"I Don't Do Sketches From Memory"

So yesterday was a day for the comics. First, I had a comic featured over at Stripper's Corner (which sounds dirtier than it actually is). Then I had a comic featured in the Oklahoma Daily, and someone actually sent me an email in regards to said comic (and the email contained words of praise, no less!). Also, the girl I submit comics to at the paper sent me an email about some College Cartoonist Award thing I'm going to try for. So there was a lot of comical love goin' down for the ol' Chuck yesterday.

And now I have another comic in the newspaper again today. I actually rule that paper now, they just don't realize it yet. I keep wondering if the other "cartoonists" (having seen their work, I use that term loosely) are going to just quit. I wish they would; it would mean I didn't have to share my space with hacks.

That's all sounding a lot more conceited than I originally planned, but the fact of the matter is, the rest of the people who do comics here just...aren't really that good. Either their art is crappy (one guy in particular has a style that's way too jagged and has too many corners, while another has characters who always look like this even when they haven't beaten their heads against a filing cabinet) or the comic's just aren't funny, or they're so specific to a certain time, place, and group, that only about five people are even going to chuckle at the damn thing. Then again, I've been trying to draw comics since I was in high school, and I also have existing characters with clearly-defined personalities to work with already. I'm just sort of advantaged in the comiking, I guess.

Anyway, these are all just small steps in my plan to take over the world with humor. The next step is to convince people to pay me to draw funny pictures. Once that's going, then all will be well. Or something.

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: The Wallflowers, "Into the Mystic"

"Steal My Heart Away"

Perhaps it's because I've been listening to a lot of Van Morrison lately, but I've been thinking an awful lot about relationships of late. About what I want out of one, what I expect out of love and a significant other.

I think the other factor is that I keep reading Dav's Live Journal, and Lord knows that's a running theme in his.

Anyway, what do I want out of a woman? There's the usual schtick, I guess--smart, attractive, funny, warm, generous, laughs at my jokes (not all of them, because frankly, they're not all funny), can take care of me (I need taken care of, really, and someone who can keep me organized, because I can't do it myself), etc. It's basically the list of attributes you'll get from virtually anyone of a similar disposition. I want someone who appreciates spontaneous romance, doesn't mind holding hands in public, but also doesn't mind a quiet evening hanging around and doing not much of anything (something I'm very fond of).

But a girl could have all those attributes and still not be right for me. I know I've run across several women who met all or at least the greatest majority of those requirements, yet I did not want to date them. Why?

I actually figured out the answer to this quandary just yesterday. I want someone who is all those things, but who is most of all my equal. I don't want someone who simply looks up to me. I don't want to be on some pedestal (who'd be insane enough to put me on a pedestal remains to be seen). I want a partner, an equal, someone who admires me but is not so in awe of me or what I do that she relates to me in a subordinate manner. I'm not a dominating person, and anytime I've been in a relationship with a girl who was that submissive, it didn't work. It drove me nuts, because I'm indecisive, a natural beta, and I can't do it. I need someone who can make decisions for herself, who can speak up when they disagree with me, and who isn't afraid to tell me when I'm being an idiot (or isn't too blinded by some bizarre, misguided hero worship to even recognize when I'm being an ass). I don't think it's too much to ask, but my recent dating drought might indicate otherwise.

Oh, the Oklahoma Daily, the OU school paper, has been publishing one panel gag comics of mine for a couple of weeks now. Just click on "Opinion," look for Staff Cartoons, and there you'll find me. If you search the archive for "Staff Cartoon," you'll pull up all the stuff I've done for them so far. It's just one more step on my path to world domination.

*Insert maniacal laughter and crack-boom of lightning and thunder in the background here*

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: Van Morrison, "Only a Dream"