doesn’t say them out of malicious, just because he sometimes speaks before he thinks. It is amazing that he has gotten so far in life, you know, having one foot in his mouth at all times. He is cute though. Maybe that is why he gets away with it. I gotta say, speaking without thinking is not the best character trait that a married man can have.

Meet Morgan Jacobs

Morgan is the most stable individual in the comic, @home. Born Morgan King, Morgan was an Education Major in College, where she meets her beloved spouse, Solomon. All her live, Morgan has always been the stable one. When she meets Solomon, she knew immediately that he was the one. They dated throughout college and soon after Graduation, got married. Solomon got a relatively good job and Morgan chose to be a stay at home wife. Two years into their marriage, Morgan gets pregnant and thus the birth of a comic strip..

I think in previous post that I might have mentioned that @home was a short lived comic, titled “Triplets” that I wrote for my college Newspaper. What I did not tell you is that Morgan was named after a girl I use to study Art History with. I had never met anyone by the name of Morgan before and thought it was such a powerful name I knew I had to give it to my character. .
Although the carrier of the triplets, and the person you will see the most in all of the comics, Morgan has surprisingly few lines. She is the constant straight man to the antics of her husband, baby sister, and soon to be triplets. That is fine with her…It is her calling in life

Intermission (Jonathan and Jennifer)

Today's Intermission Showcases Jonathan and Jennifer Frank. I made up the Frank twins when I was in the eight grade. This is not how they initially looked. When they were first conceived I based their entire body type off of a comic I believed was called crazy cat, and then later Heathcliff. As a matter of fact, in the beginning the majority of their antics were stolen completely from Heathcliff cartoons, with me just drawing them in his stead. It was by doing this that I learned how to come up with ideas of my very own.

The whole concept for Jonathan and Jennifer came from an article I read in an issue of Ebony magazine, about this woman who had given birth to twins (one black, one white). The whole idea was fascinating to me so I created the Frank Twins. They were my first shot at reject from the syndicates.

The thought process behind Jonathan and Jennifer were that they were the byproduct of an interracial marriage. Jonathan is black and Jennifer is white. Jonathan has his mother's jeri curl like hair and Jennifer is a natural read head like her dad (note the puff on the top of Jennifer's head. Before that became her little make shift pony tail, it was my idea of the perfect, fluffy cotton tail for a rabbit).

Jonathan and Jennifer have totally different personalities, as you can tell from this somewhat lame cartoon. Jonathan being the quiet intellectual and Jennifer the bossy bully. The dynamics of their relationship is really cute, once I learned to develop it. They were meant to be the first cousins of Quincy Taylor, Quincy came second.

The comic with Jonathan and Jennifer was initial called the Family Tree but I later changed it to Sibling Rivalry, believing that it was the title of the stripe that was turning off the syndicates (It wasn't). Oh, and just another side bar...Note the name Jonathan and Jennifer. My favorite show at the time was Heart to Heart so I named my twins after the main characters of that show.

No More Hugs

For some reason I got a kick out of Solomon constantly being injured by Morgan's unborn children (no pun intended). As you can see I did many different takes on the matter. That is one of the great things about cartooning. You may come up with a concept that you can go several ways with. Most cartoonist pick one way and stay there, but not me. Dang it, I need to show all of the takes because in the end you just never know which one someone will find to be funny. I personally think they are all funny, but once again...I am bias.

Schoolhouse Rock - Three is a Magic Number

This seemed appropriate for a comic about Triplets. Hope you like it.

Tossing and Turning All Night.

Okay, first of all let me say, I don't know what happened to the "e" in FINE. I swear it was there when I scanned the damn thing in.

Like I said in a previous post, I have never had the misfortune or the pleasure to sleep with an expectant mother so all of this is speculation. Anyway, I thought it was cute that Morgan couldn't sleep because the babies were tossing and turning all night. I can imagine that this is true to life because I've had trouble sleeping after a big meal.

Poor Morgan, she looks so vulnerable in this comic. LOL

The King

Okay, this comic depicts Solomon sitting outside on the stoop of his house talking to his best friend and co-worker, Maurice. During her pregnancy Morgan's patience with Solomon was very short and he often found himself sitting out on the stoop. I thought it was a cute concept at the time. Still do, actually.

