Merry Christmas to all! Happy Holidays! I wasn't thinking of Christmas when I drew this strip, but with all the Christmas lessons taught each year, I thought this one would be a nice one to contribute to the list. Boy, am I festive.
I know it's kinda the wrong holiday for this, but I want to give thanks to anyone who's subscribed to this strip or commented on it. You guys are the ones that keep this strip going. Thank you.
I'm leaving town on break tomorrow for a cruise with my family! With any luck, I'll be able to bring a flash drive with comics to post on it. See ya then!
I don't know what I was thinking what I wrote this one. It's really stupid. I have to admit, though -- If there's anything my soul desires at any given time, it's ice cream.
Also, it's Christmas in two days! Hurray!
Hey everyone. I know you probably don't like reading these sort of messages, but it would be a huge favor if you spread this blog around. If you have a friend who likes comics, show this one to him! If you are acquainted with a guy who has a comics blog, get him to review Billy! I really like make comics for you guys, but I just want more people to see them.
Thanks,
--CG
Ah, Pete. Always saying something kind. But sometimes that's not what other people want to hear.
Believe it or not, the idea for this strip came from second grade, six years ago. Usually, when I'm out of ideas, I can look through my old notebooks from elementary school. I drew many series of comics in them. Some of them were actually pretty good. Maybe I'll show 'em to you sometime.
I was trying to do a message about lying around all day and watching TV here. The thing is, I'm sort of hypocritical in this sense. I love doing nothing. If I could sit down all the time, forever, I would.
But something is just wrong with this strip. I can't pin down what, but this one just turned out worse than I planned it. Maybe it's because of all the shading I added, which makes it look weird.
People! I'm a finalist in the Unicef Card Contest! Go to www.pier1imports.com/unicef right now and vote for 'Cole!' Go go go!
Grump went really well yesterday! I sold practically all of my stuff before noon. Thanks to anyone that stopped by my table! Also, thanks to Tina Henry for letting me participate!
I like this strip. I decided to keep the backgrounds white for the first six panels to convey the silence Harley is thinking about. The background only becomes colorful when Billy starts playing his one-man-band instrument, which makes noise. I think that was a nice touch.
For some reason, I made that toad entirely black. I don't usually do that.
Everyone! I am going to be at Grump at Artisphere: Supersized tomorrow! It's an arts and crafts holiday art show that I will be selling at! I'll mostly be selling cards and wrapping paper I made, not Billy-related stuff, but it would be really great if you could stop by!
Go to ilovegrump.com to learn more.
The conceived idea is usually a lot better-looking than the physical representation. Sometimes, when I'm drawing a comic, It'll look really good, but when I see it later, it suddenly looks terrible. Although, I wasn't really thinking about that when I drew this one.
I actually drew this one at summer camp. I figured I'd be able to draw more of these, but as it turned out, I didn't have much time to draw there. I had to rush this one, which is why the lines are kind of wobbly and weird here.
Poor Billy. I'm actually pretty okay at ping-pong.
I'm not sure this turned out the way I meant it to. The joke here is that Billy is too short to hit any of the balls, but I don't think I drew it the right way. It's fine, though.
I like this one. I think the main goal of life is just to have fun.
If I could have a life like Billy's, I would.
It's December! And you know what that means. . . It's Holiday Season! Hooray.
I wasn't really sure how to end this strip. I don't write my strips beforehand, so I do it as I draw, and in this one, I kind of backed myself into a corner. So I just ended it with Harley doing a face-palm. I think it turned out okay.
Also, there's a cameo of me walking my dog in the second panel.
In the second panel, there's kind of a Van Gogh-esque swirly line made up of tiny little dashes that Billy is standing on. I think I was inspired by Joann Sfar there a little bit, because he does that kinda thing in his comics. It's always fun to read his books; it looks like his drawing style changes with every panel.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. Hope it's a good one! You know what I'd be thankful for? You guys spreading the word about this comic!
(Yeah, I know that's cheesy. Whatever.)
Billy's view is also mine here. I wouldn't really care if I was an out-of-shape couch potato. I pretty much am one already.
Also, "couch-potatoed." What a great phrase. You can give me credit if that catches on.
I drew this past week or so of strips in Georgia, where my family and I would fish sometimes. One time, my brother had left his fishing rod sitting in the middle of the dock, and someone said to put it where no one would step on it. I thought it would have been funny if someone had thrown it in the water (Ahh, loopholes). And a Billy strip had been created.
(I didn't actually throw it in the water. I just pondered the possibility.)
I like this one. A lot of my life is spent doing nothing.
My brother and I used to do this all the time. It probably looked really stupid. Also, I'm terrible at drawing cars.
