Boxcar Astronaut #68 & R.I.P Michael Turner

So I know that Father’s Day has come and gone, and I know I don’t have any children, but today I truly feel like a proud parent. My “child”? Why, it’s this week’s hilarious (in my not-so-humble opinion) Boxcar Astronaut strip! In all seriousness, I think this final “space training” exercise strip is one one of the strongest and funniest comics we have ever done, and of course much of this can be attributed to Boxcar’s other “parent”, if you will, Mr. Lapierre.

Marc usually shows me the penciled and inked artwork for a Boxcar Astronaut comic about two weeks before it goes “live”, and when I saw the first panel of #68 I think I can safely say that I laughed harder than I ever had at any previous piece of art Marc has done for this webcomic. The main source of my guffaws? Three simple words: bubble. wrap. headgear. Funniest Devin costume ever! (sorry Power Boy!) When I came up with the idea for this space training exercise, I told Marc just to put the boys in makeshift crash protection gear (pillows tied to them, etc.), and of course Marc kicked it up a notch by adding that fantastic bubble-wrap babushka on poor Devin’s head (he doesn’t have the benefit of a helmet like Ben does). The results speak for themselves, it’s absolutely priceless!

Great facial expressions all around for Devin in this one (I love the gritted teeth in the third panel as he watches the horrific results of Ben’s “launch”); he really ends up stealing this comic despite Ben’s aggressive attitude. Ben’s always been the “boss” of the yard, but lately he’s really been flexing his muscle around the yard, almost becoming borderline bratty. Someones going to have to take him down a peg or two soon, methinks.  Perhaps next week in the conclusion to our story? Check back and find out, it’s another stellar piece of art from Marc and it’s different from any other Boxcar strip we’ve ever done. Don’t miss it!

Before I go I’d like to send my condolences to the family, friends, and fans of well-known comic book artist/writer Michael Turner, who passed away on Friday at the age of 37 after a long struggle with cancer. Turner is best known for his original creations Witchblade and Fathom, as well as his cover work for DC and Marvel towards the end of his career. You can read all about his life and career at his Wikipedia entry.

Marc’s Guest Strip Is Live

Hey all! Just a quick reminder here that Marc’s comic for the Guest Strip Project is now officially live, so head on over and check it out!  It’s a really funny piece with some great artwork (as usual), and some terriffic background work. As I mentioned in a previous post, the GSP features all sorts of cool webcomic artists taking their turns telling a police-themed story featuring some pretty off-the-wall characters. It’s all for a great cause as visitors can make a donation to the International Make-A-Wish Foundation. Head on over and help out!

Boxcar Astronaut #67 & Congratulations Celtics!

Hey everyone! First thing’s first, congratulations are in order to the Boston Celtics, for bringing the city of Boston its sixth major sports world championship since 2001! The Celtics absolutely humiliated the heavily-favored L.A. Lakers 131-92 in game six last Tuesday night to clinch the franchise’s 17th NBA title. Way to go guys! Here’s to 17 more!

Well, the end of the NBA season is one sign that summer is here at last. To all of our school-age readers, congrats on the end of another school year! No more pencils! No more books! No more teacher’s dirty looks! Enjoy your time off, but remember to hop online once a week to get your weekly serving of fun and adventure from Ben and Devin, okay? As for myself, school has loooong since been over, but I always welcome the arrival of another summer. I love the smell of freshly cut grass, the sound of the ice cream truck rolling down the street, wearing shorts and sippin’ ice tea at a barbecue with friends and family gathered around. You can’t beat it!

This week Ben and Devin are still in the midst of their strenuous astronaut training for Ben’s ambitious mission to Mars. I had the idea in my head to do a strip where you didn’t realize the boys were actually upside down until the final panel for about a year now, but I never had a good enough premise for that visual until this space training storyline popped up. Originally the gag was supposed to involve Ben and Devin hanging from monkey bars, but I think Robot makes for a better and funnier sight gag.

