000042 - Possibilities are Endless...

Everything is possible... Hell indeed can freeze over. David Gilmour and Roger Waters can still play nice together!!! I am a HUGE Pink Floyd fan after being introduced to the band back in high school by some hot chick who will leave as nameless so she doesn't have to admit that she stooped so low as to go out with me, the geekiest guy in high school... Women have always been a huge influence on my musical tastes for some reason.

Where am I going with this blog???

Oh yeah, so even a hot girl will date a geek... so anything is possible. With this logic I know that one of these I am going to get my comic strip syndicated. It is just a matter of time and karma.

I am now going to travel back in time for the next month and polish up the earlier strips. Enjoy the conclusion of this week's episode!!!

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000041 - Wonder Woman in All Her Glory!

All of us comic book geeks are either excited or dismayed over Wonder Woman's new look. Yes, yes, this is a nerdy blog today. I prefer to see Wonder Woman in "all her glory". By that, I mean that my preference is to gaze at Diana in her old, PATRIOTIC costume. DC Comics has forgotten the Amazon's roots when they redesigned Wonder Woman's new costume.

My take is that the “American Flag” design of her original costume was key to her character and the loss of the patriotic look saddens me. Diana embraced her new homeland and proudly carried the red white and blue in her costume as she paid homage to her adopted homeland. It spoke loudly for who the amazon was deep in her heart. The new look just says, hey I’m hot and cool all at the same time… which isn’t bad but just does not sell me on the fact that this character is the true Wonder Women from tales of old. Maybe it's just ME who is getting old... or a sign that this awesome country of ours has a lot of people who have lost sight of the majesty and freedom that is the United States of America.

Happy Fourth of July! Here is another strip...

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000040 - Comfort Cheese

I finally feel comfortable drawing these strips! I think this Knight Owl series is looking pretty good if I do say so myself. The first three weeks are horrible by comparison. When I started this Facebook page for Just Say Cheese, I wanted to post a strip EVERY day. Problem is that with work and personal commitments, I had maybe two hours to draw, ink, scan, assemble, and color. I was rushing a four hour process... a process that I was not even starting until 10:30 every night.

Once the Knight Owl series is completed, I am going to redraw week one. Then we will move on to a new episode. I may go ahead and introduce Zana Blanks next or I may introduce Fug's pets. Both of these episodes are historically introductions and will change the direction of my strip. Zana will explore a more human side of Fug. The pets Floyd the Dragon, Willie the Mammoth and Spazz the Unicorn will add a spark of magic and zany fantasy to my strip.

Some say I have too many characters in my strip. Oh well! My strip is about the town of Okrapolis and there are just a ton of cool people living there. Plus, I know my readers are smart enough to follow the twists and turns of the long and winding road that ravels through the history of Okrapolis!

Here is another strip.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!

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000039 - Peeled Okra

I have had a lot of fans asking about Billy's shirt. This week, Billy is wearing a concert front from his dad's 2008 album Peeled Okra. The album's only hit was the parody of Jackson Brown's "Running On Empty" called "Running All Gimpy". We will feature other concert shirts later in the series so that the Okra Pods get a little free promotion.

If you have not checked out Billy's dad's band, the Okra Pods, go to their Facebook page. All 63 album covers are posted. You can also find a lot of their lyrics to there large selection of parody songs including "Swede Mauled by a Panda", "The Wrong John", and "That Woman Knew Taekwondo".

http://www.facebook.com/okrapods

Here is today's strip!

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000038 - Gulf Coast Fish Oil

Being a Gulf Coast native here in Houston, the Gulf Coast disaster hits very close to home. I see so many other cartoonists blogging and drawing strips about the crisis. I have wrestled with the idea of using my strip for pushing my own political views as well as my feelings towards disasters like the one crippling the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico... but... I am afraid my point of view on things may tick someone off. As a struggling cartoonist, I need all the fans I can get.

