It's Alive!

So as I was thinking about today's gag, I began to picture Igor as a sort of horror Amelia Bedelia. You know, Doctor Frankenstein says, "Igor, give me a hand" and the next thing you know his bumbling assistant has dug up a hand. Or, "You know what they say, Igor, two heads are better than one" and suddenly there's an extra head lying around.

Enough of these misunderstandings and what's a mad scientist to do? Why reanimate the dead, of course. Maybe I'll pitch this idea to HarperCollins as Amelia Bedelia and the Modern Prometheus.

Terrifying Tracting

In situations like this, you've got to be sure that the people behind that door are not golden investigators anxiously praying for the restored gospel.

Halloween Humor

First off, thanks to my brother Eric for ably running this blog while I was enjoying a vacation. It must have been clear from his posts, but he's an accomplished author. He writes a weekly cardiology column in Nebraska which somehow manages to be informative, interesting, and funny. You can view it here. And here are some of my favorite posts of his.

Now, onto today's gag. This one is in this month's New Era and I'm particularly tickled that they published it. You see, the missionaries' names in this comic correspond to the names of two of my favorite companions. And, seeing as how this month marks the 20th anniversary of the Church in Slovenia (the place where we served), it just seemed all the more appropriate.

And For My Next Trick . . .

The pancake is perhaps the world’s most ubiquitous food. According to that fountain of all knowledge (no, not Ken Jennings—Wikipedia, of course), pancakes are “probably the earliest and most widespread types of cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies.”

Around the world it goes by many names: crepe, palatschinke, cannoli, blintz, pooda, and perhaps hundreds more. Regardless of locale, the flat, griddle-based breakfast food is a staple of pretty much every missionary who ever existed (Ammon was known to snack on these before going out to tend the flocks) simply because they are available everywhere.

Of course, not every missionary exhibits the juggling talents of this young chef.

On an unrelated note, this will be the last time I’ll be hosting Mormoncartoonist—not because I’m going anywhere, but rather because Arie will most likely promptly fire me as soon as he gets back from vacation and sees what a mess I’ve made of it. So, I’d like to thank my faithful readers for sticking with me through the many hours of my tenure.

I’d also like to make a recommendation. It’s my opinion that Arie’s missionary comics should be picked up and published by the large, missionary-friendly, local newspaper that covers the Utah area (You’ll note I’m coyly avoiding identifying this paper by name. I’m just curious to see if any of you think I’m talking about the Tribune). Arie’s series of madcap missionary antics is much better than the drivel that currently populates the funny pages.

I propose that we launch a grassroots campaign to force their editors to at least take a look at Arie’s stuff and grant it some real consideration. Hey, if the Tea Party can mobilize millions of Americans to their cause, why can’t we?

Copy the link to this comic, send it to everyone you know (finally, all those “friends” on Facebook will actually serve a useful purpose) and tell them to send an email to newstips@desnews.com with a link to this site and the title “We Want The Mormon Cartoonist In Print!!!”

I have no doubt that this will work. I wish I could tell you that I’ll keep you posted on the success of our campaign, but I’m pretty sure my Mormoncartoonist administrator privileges are about to expire. Good luck!

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Ward Calling

Greetings from your guest editor. The real Mormoncartoonist (Arie) is on vacation this week, visiting the Magic Kingdom and, no doubt, receiving inspiration on a whole new batch of comics on the theme of "dragging lots of kids around crowded amusement parks." While he's on sabbatical he has turned over the control of his blog to me (since he could find nobody with any talent who'd do it on short notice).

This may not be such a good idea. Giving me the passwords to his blog is a little like handing your Ferrari keys to your 16-year-old daughter--it's bound to end badly. Thankfully, he passed along a set of cartoons for me to choose from, so you don't have to put up with my poorly-penned stick figures and humorless captions.

A few years ago I had a General Authority tell me that the Church headquarters receives a couple dozen letters a year from wealthy members who request a calling as a mission president. "Needless to say," he went on, "none of them ever get picked."

It's a good thing that the ward doesn't take applications for callings--you'd see people lining up for "ward greeter" and "that dude that walks up and down the aisle counting people" and no one applying for scoutmaster, bishop, elder's quorum president, or (of course) anything remotely associated with the nursery.

Still, it can't hurt to "aspire" to someday escape the nursery and rise to the calling of "Relief-Society-Table-Decorating Person."

Adventures in Tracting

This:happened to me all the time.

LDS Toolbar.com

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by the operator of LDSToolbar.com with a request to draw some sort of gag for his website. I was quite pleased when I came up with the comic and because I'm an "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" kind of Mormon, I'm using it for today's comic of the week.

I've added a link on the sidebar of this blog to LDSToolbar.com which allows you to download a toolbar for your web browser with all sorts of useful LDS-specific websites and blogs (including this one). I've also added a link on the sidebar to Mormon Haven.com a great website that pulls all sorts of news content of LDS interest from around the web among many other things (and also runs my comics pretty regularly).

Anyway, about today's comic. I tried to come up with as many LDS cliches as I could. I'm sure I've missed some, and I'm sure you'll share with me what those might be in the comment section.

October 2010 General Conference Recap

Here is your 4-page General Conference Recap. click on a page before printing it.

And be sure to check out my fellow cartoonist (and all around swell guy) Kevin Beckstrom's recap, it's loads of fun.

Update: Sugardoodle now has a pdf version of the packet on their website. Find it here.

Basesd on a True Story

Today's strip is based on a true story. My trainer shared this with me at the beginning of my mission and and I pretty much was able to put it in a strip unchanged.

The characters are supposed to be in a bus (drawing interiors of mass transit is, apparently, not one of my strong points).

Check back tomorrow (or the next day) for my conference recap packet.