Marc did a superb job on this strip disguising the fact that the boys are actually upside down. Obviously you can tell something is a little off, but it’s not until you get to that third panel with Devin’s flushed cheek and that little dribble of reverse drool coming out of his mouth that you begin to realize what’s going on (That upside down drool bit was actually added in by Marc, another one of his excellent little flourishes). I’m very pleased with how this strip came out, and just wait until you see what the final training exercise turns out to be in next week’s strip. Marc showed me the advance artwork for it last night and it’s absolutely hysterical. I think it’s going to be one of the funniest Boxcar strips ever. Don’t miss it!

Pinkerton Fan Art

Hey gang! A few days ago when I went over to Marc’s place for our weekly “creative pow-wow” for all things Boxcar Astronaut, he showed me this very entertaining piece of fan art that he did for our good buddy Mike Witmer, caretaker of the zany residents of Pinkerton Park. It features Steve, a misguided Guinea Pig who thinks he’s a moose (hence the spoon and fork ‘antlers’ tied to his cute lil’ noggin), interacting with everyone’s favorite imaginative little kid who thinks he’s a spaceman (hence the helmet). Wit was nice enough to post Marc’s art over on Pinkerton’s blog, so head on over and check it out, and while you’re there, be sure to read some very funny Pinkerton strips.

Boxcar Astronaut #66 & Happy Father’s Day!

Hellllooooo everyone, and Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there! Especially to our very own Marc Lapierre, who is celebrating his very first Father’s Day today with his adorable daughter Zoe. Feel free to send Marc some Father’s Day well wishes! And even though I’m not a Father, feel free to send me cash or high-priced electronics. (tee-hee!)

-Ahem-

Anyway, This week we kick off a four-part storyline I like to call “Astronaut Training”. Ben’s got it in his head to go on a very important and high-risk mission to Mars, so he enlists Robot to help him and Devin out with some rigorous deep-space training, starting with this hilarious “Centrifugal Force” exercise. It starts off wonderfully with Ben looking really enthusiastic about his latest plan, but, since this is one of Ben’s big ideas, there’s also that ominous feeling of looming disaster. The disastrous results begin immediately with that great spinning effect in panel two.

Panel three is one of my all-time favorites. It’s a gorgeous illustration that truly conveys a sense of depth and perspective, not to mention motion. I almost get nauseous just looking at it! For the final panel, I tried to think of a good combination of favorite “kiddie” foods to punch home the impact of the spinning and the nausea, and I think I hit a home run with the hot dogs and cotton candy. I love the look on Devin’s face as he chomps on that wonderfully drawn junk food and delivers that deadpan punchline. Good stuff. Next week, the fun continues with more astronaut training. Be there or be square!

P.S. – A thousand thanks to Tim Perkins, a great guy and a newfound fan of Boxcar Astronaut, for giving us nice write-up on his blog yesterday. Tim is an experienced graphic designer and artist who runs the website Wizards Keep, and has worked in the comic industry for over 20 years for many of the major comic publishers such as Marvel UK, Defiant, Tekno, DC and many others. Tim had some really nice things to say about our webcomic, and it is much appreciated. Thanks Tim! Head on over and check out his work when you have the chance, you’ll be glad you did!

Boxcar Astronaut #65 & Guest Strip Project

Hi everyone! Before I get into this week’s strip I wanted to plug a very special webcomic known as the Guest Strip Project. This is a very cool idea organized by a fella by the name of Mike Rouse Dean, a longtime webcomics blogger/super-fan. The project benefits the Make-A-Wish International Foundation (through a donation button on the site), and features a different guest webcomic artist contributing to an ongoing Police-themed story every Tuesday and Friday.

This is a fantastic site to visit for the charity aspect alone, but there’s another reason why I’m plugging it here. Boxcar Astronaut’s very own Marc Lapierre has been asked to contribute a guest strip to the project and as of this writing, it’s scheduled to go live on Tuesday, June 24. This is subject to change, so watch this space for updates and of course, when Marc’s strip hits, we’ll have a thumbnail here for you and a link as well. Congrats to Marc and go check out the site and donate!

