Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fug Cheese Gets 2,100th Facebook Fan!

Wow! My comic strip Just Say Cheese just received its 2,100th fan!!! What an amazing 10 months this has been. The next three months are going to be very exciting as well as I run my comic strip in the Cartoonist Studio's cartoonist search contest. The winner gets a FIVE YEAR developmental contract with Creator's Syndicate!!!

I have sent out presentations to the remaining six syndicates. I really think my strip is unique enough and funny enough to be syndicated. I also realize these syndicates receive THOUSANDS of ideas for strips every year... and their creators think their strip is good enough as well! The chances of my strip actually getting reviewed are pretty slim.

Winning this contest is my one REAL shot at making it in this dream career. That is why I am putting everything I have into these submissions. Over the next two weeks I am going to push myself to complete the five strips I need to get myself entered. Afterwards, I will return with new strips for the public... so stay "toon"ed!!!

Update on My Characters

The stars of my comic strip are busy in and out of the padded panels of my insane world. The rock band the Okra Pods have announced that they are headed to Nashville next week to record their next studio album, Pod and Country.

Derik and Paulsey sat down with me this afternoon about this new project.

“This is going to be our first parody album containing country music,” reveals Derik Hamm. “We cut a demo of She’s a Sleep Walking Woman and our record company went nuts. They immediately got us in contact with a producer in Nashville by the name of Marty Moonshine O’Rourke. We are told he is one of the best producers in all of Tennessee!”

“The real problem now is that the record company expects us to cut an album in three weeks and we only have the one song written”, whispers Paulsey.

“I know!”, exclaims Derik. “The song is a great parody of She’s a Good Hearted Woman… but that is the only country song we really know. The record company has demanded a parody album of nothing but country songs. We are listening to every Country album we can find. We’re cramming everyone we can into our ears. We’ve listened to Johnny Cash’s catalog last night. Today we listened to a ton of Willie. Tonight we are going for some Merle… and tomorrow Waylon is on our list. We want the raw, hard country for our album.”

When more information becomes available about the new album, you will hear the details first here! Subscribe to this blog for all the latest on the Okra Pods and on my comic strip Just Say Cheese!… “She’s a sleepwalking woman perplexed ’bout her all-over tan…” This is going to be a HUGE hit!!!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Time to Get Famous!

This is it. Nine months worth of work going out to the syndicates! At least now I know that I tried to follow my dream. If this is as far as I get to being syndicated, so be it. I will continue to just publish online if I never hear back from anyone.

I feel like my comic strip Just Say Cheese has so much to offer over other strips. There is not a lot of depth to some of the current strips. Unfortunately, space is limited and the comic strips that are being published are very good. It has been a long time coming for a strip like mine to get published. The story packs such a punch with the two kids sharing a bond because they have both lost a parent. We watch the two forget about the real world through some crazy, twisted adventures. It starts out dark, but the audience becomes too wrapped up in the mayhem to really dwell on the past.

Who knows. Maybe I’ll be surprised pretty quickly and get picked up. A total of seven syndicates are receiving submissions. Five are pictured here. Two others were sent electronically over the internet. I am very excited about my comic strip finally making it to the syndicates… but I know the chances of ever hearing back are pretty slim! The syndicates receive THOUSANDS of strip ideas per year. I’ll be lucky if I even get looked at!!!!!

Not having tried is worse than being shunned after trying.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

0048 - Happy New Year! Time for things to get serious...

Just Say Cheese had a huge run last year! In its first year on the internet, Just Say Cheese was a HUGE hit on Facebook gathering a cult following of nearly 2100 fans. The strip continues to grow as much as 15 to 20 or more fans per week!

I am now in the process of submitting my concept to the 7 major syndicates in North America. Just Say Cheese is also being entered into a HUGE contest by the Cartoonist Studio where the winning strip gets a developmental deal with Creators Syndicate. The next 6 months should be the biggest months of my life! It is "make or break" time! It is as exciting as it is scary!!!!

However this turns out, I do not plan on giving up. My main goal is to make people laugh and enjoy my warped sense of humor. I am not here to make money... just to make a living! If I never get syndicated, I will be happy to just take it slow and post a strip every week... but being paid to do it every day would be so frigging COOL!!!

Follow this blog to see the latest strips and latest news about my comic strip Just Say Cheese. Also, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stripcheese

I apologize for neglecting this blog. I put all my efforts into the Facebook page. Now that Wordpress has improved with the tab functions, I am going to drop my other blog on Blogger and focus on Wordpress and Facebook.

Here is a quick look at the finale from the series that was started a while back.
Click image to enlarge...