JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 Fancy Sketch/Photo Hybrid Comic Part 2

“George Hurt You” shirts are in the store!!!

Rob, David and I hosted an officially unofficial event on JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 called “Advanced Drinking and Drawing” (AD&D for short). The idea was, as panel one lays out, fairly simple. We (3 dude whose job it is to draw pictures on the Internet) will sit in the hot sun and drink cold drinks (purchased by YOU) and draw pictures for you until either A) said drinks run out or B) said cartoonists fall over the railing and are swallowed by what is about to be a extremely drunk whale.

I have to say it was a SMASHING success. Well, it was a success and we were SMASHED. We drew for about 3 hours and there were a good 20 or so Sea Monkeys (JoCo Cruise goers) hovering around us with cocktails and shots for most of that time. The only idea I’ve ever had that approaches the genius of “Give us free booze and we will draw dick pictures for you (I DID draw David like one of my French girls)” was “give me a living wage and I will draw dick pictures for you.” While the latter may have a greater impact on the well being of myself and my family, the former is somehow more profound. Like, I want to go set up a reverse hard-lemonade stand on the side of the road and sketch lewd Batmans while strangers poor drinks down my waiting gullet. Sadly I think the success of AD&D relied more on “right place, right time, right people” than “Best idea ever, this should work anywhere, hey is that a daycare? They have booze, right?” and thusly its ability to be replicated in the real world is certainly marred with difficulty.

One of the things that I love the most about events like JoCo Cruise Crazy is that the performers and organizers basically just set the wheels in motion. It’s the enthusiasm of the participants that keeps the whole fantastical thing moving. The days were JAM PACKED with official events. There were multiple concerts, sanctioned hangouts and late night party times EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, but in addition to all of that there were at least several dozen fan created and curated events through out the week. The Sea Monkeys were running games, teaching classes, putting on concerts, scribbling on cardstock for hard liquor… making things, and just making things better. Participation and augmentation are why a geek audience is such a special thing. They can’t help but get involved and leave things weirder, better and more covered in felt and hot glue than they found them.

I hope to get into more of the details and specifics of the AD&D shenanigans in the coming photo comics, but if you crave more Rob, David and Joel goodness, the three of us were guests on the Paul & Storm Podcast which took place live on the cruise. It should be uploaded soon and available HEREish.

[special thanks to Carrie Landers for use of her photo in panel 2 and to Sara Chicazul for requesting the Batman tryptic sketches]

COMMENTERS: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever accepted in trade for work provided? Booze for drawing is nothing compared to barrels of squid for roof repair or a case of pickled turnips for putting a bunch of squid into barrels (to pay the roofer).

JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 Fancy Sketch/Photo Hybrid Comic Part 1

Fighting Time Lords hoodies are at Sharksplode right now! Wibbly Wobbly Hoodie Warmy!

[Actually Posted on 2/29/2012]

I have returned from JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 a littler older (a week older actually), a little drunker (a LOT drunker actually) and perhaps a little wiser (or perhaps the sunburn has started to affect my mind). For the last two days (Monday and Tuesday as of this Wednesday-writing), I have been utterly useless. I have essentially been napping, sleeping or in some preparatory state for either for the last 48 hours (JoCo Snooze Lazy, amirite?). The week long luxury cruise I just got back from has left me tired and in need of rest… from all the luxury… and this is something I suspect you will not feel sympathy towards me for.

I am finding it hard to re-adjust to land-life. First of all, I somehow managed to bring the pitching and yawing of the ocean waves back onto land with me. I’m not even sure how I got them through customs, but I am definitely struggling for equilibrium like so many a sea-fairing, shanty-singing scallawag. Supposedly this “land sickness” wears off in a few days, but it certainly makes giving a shit about much of anything with regards to productivity nearly impossible.

The second major adjustment centers around the fact the hoards of like-dressed men and women aren’t all too happy to cater to my every demand. “More prawns!” “Right away, sir.” “You, boy! A bucket of your finest everything!” “My pleasure, m’lord.” “I’d like a butter sculpture in my likeness delivered to my room and the rooms of each of my compatriots post haste! And if you forget to include a selection of toast triangles and assorted jams, it will be my cane against your backside!” “Of course, your majesty! Humblest apologies for my inevitable failure to meet your expectations.” Did you know on land they expect you to PAY for goods and services instead of just telling the merchant or shoppe keep your address? Pish and or posh!

