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I’m a little uneasy with self-promotion,
but I doubt anyone else would have nice things
to say about me, so here I go.
“Mad Mouse” is a life-long (so far) culmination of what I’ve
ingested from the comics world. As a boy, I loved
magazines like MAD and Zapped. I was an avid reader of
the newspaper funnies, paperback compilations of B.C. and
the Wizard Of Id, Archie and Richie Rich comic books.
To me, Lil’ Abner was serious literature and there was
much more to learn about life from
Zippy The Pinhead than from the Brady Bunch.
I was never certain that a career drawing comics was for me.
I was a good enough artist, just had no vision for it as a young man.
I hid behind the pen and paper, really.
The role of class-clown was appropriate - I just preferred
to remain anonymous and let funny drawings tell all my jokes.
I was the kid who would draw a cartoon of you doing something silly,
add a little social commentary, then pin it on the bulletin board
before class. It was generally accepted as good natured humor…
okay, most of the time. Boobies on my sister’s paper dolls and
cartoons of hot dog like people shouting obscenities on
the pages of our Church Hymnals,
would soon put me on the blacklist. I loved it.
Growing up in Southern Indiana was not conducive
for an aspiring satirical cartoonist. Nobody there,
who was actually looking to hire an artist, shared my love for
R. Crumb, Bill Griffith or Harvey Kurtzman.
Commercial Art school was only good for a year and
creative writing courses at the local college were good for even less.
So I did what any other intelligent person would do…
I moved to Chicago to make it big as a comedic actor.
Even though drawing took up very little of my time during the
next several years, I believe it was the experiences of
everyday life as a young man, on my own, in the big city
that were forming the foundations for “Mad Mouse”.
I wasn’t aware of that part yet, but when I did begin to sketch again,
I found that I had not lost my ability to satirize
using two little farm creatures as my spokespigs.
Unfortunately, these two little swine
never made it out of my drawing books.
By the time I had landed-in, burned-out-on, and escaped-from
Los Angeles, I had found a new desire to create comics
and was working on a character based on a drummer
friend of mine who played under the moniker, “Robnoxious”.
as advertisements… but nothing else came of it.
Working on these strips, however, was when I really began
to sink my teeth into the storytelling aspect of cartooning.
Although I had a lot to learn, I was letting my guard down and
allowing the cartoons to do my talking... albeit, a little bizarre.
Now was the point in the blog where I was going to introduce
how “Mad Mouse” came about, but I thought I would share
with you a few other –unrelated- works first.
During my last year living in California, so unsure of which direction
to take my art in, I took on a tattoo shop apprenticeship.
It was a very interesting life experience. I had the opportunity
to create some cool flash art and study an entirely different genre,
but the bloody skin thing…
I also have been known to pencil sketch from time to time,
but mostly, I find it unsatisfying.
Okay kids… you’ve waited long enough!
Let’s talk about the mouse. Earlier in the blog,
there were a couple of the strips showing the type of
situations Mad Mouse regularly finds himself in.
As the comic has developed, so have the characters
and storylines, and some episodes are now running for
three to four weeks at a time… and that’s daily!
As you can see, there isn’t space to run the entire story,
but the first and last strips from that Vegas adventure should
give you an idea of how the trip went for Mad
and his best pal Trouble Mouse.
I mean, check out how Valentine’s Day ended-up for this poor guy!
“Mad Mouse” really does have it all – if you have a distorted
view of the ways of real life like I do.
Where else would you find the life and times adventures of
a divorced, middle-aged, underachieving,
alcohol and nicotine addicted, human-like rodent
who just can’t seem to get things right despite
his desperate search for the meaning of it all?
I mentioned his troublesome best friend,
but wait until you meet his teenage, lesbian, daughter
who just moved into his tiny apartment
“just until her band makes it”.
Or his beautiful, successful girlfriend who is determined
to help him change his ways. And what creature of such
questionable values would be complete without a conscious…
in this case that would be Jesus Mouse,
the omni-present meddling voice of reason.
It’s bound to get interesting.
Well folks, there you have it… for now anyway.
You can read (and even subscribe) daily to “Mad Mouse”
on Go Comics. There is a site there called Sherpa,
especially for up and coming cartoon strips and their creators
looking for syndication, and/or exposure. I am seeking both!
Go to: http://www.comicssherpa.com/ and click on “Mad Mouse”
– either the thumbnail, if a new strip has been uploaded that day,
or find the title under “See All Comics”.
Feel free to comment on the strip as well. It’s free to subscribe
and the numbers could only help in the development of my strip.
Comic books are in the future plans for “Mad Mouse”
with edition #1 currently being drawn.
I’d like to thank Comic Creators United for
posting my work on their blog this week.
They’ve been great and always have something fresh
and very cool to look at. Thanks guys!
If you would like to contact me regarding
“Mad Mouse” you can do so through my artist email:
madbristowart@yahoo.com
A big thanks goes out to you Bristow.
As "Mad Mouse" continues to break new ground,
CCU can say "we got you at the start".
We're gonna miss that crazy mouse.
Come back and shake things up again soon.
We'll follow you to the cheese
as long as you tell us how to steal it.
Mad Mouse can also be found HERE.
Monday, March 22, 2010
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