As you can see, this comic is incomplete because I just could not get the bodies to sit on the steps right. Plus, I really jacked up Solomon's face. Look at it. I still don't know what I did but he looks like a totally different character.

No Smoking, period!

Having grown up around an aunt who was a chain smoker I have learned to be very tolerant of cigarette smokers. Cigarette smoke doesn't really bother me, but I also don't find myself hanging around many people who do smoke. I will admit that it I hate the lingering smell of cigarette smoke when I hug someone who has been smoking or around someone who smokes constantly. Then there is kissing someone who smokes; No matter how they try to cover it you can still taste it. And it really pisses me off when I go to hug my little two year old nephew and his hair and clothes are permeated with the smell of cigarette smokes, because I know that somewhere in his little lungs that smoke is doing its damage (God forbid).

Solomon, a normally passive man, is not so passive when this gentleman and sit beside his pregnant wife and decides to light up.

You go, Boy!

Taking a Tinkle

Okay, this joke was sent to me by a friend of mine. I don't think he had my comic in mind at all when he sent it, but it is so very fitting. Fitting because of the fact that the mother in the joke gives birth to tow girls and a boy like Morgan. Other than that the whole joke, although funny, is totally inappropriate. But I couldn't help myself. LOL.
A woman pregnant with triplets was walking down the street when a masked robber ran out of a bank and shot her three times in the stomach. Luckily the babies were OK. The surgeon decided to leave the bullets in because It was too risky to operate. She gave birth to two healthy daughters and a healthy son. All was fine for 16 years, and then one daughter walked into the room in tears. "What's wrong?" asked the mother. "I was taking a tinkle and this bullet came out," replied the daughter.The mother told her it was okay and explained what happened 16 years ago. About a week later the second daughter walked into the room in tears "Mom, I was taking a tinkle and this bullet came out." Again the mother told her not to worry and explained what happened 16 years ago. A week later her son walked into the room in tears. "It's okay"said the Mom, "I know what happened You were taking a tinkle and a bullet came out." "No," said the boy, "I was playing with myself and I shot the dog." (I KNOW YOU SMILED)

Intermission (Cop Out)

I have tried so many takes on comic strips, in my bid to become syndicated, that it is sad. So many characters live inside of me that I am afraid that they will die there. What a lost that would be.

This particular comic was developed for our Police Newsletter, when I was a mere rookie. It was titled "Cop Out" (I kind of like the title "A Side of Bacon" now) and it was a loose chronicle of my life as a rookie on the force. It was very short lived because the Command staff began to try to censor my creativity, because they didn't believe that the comic should poke fun at some of the more serious issues going on in the Department. Huh? Are you kidding me? That's the whole point of the damn strip to begin with. Anyway, I refined the strip and sent it off to a syndicated in an attempt for syndication. Once again, REJECTION CITY! Makes me wanna cry.

What does a brother gotta do to get syndicated? Create a blog and post his work on it in a feeble attempt to get some attention? How pathetic would that be?

Anyway, I sorted through my stash of rejects and found this comic and posted it in a loose response to a posting by a young man name Dayne, the author of a blog entitled, dayne online (http://dayneavery.blogspot.com/), who posed the question of would you ever hit a woman? Someone should ask that question to the good Bishop Weeks. (LOL. That was totally uncalled for.)

Fish Out of Water

I would imagine that at some point during their pregnancy every mothers experiences some doubt about their parenting abilities. I would assume it would be only natural. I mean, how can you not? The moment that you give birth you become responsible for another beings life. That's a pretty hard pill to swallow. After all, good, bad or indifferent, you are playing a major part in molding that young person into who they will turn out to be. (Hell, I blame my mom for all my short comings on a daily basis. Why should I be held accountable?)

Now image that responsibility times three.

Of course at this point Morgan has no idea that she is pregnant with triplets. That was the whole hook of the comic, that somehow the doctor missed the other two triplets so when Morgan's gives birth it is a total shock to both her and Solomon, leaving them totally unprepared for the two extra arrivals. (Trust me. It's hilarious.)

A Sock in the Eye!

Life is an amazing thing. Have you ever got the chance to touch a woman's stomach while the fetus is moving inside? Gross, right? Makes my flesh crawl, but maybe that's just me. LOL.

