Something For the Opponents

I considered including the Whiners idea in yesterday's comic strip, but felt it could become a full strip on its own. So then, I just had to find a good way to introduce it. In deciding about an ending panel, I chose to let it imply this was a win for the opponents, and the campaign has not even started yet. This may lead to them choosing a new name. I have not thought about that yet.

New Party Name

Continuing with the theme from yesterday, I had an idea to name the new political party, but decided it needed a transition between comics. So, yesterday showed the idea of wanting a new party, today is some ideas for names, and tomorrow, I think I will name the party. I think.

Since Mr. Blue suggested Winners, I decided I wanted him acting a little nutso and felt like the faux echo might be kind of cute. And Mr. Green suggested Whigs just so I could use the acronym I thought of. When I researched it, I found the Whigs only lasted through the middle of the 1800s. Huh. I thought they were from earlier in U.S. history.

Time for a New Party

I was really stuck on this one for a while. Where did I want the final panel to go? I knew I wanted the discrepancy between definitions of party to be the key, but what would let the joke flow through all the panels without a total split at the end. Once I decided what to do, I tried to find a way to use both Republican and Democrat as references to drinking or Conservative and Liberal. I couldn't find a way, so I split them and used Republican and Liberal. That still represented both sides of the political aisle and let me make the final 'bar' joke.

Keep Cool App

I felt like the current heat wave through much of the country deserved at least a nod in the comic. So, I considered what type of smartphone app might sell during this time. Hmm. Something that would keep people cool. No wait. How about something that purports to cool people, but is in reality useless. So, I decided it should show a video of a fan running, including the sound, and the owner could feel cool maybe by mind over matter.

How to Balance the Budget

I am sure we all think about the impact of the budget on ourselves, our pocketbook, our kids. Just think about the poor members of Congress that have to make those decisions. OK, maybe they are not poor, and maybe they are not so concerned about the impact of current budget decisions on anything in the future. Still, if this was something at home, we'd just tell them to lock themselves in a room until it is settled. So, I decided to explore what that might be like if the Prez did that.

8-Track Gaga

This is the last idea I captured during the 7/3/11 church service. Until I started creating the comic strip this morning, I did not know how to end it. My notes ended with the auto-tune comment. Once I wrote that in the cartoon, I wondered if all my audience would understand it. That led to the final panel where Mr. Green tries to come back with his own 'cool' sounding phrase that doesn't quite work.

Man of the Cloth

I heard a religious leader referred to as a "man of the cloth" on the radio the other day. So, at first, I cogitated on why that name is used for a preacher. Maybe because of the collar worn by Catholic priests? Anyway, from there, I thought about the word cloth and that man of the cloth could be used also for a person selling fabric.

Try and Get It

A coworker suggested that try and get it would be an interesting phrase to investigate. He called it "a strange linking of effort and probability." I decided to have a group of characters discussing all the permutation of the phrase. I added a clueless dude for comic relief.

What Goes Around

I had no idea this comic would end up in a bad pun. When I thought of it, I expected it to end in the discussion of getting bonuses at work for doing a job quicker. I wrote the first three panels along those lines, but as I started considering the twist for the final panel, the idea of karma came up. That led to the ending pun and I knew I would use that in the cartoon.

Hitter

Whew! I had to run a long way on this one. Was it worth the payoff? Well, I got there and I'll leave that decision to the reader. No, my wife doesn't really have a cast or an elevated arm. I just needed a vehicle foe the cartoon.

Face2Face

The other night at the mall, we saw a group of kids...maybe 5-6 of them...at a table and all of them had their phones out and they were texting. Were they talking to each other? I'm not certain, but I would not be surprised.

New Glasses

This is another of the series of ideas I jotted down in church a few weeks ago. In fact, this is actually the first idea I wrote that day. Maybe the preacher said something about seeing Jesus in all we do? The challenge on this one was actually the title. I chose not to include Jesus in the title so that all my followers would read it instead of maybe ignoring it because they saw a religious title.

Gimme Five

Yes, my wife did have surgery yesterday, but only to her left pinkie. However, that would not have been as funny, so I expended the injury in the comic strip to arm so it could be left in a raised position. Then, I struggled a bit finding that final twist until I decided to have her hold up her other arm.

Get a What?

On our vacation, my brother and my son were having a conversation. When my brother asked my son if he was able to 'get a nap,' the same misunderstanding that I wrote about occurred. My son heard 'an app' and wondered what his uncle was talking about. They finally got it squared away. I immediately captured the idea and thought you would enjoy it, too.

Side Business

Can you believe we are in the middle of the final Space Shuttle flight? I wanted to do a comic mentioning the Space Shuttle, but once I thought of a different way to pronounce it, the cartoon went in a different direction. So, as I researched the Shuttle, I thought at first to use the names of the vehicles as part of the comic strip. I did think of Catlantis for one of them, but no easy names came for Endeavour or Discovery. I decided to go ahead and write as much as I could. I wrote the "I hope it takes off" line and chose to pursue launch metaphors. When one of them said "... to the moon," the ending line referencing Apollo seemed a fitting way to end it.

Irrelevant

At the moment, this is the final entry in my "Through Kid's Eyes" series that I thought of during last week's church service. I do have two other comics from the same brainstorming session, but they are not based on misunderstandings by children. On each, I had the idea of the misunderstood word, but I needed to find the final hook to end the comic. For example, my note for this strip was "Oh, he said irrelevant, not elephant." From there, I needed to build up to the revelation of the concept, the explanation during the correction, and a final pithy comment from either the Dad or the child. Today's last twist came from the child. I also chose to use panel two in each of the Through Kid's Eyes cartoons for a no-words imagining of what the child was thinking.

Ant Terri

Another in a series of words misunderstood by children. Does this mean my mind is still childlike? Probably. Once I came up with the idea for yesterday's comic, I began to consider other ideas for the "Through Kid's Eyes" series. I know that I have at least one more already in the works.

Half-Brother

I do know that I thought of this cartoon during church last week. Why, I could not say. Did the guest preacher mention a half-sibling? Maybe James, the brother of Jesus? I do not remember. Anyway, my note to myself simply read "Half-brother." So, once I started creating the comic, I decided to have the child start saying all the thoughts about what a half-brother might mean and have the father be overwhelmed by the onslaught of ideas.