Indiana Jones and the Temple of Social Media

This week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

"Take a peek at a fictional character's social media account. What would his or her Twitter feed or Facebook page look like?"

I'm going to cheat a little bit on this one. Last year, when I had a month long Raiders of The Lost Ark 30th anniversary blog-a-thon, I did a few cartoons over on Para Abnormal featuring the world of Indiana Jones using Twitter and Facebook. This League assignment gives me a good excuse to post them all here.

19 Days 'til Halloween: Meet the Herbs... Rosemary and Basil

No one really knows what happened to the former owners of our home... Rosemary and Basil Herb. They left the house abandoned. Just disappeared some say. Or did they?

Mrs. Scaryweather's garden is coming together with these new prop additions. They're also yesterday and today's Para Abnormal cartoons. Not sure which came first, the prop idea or the cartoon. Both hit me at the same time seeing a pile of random mannequin parts I have in my stash.

Since I've titled my haunt Para Abnormal also, it's fun to actually tie the comic and display together. Plus I'm still hoping to create a little comic book telling the backstory and give away as a treat to kids, so now I've got a page or two done.

30 Days 'til Halloween - Rock, Paper, Horror Icon!

Thought be fun to begin the October countdown posting this ever expanding series of cartoons from Para Abnormal.

Not very spooky seasonal, but what the heck... some nerdy ones too.

And now a word from our Apocalyptic sponsor

What's in a Halloween Haunt Name?

Well, for me over the past few months, a lot.

I've always enjoyed how folks have named their haunts and created fun back stories. I've always wanted to do the same for mine. The tale for the display has been evolving over the past few years and is coming into focus, but thinking up a good title has been really tough though. It actually had become something I'd ponder countless times a week. Then I realized it's a silly thing to be obsessed over and just let it go.

Cut to a few days later. I started to sketch an idea of double stacking my foam cemetery posts to create taller ones and adding large lanterns on top. Without thinking, I doodled an arched sign between them and scribbled in a name that should of been the obvious choice from the beginning. I just didn't realize it. 

Ladies and gentleman, ghouls and goblins: my annual temporary Halloween themed public art installation will now also be known as...

I think it's going to be a lot of fun merging both the comic and the Halloween yard. Who knows? Maybe even create a small book of cartoons to give out to trick 'r treaters telling the back story. We'll see.

Look for www.paraabnormalthehaunt.com soon. I hope it to be a fun companion site. It will be more of an online portfolio for my Halloween stuff rather than a blog. My usual Oct 31st prep, project updates and occasional how-to's here aren't going away any time soon.

Happy Friday the 13th

May The 4th Be With You!

Leia's World, inspired by Andrew Wyeth made in honor of Star Wars day.

This Month's Para Abnormal Book Club Selections

Para Abnormal has been on hiatus for a couple of weeks, but will be back Monday with all new cartoons!

Sketchbook: Knotty 'Ol Cycloptic Oak

Possible new character for Para Abnormal or a new prop for Halloween or both or will remain just a bunch of doodles in my sketchbook.

A Very PARA ABNORMAL 2010!

On Monday, my web comic PARA ABNORMAL will post it's 500th cartoon. Which is a great milestone to begin the new year on.

In celebration, I've created three different themed calendars for 2010 to choose from (and added other new stuff) in the comic's gift shop. Forgive the shameless self promotion, but I hope you think of getting one for yourself or a friend or family member and help support Para Abnormal.

Click any image below to preview of all the calendar pages and get ordering details...

Cartooning Milestones

On Monday my web comic Para Abnormal welcomed it's 50,000th visitor and also on that day, I posted the 400th cartoon. It should be noted that 46,000 of those visitors are my Mom and only 27 of the 400 cartoons are actually good ones.


If you haven't stopped by yet, I hope you do and a big thank you to all who have been checking in regularly.

Halloween '09 - Make 'Em Laugh?

I'd like to bring more creepy humor into the decorating this year. I was thinking of prop ideas when it hit me, I already came up with some over at Para Abnormal. Here are some possible cartoon candidates. It would be fun to bring one or two of these to life or create some variation of.

Guerilla Marketing

My daily web comic Para Abnormal turned one year old this week and I'll be very honest, I'm really proud of myself. I've been known to go off an a few "larks" and "follies" in my life. I had my doubts I'd actually keep it going after the first 2 days.

The fact that my visitor count has grown from zero to over 25,000 in a year, amazes and inspires me. Especially since I 've done very little to spread the word and advertise.

There was one afternoon however, while Christmas shopping at the mall with my brother, that we did some guerilla marketing. Moving fast, we brought Para Abnormal up on every computer possible at the Apple Store. Cheap shameless self publicity! The pages actually remained for a little while before an employee went around closing them. I got a good laugh seeing my brother, like a ninja, sneak behind the employee and bring the page back up on a few as she walked away.

The 25 Days of CRYPT-MAS!

Today, my web comic Para Abnormal begins 25 days of holiday cartoons. Hope you visit daily!