But seriously, it must truly be a glorious experience to be able to have life growing inside of you. It is an experience that only a woman will ever know. This comic however pokes fun at that moving entity inside of mother's belly. Let's face it, people. Fetuses can get violent and no one wants to get socked in the eye by their wife's belly. Who would believe them?

Under the Covers

I have never slept in the bed with a expecting woman, but I can imagine that it could sometimes be a bit of a hassle. Imagine sleeping in the bed with someone with another life force growing inside them. That is how I come up with the concepts for my comics, by trying to put myself in the mind of the people I am portraying. Some people think it is easy to come up with comical ideas and sometimes it is, especially when you are drawing inspiration from things that you deal with on a daily basic. As a matter of fact, any good cartoonist will tell you that if you are going to creative a comic make sure you make it about something you know about.

However, image trying to come up with ideas about a subject matter that you have no personal experience with what so ever. I have never been married, have never slept in the bed with a pregnant woman, nor experienced the joy of raising a child, let alone three.

I said all of that to say this...Can a brother get some props for being able to come up with all of this great ideas about something I have no first hand knowledge about? DAMN!

Meet Kerri King

Meet Kerri King. Kerri is the little sister of Morgan. Kerri is a first year freshman at College University. Aside from an infant, Kerri is one of the must free spirited individuals you will ever meet. Fun loving and carefree, Kerri changes her major like I change my underwear (no comments please).
I made Kerri flat chested because I feel that too many cartoonist glamorize the female physique by enhancing the breast. I gave Kerri her body type to show that a woman can still be sexy, whether she has big breast or not.
Before she went off to College Kerri had long, shoulder width hair (no, it was not a weave), but in true rebellious form she cut it off as soon after she found her place in college. Her mother knows nothing of this. You see, Kerri and Morgan's mom likes to micro-manage the life of her children. And she has the money and resources to do so.
Kerri is is a man magnet, oozing of sex appeal. She is natural thin and a bug up the bum of her brother in-law Solomon. I have not decided why it is that Solomon is annoyed by Kerri so much. She has never actually done anything to him, aside from always being over to the house.
The funny thing about Kerri is that she was originally meant to be Solomon's sister. Well, not actually this incarnation of Kerri. Let me explain. When I first came up with the concept of "Triplets" I had the concept of Morgan and Solomon sitting in the hospital room and a young lady, who was going to be the sister of Solomon saying; "You Go Boy!" That cartoon never came to be because I later decided that Solomon's character would be better off as an only child. Then I came up with the concept of Kerri and decided that she'd make a wonderful kid sister for Morgan. Once I drew her face and body her personality just sprung up out of nowhere. Seriously.
More on Kerri later.

The Banner

I am still new to this concept of blogging. (is blogging even a verb?) Anyway, if you have been viewing my blog you might have noticed that I have added a banner to my blog page. I thought this would be a cool idea, once I realized that it could be done. So, last night I drew up this picture of the faces of Morgan, Solomon and Kerri, scanned them onto my computer and then uploaded it as a banner on my blog. The problem is that I didn't realized that the damn thing would turn out to be so gigantic. I kind of like the fact that when you first pull up my blog the first faces that you see are Morgan and Solomon; and it seems somewhat apropo that you would have to scroll over to see the face of third wheel Kerri. However, this is not how I expected the banner to show up. My intent was for the pictures to show up much smaller and be a lot less intrusive, but I have no idea how to fix the problem. I am hoping that it is not too off putting. Anyway, if you are reading thank you and keep it up. Who knows, if I get a big enough following, maybe I can find a way to do a little collections book. LOL

Membership Has Its Privileges

Morgan gave up a lot when she married her college sweet-heart, Solomon Jacobs. The pair meet in college where Solomon was pursuing a degree in Computer Technology and Morgan one in Education.

As posted in a previous blog entry both Morgan and her kid sister Kerri (pictured here) come from a privileged upbringing. Once they completed their educations both Solomon and Morgan decided to wed and Morgan willingly gave up her dream of becoming an Educator in order to be a homemaker for the man she loves. (Pretty old school stuff going on there, huh? If you continue to watch and read you will also find out that Morgan's mother does not really approve of Solomon.)