Boxcar Astronaut #65 is what I like to call “back to basics” Boxcar. It’s a classic strip that really gets to the core of what this comic is all about. Just like it’s always nice to site down to some familiar, home-cooked “comfort food”, it’s also great to write a strip that’s just about Ben, Devin, and the ol’ Boxcar ship. The concept of Ben putting the ship up on cinder blocks for repairs struck me several weeks ago, and I got as far Devin asking, “So how are we going to fix all that?”, when I got stuck. What would a kid use to fix a fried pulse regulator, anyway? Then it hit me all at once, and naturally it was a huge “DUH!” moment. Ben would obviously use what every kid uses to fix stuff…the most miraculous invention of them all, duct tape!

Ahhh duct tape, the magic cure-all that could hold any busted plaything together. Cannon cracked off the G.I. Joe jeep? Duct tape! C-3PO’s leg fell off? Duct Tape! Need something to hold the styrofoam fort together? Duct Tape! One of my favorite childhood analogies was the infmaous “Force” comparison: “Duct tape is just like the Force! It has a dark side, a light side, and it binds the universe together!” heh-heh. Classic.

Anyway, fantastic artwork by Marc here as always. I love his addition of the skateboard for Ben to use as something to lay on while he was making his “repairs”. Marc’s always incredible at adding the subtle little touches that give the strips such depth and charm. He also suggested that I throw in a familiar piece of pop culture into all the tech-jargon Ben was spouting off in panel two. Anybody who grew up in the 80’s should be able to easily recognize the gizmo in question. (If not, you should be shocked with 1.21 jigowatts of electricity!) hee-hee! See you next time fellow space cadets!

Boxcar Astronaut #64: Joust!

Greetings, fellow space cadets and daydreamers! I hope you all had a fun Memorial Day weekend full of cookouts and family gatherings. I was lucky enough to be invited to a couple of barbecues, but unluckily, I’ve been battling allergies and other maladies on and off for about a month now, which put a damper on my fun levels. But, enough of my bellyaching. How’s your early summer going folks? Have you seen all the big summer blockbusters yet like Indy 4, Iron Man, Speed Racer, and Narnia? Which flicks coming up are you looking forward to the most? I simply cannot wait for The Dark Knight, and Wall-E looks really fun and imaginative as all the Pixar films do. (Those guys can do no wrong!). Drop us a line and let us know your thoughts on this big summer movie season!

Now, Boxcar Astronaut #64! Manomanoman…I love love LOVE this strip! I can’t say enough good things about it.  It’s just fantastically funny. From a purely visual standpoint, it’s probably the funniest comic we’ve ever done in my humble opinion. One day we were sitting around talking, batting ideas back and forth and Marc thought it would make a great visual gag to see Ben riding on Diogee’s back. We both immediately started laughing and he asked me, “Come on, didn’t you ever try to ride on the back of your dog as a kid?” Of course I had (only when I was very, very small) which made the whole thing even more hilarious and nostalgic for me. As soon as Marc came up with the visual of Ben riding Diogee with the makeshift jousting gear on, the image of Devin riding Caveman immediately popped into my head and it flew right into Marc’s brain as well. It was a serendipitous moment that zoomed into our collective consciousness, and delivered a very memorable strip.

As usual, it’s the little visual touches that really make the piece work, like Ben’s “Fris-B” shield and wiffle-bat lance. And poor Diogee! Of all the humiliations Ben has put his loyal canine companion through, this has got to be the worst! The look on that mutt’s face as he labors under the weight of his beloved master is priceless. It just goes to show that when love and loyalty are involved, some friends will suffer any indignity. The Devin riding Caveman panel is probably now my favorite piece of artwork Marc has done for this comic. Absolutely side-splitting! Everything is note perfect: the war cry, the stove-pot helmet, the broom lance, and Caveman’s look of pure, dumb, clueless joy as he carries his combatant head on into a collision that poor Robot can’t even bear to watch! I love that Robot is becoming accustomed to the boys’ antics and is now even starting to display some emotion and opinions on matters. It will be interesting to see where this goes, don’t you think?