I wanted to put this cartoon up before some internet low-life steals the idea! That’s because I mentioned it on Twitter. @AJKandy thought that the birds would file nuisance complaints with the city until the pigs move away, while @MrBillyBones said that “You launch them at things, but they just bounce off …and then pout.”

Saw them the other night, at an event sponsored by Drawn & Quaterly publications. Two big cartoonists at the tops of their games. Didn’t have much to say to us struggling types. Neither of them really uses a computer, or worries about people reading their comics. Clowes talked about what it was like being nominated for an Academy Award. Still, it was neat to see them, and I’m sorry I didn’t buy a book.

My Cat Fight comic. Based on my Youtube video here

Here’s a bonus Rachel Maddow:

I’ve been using an electric toothbrush for a couple of months. A little nervous about it at first, because the sound of it in my mouth was like the dental tools which still make me shivery. But it seemed to do a great job polishing the teeth, making them white and shiny.

That was until the other night, when I was brushing before going to bed, and the device exploded on me, while it was in my mouth!

It went off with a loud pop, which blew the cap off the bottom of the toothbrush across the living room (I was wandering around, as I tend to do sometimes when brushing teeth). Both batteries flew a long way also, and the case was split open, as you see in the shot below.

It was a healthy force, a recoil causing it to nearly fly out of my hand, but I wasn’t hurt. Pretty shocked, though. I don’t like things exploding like that when they’re near my face. Wondering what would have happened if someone else, or something had been in the way. Can lose an eye that way, as Mom used to say.

I think the culprit wasn’t the toothbrush per se, but the cheap Dollar Store batteries I’d bought to put in. Batteries last about a month. These were little AAA cells, but the brand was one I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. (I liked the old “black cat with lightning-bolt” tail). As you can see in the photo below, these look corroded.

Maybe moisture was getting into the case, and caused a reaction. Anyhow, I tweeted about it the night it happened (got some sympathy for being an easily-scared boy). Later I looked up the Colgate web site (with annoying music) and called customer service. More annoying music, and a voice mail menu, and I reached Melissa, somewhere in the US.

Short of it is, I’m sending the brush with batteries to them via UPS. I hope that helps them make better, or at least safer toothbrushes. Think I’m also writing Consumer Reports, or maybe they can read this blog entry.

When I looked up “Exploding electric toothbrush” on the web, most of what I got was about a lawsuit a gentleman in British Columbia was pursuing. It seemed he wasn’t as lucky as I was. From the link, it seemed like he was getting a lot of ribbing from commenters for suing. But that was the only reference to toothbrushes exploding I could find, and I imagine there must have been others this has happened to.

So, I hope this helps. A friend of mine thought the problem was that I had bought a cheap toothbrush (no, think it was rather the cheap batteries, but you never know!). She had been having gingivitis problems, which had been resolved by a $90 rechargeable Oral-B. This one cost about $10.00

Still, for the time being, it’s back to manual toothbrushes for me. Even though they’re a little less effective, I’m now shy of putting electrically powered things in my mouth.

It was adequate, but not ideal. Happily, at the art store I had a chance to look inside a commercial light box (costing $100 and upwards: my thing cost me about $4.00 for the two light bars). That gave me a better idea of how these things actually work. So, here is light box Mark II:

The battery-powered bars are now attached to one side of the box inside, and aim slightly downwards at a white reflector. Ideally, this should be highly polished white metal, as found on the sides of supersonic jets, and tested in secret labs.

I went for a sheet of craft cardboard. Fifty cents and tax at the good old dollar store. It seems to work fine, though I’m looking for a more powerful light. Maybe a lamp scavenged from a street sale or flea market. The nice thing about this device is that it’s light, cheap, and fits on my lap.

Note this heavy steel straight edge I used to cut the high-precision parts for this creation. Engraved on it are the letters “RCAF” and some strange code. This could only have been used to draft plans for jet-powered Spitfires to win the Battle of Britain!

I think there are more, but I can’t find them. Should have pretended I was reprinting them from some long-dead Men’s or Family magazine.

And this popped up on Twitter just as I was writing this post, and I can’t resist: http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2011/01/saturday-evening-post-scrapbook-part-24.html

I wrote and drew a few gag cartoons, which my pal Rick Gagnon inked in his usual impeccable way. We submitted them to Reader’s Digest, who wasn’t bowled over, so they found a home in Rick’s zine, and now are here on the web.

Jeff Leblanc did the masthead. Hey, I was aiming for humour in a slightly retro vein. Well, no cannibalism or bloody sacrifice at least, like some of the other comics in Rick’s mag.

I was at the above-named event today. Plenty of cartoonists, plenty of cartoons. A surprise for me, because I didn’t know many of them. The Montreal comics scene is indeed diverse. The first day, Saturday, is devoted to creating strips: cartoonists are paired up to produce these. Sunday is for displaying the finished work to the public (on walls and inside a newsprint journal), and attending workshops. Information can be got here: 48hbdmontreal.com

Above are some shots I snapped of the display at the Goethe Institute, which hosted the event.

Below is an interview with Gabby Schulz, AKA Ken Dahl, an artist from New York participating in the festival. I’ll practise my camera-work, I promise!

Say, I didn’t know this until looking at his work, but this is so cool! He’s the artist whose cartoon about the sexism of certain comics fans caused a minor stir on the web. Read it here.

She sorts of fits into my trying to do “good girl” art, related to that burlesque project, which has kind of gone on hold for the moment.

Then there’s this item I drew on a Twitter challenge. Unfortunately, I misread the challenge. It thought it was a comic-book guy who wanted some thing fighting while holding an ice cream cone.

Great! Done, with a comic-book theme:

But no, he wanted The Thing, fighting while holding an ice cream cone. That’s depressing, so I’m posting this, having lunch, and taking off out of the house for a while. Bringing my writing stuff, but not the computer.