Regardless of the many inconveniences of land-life and the onset of post-cruise-sad, I am happy to be home. This week I will be crafting mostly photo-based funnies for you from the over 1000 images I captured last week. Unfortunately, many of the photos I took feature celebrities, both Internet and actual, in various states of undress and thus must remain forever locked away in the vault (of the highest bidder… email me). There will be one more Sketch/Photo hybrid comic, followed by 2 -3 photo comics proper. Next week, regular comics will resume.

David and I were asked to draw the songbook covers for “A Night at the Empty Orchestra: The Rees/Tompkins Karaoke Invitational.” That night I sang “Mr. Roboto” by Styx .

That performance illustrates the magic of JoCo Cruise Crazy almost perfectly. The idea that you set out to do something with a preconceived notion in mind of how it’s going to play out, and through the participation and good will of others the final result is something you could never have imagined. That type of unplanned awesome just KEPT. HAPPENING. ALL. WEEK. Hell, that’s a pretty good metaphor for this whole “make stuff, put it on the Internet, try to make a living at it” thing that myself and many of the JCCC2 particpants/performers are doing. So how soon can I start the fundraiser for the next cruise?

COMMENTERS: What’s the best “we had a plan, but then something unexpected happened and now it’s MUCH cooler” moment you’ve ever witnessed or been a part of? I REALLY hope someone has a video of the JoCo Karaoke performance of “Re: Your Brains.” There was real, unicorn blood infused magic on stage that night.

Guest Comic By Kris Wilson Of Cyanide And Happiness

Wil Wheaton and I got excited and made this “Fighting Time Lords” shirt for you!

JoCo Cruise Crazy II Guest Week is stranded up on a desert island! I am surviving on the contents of the buffet trays that keep washing ashore and have constructed a rudimentary shelter out of David Willis. The good news is the drinks are now free. The bad news is the drinks are all sea water. Those of us that remain has formed a simple organizational hierarchy, but I fear for the safety of Piggy. I just don’t think he has what to takes to not be murdered. HEY A CRAB!

Sometime around 1997 Kris Wilson along with an elite group of boobies-obsessed preteens, middle aged engineers and Rupert Murdoch met in secret to write the original charter for the Internet. Kris was the one that decided on the “dot” in “.com” due to its ressemblance to both a dick hole and the dickhole-shaped birthmark he has on his dickhole. At only 15 years old, this dude was shaping the very web-o-tron that we live, work and prey on today. Was his early entry into the hall of eHeroes a case of child prodigy, lax parenting or both? The answer, like our collective innocence, is lost to the ages. The answer is also “both.”

There are few people on this planet whose company I enjoy more than Kris Wilson’s. And that is saying a lot considering he spells his name like a girl and he was born in Wyoming. We met at C2E2 2010 in Chicago and within moments we were singing karaoke’d Creed to a party of drunken bride’s-harpies. It was a fast friendship after that and an even faster, more furious courtship. I expect the court proceedings to be even more so 5ast and 5uriou5.

Kris is one of those guys that’s down for anything, ready to run with any joke premise no questions asked and would rather lift up those around him than bring them down or see them fail. These attributes are what has kept him alive all these centuries and what will make facing him in The Cartoonist Quickening all that much harder. Still, I shall have his head for my trophy belt. My belt of heads. It is impossible to sit down while wearing that thing.

He and his Explosm cohorts (one of which is on a boat with me right now! Hi Rob! Can you get me another rum punch? No? You’ve forgotten how to walk? Whale venom will do that to you.) are working on a TV pilot for Comedy Central right now. At least I’ll be able to say, “I knew him when…” and “Can I borrow like $40,000? I KNOW you got it man! I KNOW YOU GOT IT! YOU COCKSUCKER! THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE MY HANDS! MYYYY HAAAAAANDS!”

The above comic illustrates everything I love about being a self-employed cartoonist. The dialog comes straight from a BUSINESS EMAIL between me, Kris and a few others. BUSINESS. Like the stuff you get paid for. That kind of business. What?

