Mad Dog McGillicuddy and his Rabid Band of Howler Monkeys

I recently tweeted the following:

"If you need a limerick made up about you, I'm your man. PLEASE NOTE: It *will* contain the rhyme truckin'/fuckin'."

Some interest was expressed in me doing just that. However, I am terribly lazy, and communicated my lack of interest in attempting said limerick(s).

Then https://twitter.com/NL_UNLIMITED" target="_blank">@NL_UNLIMITED tweeted THIS:

THERE ONCE WAS A MAN NAMED MAD DOG,

WHOSE LIES WERE MORE HARMFUL THAN SMOG,

HE MADE ME FEEL SICK,

WHEN HE BAILED ON MY LIMERICK,

AND NOW HE'S GOT A NEW TROLL FOR HIS BLOG.

That deserves today's GOLD! Award...

So, here we are. My final '30 Days' post for 2012. Since I had to do yet another catch-up, I decided to make up for it by putting up Day 30's piece a day early. Come June 2013, I will be in the midst of returning to full-time work, and will probably be too busy for 30DOC... But hey, you never know...

Day 27 - 'Asspirin'. 'Because headaches shouldn't be a pain in the ass!' The donkey is saying, "It Hee-Haw-lways works!" Why I'm rotting away here and not being paid millions in the advertising industry is anyone's guess...

Day 28 - 'The Notebook'. If 'The Notebook' had been a crime thriller directed by Martin Scorcese, I probably would have watched it.

Day 29 - 'Kid Block'. Now "Bawidababbywubbywubbyblubbyblobber... etc." makes SENSE. If you draw them as babies, even the biggest douchebags on the planet can be cute.

Day 30 - 'Later'. The final stimulus, 'star', really had me stumped. Then I decided to depict the artist as a space being, returning from whence he came before returning next year to create some more (this sentence makes me glad that '30 Days' is over for another year, because my brain is clearly broken).

MY MARKING IS FINISHED! HOORAY...!!! However, I've still not been able to post a piece a day. So, here's where I get SUPER-CLEVER, YO: This piece is four pieces in one. 'The Four-Stage Cycle of a Potato' encompasses four days' worth of 30DOC stimulus: 'Happy Hour', 'Coffee' (those 'day after' jitters), 'Blue' (glum about being stuck back at work) and 'Birthday' (this piece suggests that a potato has a birthday every 3-4 days. WHO'S TO SAY THEY DON'T!?).

I am AGONISINGLY CLOSE to finishing my end-of-semester paperwork; once it's done I'll be able to once again post a piece a day. Until then, CHECK THIS LOT OUT.

Day 20: "Vlad Plaid vs BraveLegs MacTartan". The 30 Days inspiration calendar shockingly asked of Day 20's stimulus, 'plaid', "What else do Kurt Cobain, lumberjacks and Braveheart have in common!?" The Celt in me was FILLED WITH RAGE. PLAID??? SCOTS WEAR TARTAN, SONNY JIM...!!! Hence this piece:

Day 21: "Mr Tee". This is another clear example of what marking undergrad Communications assignments does to your brain.

Day 22: "Bird". When contemplating the word 'bird', doesn't EVERYONE imagine the twitter bluebird (or is it from those Bird's Eye crumbed fish ads...??) as an amalgam of Larry Bird and Charlie 'Bird' Parker...?

Today's theme, 'Question Mark', got me thinking about The Riddler from 'Batman', and how DC had quite a few similar villains (The Puzzler, The Trickster, etc.). Add to this the fact that I was listening to James Brown today (and, in terms of costume design, a little Evel Knievel hero-worship), and you have, naturally, the best Batman/DC villain ever, The Funky Conundrummer...

Is it too late to cast Rick James in 'The Dark Knight Rises'...?

The little dude in today's piece, 'Yell 'Oh!'', is me. This year's '30 Days...' project, along with yet another batch of undergrad papers to mark, is stressing me out. Subsequently, it is Monday, but the comic that was due LAST Monday has still not been done. [OH!]

SO, I'm announcing both a mini-break and an extended break.

Once I complete my marking, I'll get to Episodes 10/9 and 10/10 (hopefully soon).

These will be followed by 5 more Guest Episodes, from some artists you've seen, and one you haven't (ooooh...!).

Then, I'll be taking an extended break, to give myself time to complete a whole new batch of comics, at my leisure (this one-comic-a-week thing has been hectic!).

So stay tuned, folks. I may be going away for a little while, but not forever. Plus, there'll still be things happening on this here blog to keep you all entertained...

Another weekend; another three days sick with the (man)flu; another '30 Days...'-multiple-entry-catch-up-post. I quickly sketched these in the car, with the intention of re-drawing them. Of course, that didn't happen...

Day 15: '4 Big-Headed Monsters'. I love drawing the horror icons of the 80s. Here they are in yet another guise. (L-R) Freddy Krueger, Pinhead (making his second '30 Days...' appearance), Jason Vorheez and Chucky.

Day 16: 'Sting'. Come on, wouldn't you love to see bass-playing, rainforest-saving tantra enthusiast Sting as some kind of wasp-like superhero...? I KNOW I WOULD.

Day 17: 'Portrait of The Artist on Day 17 of 30 Days of Creativity'. Speaks for itself, really...

Day 13: 'Blu-tac Dude Rides His Stegocycle Through Rural China'

I've got a head-cold, and a ton of marking to do. Clearly, my brain is broken. OR, it's SUPER DUPER UNBROKEN! Whatever, I'm too tired.

Day 14: 'First Again'

When learning about "quotation marks" (today's theme) in school, we were told to imagine them as a 66 and a 99, and that, numerically, 66 always came before 99, and so it should be when writing quotation marks. Hence, THIS:

Today's stimulus, 'String', made me think outside the box. What you see here isn't a drawing, but a single thread glued to paper (plus dollar signs in pen 'cos they were TOO DAMN FIDDLY)... The cash looks more like a playing card... I dunno, I guess that's what a million dollar bill looks like...

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend. Consequently, I've been relaxing, rather than creating, and now I've had to catch up. In my defence, I did come up with these ideas on the relevant days. However, I've only been able to complete them today. Anyway, here they are:

Day 9 - 'Art, Motherfuckers'. Day 9's stimulus, 'Water', provided me with very little inspiration. So I took a photo of my glass of water and put words over it. TELL ME IT'S NOT ART.

Day 10 - '8-bit McGillicuddy'. How Mad Dog might appear if he was the star of an Atari video game (original at inset).

Day 11 - 'Orange Crush'. I don't think this is what R.E.M. were referring to, but DAMMIT IF IT AIN'T CUTE.