On Facebook, I list my political view as 20/20. It just sounds funny. It doesn't have any hidden meaning. I do not want to be known as the crazy cartoonist who took a stand on this or that... or who stood up against him or her. I just want to be known as the cartoonist that was only concerned with making his readers laugh and escape the events of our world. That is why I created Okrapolis.

Okrapolis is the town where my characters live. It is a small, Southern town where everyone knows everyone... no one ever has to concern themselves with locking their doors at night... where the only drug busts that occur are when Old Man Winters has to smash open his migraine pill bottle because he can't figure out that child proof cap. Some say this is a simple town, but they are actually very wrong! This little town is the most complicated communities ever depicted in a daily comic strip series.

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June's Album of the Month - Make It Greasy

It was a cold February in a New Jersey bar when Derik Hamm accidentally hit on Joe Walsh’s girlfriend. A brawl broke out between the two resulting in Joe Walsh breaking Derik’s jaw. During the confrontation Joe Walsh had declared how much he hated Derik’s parody music, insisting that none of the Okra Pods had any talent whatsoever.

Derik worked very hard over the next few months on parody songs based on classics by the Eagles. In Derik’s mind, this would be the ultimate last laugh. The two wrote a total of 26 songs, and… after picking the best of the best… they recorded and released “Make It Greasy”.

Later in 2006, Derik ran into Joe Walsh after a concert in Dallas. It was then that Derik realized the guy in the bar was not Joe Walsh. After thinking about it, Derik remembered that he was pretty smashed and that “Rocky Mountain Way” was playing on the jukebox. Ends up that Joe Walsh actually likes the parody songs by the Okra Pods… but Joe DOES really think the guys lack any talent whatsoever. Joe actually described them as a glorified cover band with a twist.

Tracks
01. Twitchy Woman (aka Witchy Woman)
02. Wife’s Got A Migraine (aka Life in the Fastlane)
03. Ted is So White (aka One of These Nights)
04. Make It Greasy (aka Take It Easy)
05. The Wrong John (aka The Long Run)
06. Peepholes in the Ceiling (aka Peaceful Easy Feeling)
07. Hit the Lotto (aka Desperado)
08. New Shorts Turned Brown (aka New Kid in Town)
09. I Can’t Zip My Fly (aka I Can’t Tell You Why)
10. Giant Thighs (aka Lyin’ Eyes)
11. Ho Smells Like an Onion (aka Hotel California)


Twitchy Woman
Parody of "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles

People stare as Rhonda trips
Straws are barred when she sips
Eyepatched socket shades her sight.
She's a nervous seamstress with an awful plight.

Wooo hooo twitchy woman
See her eat this pie.
Woo hoo twitchy woman
She jabbed a spoon in her eye.

She has a boyfriend, his name is Mike
He wears goggles to protect his sight
She grazed his retina with the kitchen broom
As she shoved it accidentally
When she swept the room.

Woo hoo twitchy woman
See her kiss her guy.
Woo hoo twitchy woman
She jabbed her tongue in his eye.

Well Rhonda once blew her cover,
Her pants were her brother’s.
She didn’t know she had to tie the threads.
And when she tried to turn around
Her sweatpants hit the ground.
Her can rocked and twitched at the wrong time
And her face turned red.

Woo hoo twitchy woman
How did her pants come untied?
Woo hoo twitchy woman
She showed her moon to the sky!

000037 - History is Made!

June 1938 saw the first appearance of the man of steal, Superman. May 1939 saw the first appearance of the caper crusader, Batman. August 1962 saw the first appearance of the amazing, web slinging Spiderman. And... June 2010 now sees the first appearance of...

...the Knight Owl!!!

Every classic strip has reoccurring situations, themes and off-the-wall cameos. One of Just Say Cheese's reoccurring cameos will be by the superhero known as the Knight Owl. This week introduces the fowl cowled freedom fighter and a few of his super partners.

Come on, you know when you were a kid that you dreamed of donning a cape and kicking some super criminal's behind!!! A few people in Okrapolis are just crazy enough to slip on the spandex and fight for justice!

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