COMMENTERS: What conversation, activity, or other whatever have you been the most shocked by (either positively or negatively) in a business setting? One time my old boss called me into his office to look at something that was wrong with his computer. When I got there he typed on his screen, “You can totally see down [female coworker]’s top from here. She keeps shaking her foot and making them bounce. I can’t get any work done. I don’t know what to do?”

Guest Photo Comic By Josh A. Cagan

NEWT FOR PRESIDENT!!! GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!!!

JoCo Cruise Crazy II Guest Week hasn’t sunk yet! We are taking on water, but the Coulton has assured us that the crew only left on all the lifeboats to get help. How deep is the ocean? Should I be wearing long pants or would shorts be more appropriate? Hey look! Fish!

CAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAN!!! Seriously, scream his name. It’s like it was went ONLY to be screamed with your eyes gazing heavenward at a vengeful god, demanding justice for some great Internet atrocity. One of my favorite outcomes of SDCC 2011 (other than seeing Adam Savage trying on his new custom Batman armour, getting shot on stage at w00tstock 3.0 by Amy Berg, and various other “this can’t really be happening” adventures) was meeting Josh A. Cagan. I feel like we were probably introduced by Wil Wheaton, but then again it could have been that we both dodged an evil wizard’s curse a the same time and bumped heads taking cover behind a hotel lobby chair. That night is mostly a blur and I am positive there were wizard duels happening all over the place.

Josh is a screenwriter for movies and tv’s and what not. He is also a w00stock alum, one of the writers and actors for the Mtv animated serious Undergrads and last year he sold a script adapted from the highschool comedy novel “The Duff” to CBS Films. Regardless of any of this, he is one of the funniest people I have met in recent years. I strongly recommend, no DEMAND… no STRONGLY DEMAND… NO! STRONGBADLY RE-UNMAND that you follow him on Twitter. Your followage will be rewarded with real world laughs (out loud laugh or OLL’s, while not guaranteed, are highly likely). Once he tweeted me so LOL that I whatever this is.

If you are going to be in Calgary for the Calgary Expo April 27-29 you can see Josh participate in a 10 year anniversary panel for Undergrads at the convention. Fans of Clone High should definitely check out Undergrads. It was another in the long tradition of Mtv animated shows that were poorly marketed, horribly time-slotted and far too funny for that network. I will be there for the show, the panel and the after show/panel drinks as well. As Josh has told me, “I would warn all the beers, but they don’t stand a chance.”

COMMENTERS: Please make your own list of terrible guest comic ideas. Feel free to quickly and horribly photoshop any of yours or anyone else’s and link them in the comments. Alternately, what was your favorite “cancelled too soon” animated show? Which network is the worst about making sure to produce fantastic animated shows, then make them impossible to find on their schedule or constantly preempt them for sports, singing competitions or reality TV? Oh, all of them? They all do this? Do tell.

Guest Comic By Shawn Coss

“Winter Is Coming” shirts are now IN THE STORE!!! [based on this comic]

JoCo Cruise Crazy II guest week sails ever onward! Oceanward! Towards the ocean, but also IN the oceans! It’s wet!

Shawn Coss is like the 5th Beatle of Explosm in that he does his fare share of the work but gets none of the credit. As soon as those dudes start dying off he needs to slide on up in to the first vacant spot and just pretend nothing has happened. Shawn and I have shared many a convention adventure (conventure!), many a yelled conversation across a loud and terrible bar and many a stumble through the streets of this great nation’s various metropoli. He is good people. At least he seems to buy me drinks without me having to ask. He’s either good people or a dangerous and irresponsible enabler.

You can check out his macabre and disturbing art HERE, and HERE. He designed some of these Cyanide and Happiness posters, but knowing those jags they probably don’t give him a cut. Maybe just give him a high five and a sorrowful glance at the next convention. He’ll be the one working just as hard, but not rolling around on a pile of Internet cash.

Hey, here’s his newest design!

COMMENTERS: All kidding about Shawn’s status in Explosm aside (they DO treat him fairly… as far as I know), who is your favorite 5th Beatle? Who’s the behind-the-scenes guy that really made a different in a creative work that you enjoy? Bear McCreary comes to mind. His music really sets the tone and atmosphere for any show he works on.