Anyway, now that she is pregnant Morgan has become a member of a even more privileged group of people--The Preg-gos. Sorry guys, this group is for women only. As her membership in the society grows, so does her belly, making it increasingly more difficult for Morgan to accomplish a great many of the chores she use to complete around the house. One of which is ironing Solomon's clothes for work, much to the poor guys dismay. But at least Solomon's not bitter about it. HA!

Labor Pains.

Okay, what I don't know about childbirth and pregnancy can fill a book and ironically a blog full of comics. Anyway, say what you want about television, a lot about what I know about pregnancy and the crap that women have to go through during it was learned from watch a multitude of television shows.

This comic shows Morgan and Solomon Jacobs at the doctor's office because Morgan is suffering from Branston Hicks Contractions. Now it is my understanding that this is the name of the false contractions that a woman might experience during pregnancy. If I am incorrect please feel free to correct me. I never claimed to be a doctor (see the disclaiming paragraph above).

It is a somewhat known fact that men sometime experience sympathy pains when their wives go through pregnancy....I wonder what these contractions are called. If they have not been given a name I would like to take this time to label them Jacobs' Jolts. How fitting that they be named about Solomon, after all, the doctor did say his pains were real.

Under My Umbrella-ella-ella....aye-aye-aye-aye

Happy Labor Day, everyone. Why is it that women always feel that they are bigger in girth than they actually are? Talk about vanity. It seems that no matter how small a women is she believes that she is over-weight. I think it is only the very big girls that believe they are smaller than they actually are....at least that is what I am guessing from the ones I have seen in t-shirts and shorts way too small for them....but I digress.

I'm gonna let Morgan get away with her paranoia of being too big, I mean look at her. Her belly is huge. So much so that the umbrella will not prevent her belly from getting soaking wet. The poor thing...she is caring half a soccer team in that belly of hers. It hardly seems fair. But you know what they say; when it rains, it pours. HAHA!

Intermission (A Matter Of Taste)

At this point I am not sure if anyone is even reading my poor little blog but just in case you are then you are probably wondering why the intermissions. Well, one reason is because at this point in time, @Home does not have a Sunday Comic so it gives me the opportunity to showcase some of my other comic hopefuls that have also been rejected by the big Syndicates. Here we have three of my characters from Army Brats. From left to right we have Buck, UB (Ubaldo) and Derek. Missing from the line up is Cherie, Buck's older sister and leader of the pack. The caption for this one, if I had put it in, would read: "I don't know why he sucks it...Taste horrible."

Anyway, I am afraid I am becoming a blog-aholic. I hate that crap. I'm not trying to be one of those people who are always look at other people's blogs. Especially since the only blog that matters is mine, dang-gone-it! Anyway, while browsing through various blogs I ran across this one by an artist named Belasco. Mr. Belasco's art work is so far removed from mine; one of the biggest differences being that his work depicts erect, cartoons of naked man of color. That being said, his artwork and style is amazing. I am amazed at the fluidity and whimsical of his lines. It was very much inspiring to look at his work and style. I love the way that he captures the facial features and body types of various body styles of my people. I also think it is wonderful that he is not afraid to show various body types (big and small) because cartoon artist tend to glamorize the human form, both with male and female. Looking at his work made me jealous that I didn't have more formal training so I would be better at capturing the movement of the human form. I realize that it is something that I struggle with on a daily basis.

I must say that artist such as Belasco and Wil Eisner really make me want to strive to be a better cartoon artist. I have always thought myself to be one of the best artist out there but when I look at work, by these artist, it makes me realize that maybe I'm not as good as I think I am.....

NAH! I still think I'm the SH*T! Shoot, not only have I developed a hell of a lot of comics, but each one of them are approached in a totally different way. I mean look at them. Every time I come up with an idea for a new comic I decide that each one needs to have a style of their own. Now that's talent, DAMNIT! Unappreciated talent but talent nonetheless. LOL

God Bless, people.

Watergate

Okay, now although I have three sisters, all of which have seven kids between them, we have never spoken about their bodily functions during their pregnancy. However, I am told that due to the fetus pressing against the woman's bladder causes them to have to constantly go pee. Solomon thought it would be fun to poke fun at his expecting wife, as she exits the lady's run, because she is constantly telling him that she is retaining water when it appears to him that she is constantly expelling the fluid. I think this is one of my cuter comics, although it loses some of its appeal when it is explained so graphical. My bad.