Yesterday (the 18th) was one of my favorite days of the year. It was the day Calvin and Hobbes first ran in newspapers. If you guys know me, or at least have read any of my strips, you know Calvin is my biggest inspiration. So happy 29th birthday, Calvin.
Dang, five whole panels?! This one sure taxed my artistic integrity.
(That was sarcasm, by the way.)
What stinks about this one is that panels 3-5 lean to the right really obviously. I should have checked that before I started drawing. But I think this one conveys a good life motto, one that is true for myself.
When my family used to go to a beach-house in Duck, North Carolina, there would always be ghost crabs scuttling around at night. We would catch them and put them in buckets. Sometimes there would be almost twenty of them in one pail. Then we'd let them go at around 10 P.M. Those were the days.
Some people say a bartering society would end up terribly. I don't know, though; the more I think about it, it seems like it would be pretty good.
I took Billy's joke from a small limerick I wrote in sixth grade. It went like this:
My brother picked rocks from a clump.
They soared in the stream with a 'plump!'
"I skipped one!" he cried,
To which I replied,
"D'you think you could get it to jump?"
Obviously, I'm a poetic master.
Also, the little dude in Billy's drawing (the weird thingy throwing the rock) was a character I invented in fifth grade. His name was literally "Character." I wasn't feeling creative that day, I guess.
Hey guys! Just so you know, there are "Next Post" and "Previous Post" links on this page now! They are underneath the advertisement (Sorry about those things, by the way - they're kinda annoying).
This one's pretty bad. You've probably heard a joke like this a million times before. Sorry about that.
Did you know that when Juliet asks "wherefore art thou Romeo," she isn't asking where he is, he is asking why his name is Romeo? That's why Billy says "wherefore art thou so stupideth." (This is pretty much the only Shakespearean I know, and I'm pretty sure they never said "moutheth.")
An action-packed spy story from Billy today. I tried using only "cool" colors this time (like blue and green and purple), so that looks pretty cool.
Do you guys think I resemble Calvin and Hobbes too much? I've said before that it's my biggest inspiration, and as I read my strips I always feel like I'm copying it. I kinda feel bad about that. Tell me what you think.
Well, Halloween has come and gone. How much candy didja get? Looks like tis storyline is over, too. And it didn't tun out so well for Billy. (Does it ever?)
Happy Halloween everybody (or the day before Halloween, at least)! The holiday where you get to take everyone in the neighborhood's candy! And they can't even refuse! Mwahahaha!
Anyways, back to the jacuzzi storyline. Things are just going from bad to worse. I wonder how this one's gonna turn out.
We're continuing the hot-tub series. Billy has many talents, but jacuzzi-building is not one of them.
Billy's back at his antics today, and this time, he's building a hot tub!
At this point, my drawing pen just flat-out ran out of ink while drawing this strip. So I had to change pens right in the middle of drawing. I would normally never do this, but it was necessary here. Thus, the strip looks really weird today, and I'm sorry about that.
Ooooh. . . Guess what? This is the beginning of a new storyline! You'll see what happens.
It's two of my friends' birthdays today! Happy Birthday, Jack and Alex!
Billy is a true magician master. He should perform for a living.
My pen continues to run out of ink. And I continue to keep drawing with it.
Halloween is drawing near! Mwahahaha!
Hope you like today's colored strip! I think the dialogue was inspired by Cul de Sac here, where there's two simultaneous stories going on. I was using a new program to color it, so it may look a bit different. But as I said before, my pen was running out of ink, so the lines look kind of weird. Sorry about that.
Comment and +1! It really helps!
Some sweet parkour moves from Billy today. Again, if the lines look lighter than usual, it's because these few strips were drawn when my pen was running out of ink.
Thanks for viewing and commenting, guys!
My pen was beginning to run out of ink at this point, so the lines in the following strips might look a little grayer.
Billy's dilemma happens to me a lot. But it's usually not from sleeping through an entire day. I would know if that happened.
Hey guys! It's come to my attention that you people that have subscribed via email get the strip mailed to you a day late. Also, those people don't count towards my view-tally. So, if any of you who have subbed via email decided to go to the website, you would get to see the strips the day they get published, and you'd also be doing me a big favor.
And also, while I'm at it, feel free to comment on this blog, you guys! I could really use some feedback, good or bad!
It's my Birthday today!
And thus, I declare today National Billy the Pop Day! Go out and tell your friends about this website! Anyone you know that might get a kick out of it, feel free to notify them! Spread the word! Make Billy the Pop known! Do it!
I was feeling really artistic the day I drew this. Look at that action! Look at that blaster! I really went all-out on that thing, and it looks awesome. This one's one of the best Billys, drawing-wise.
I hate gnats. They only stay in your eye for a second, but they feel like they stay in there forever. I had to look up a close-up of one to draw this, and I think it looks pretty good. Personally, I like this strip.
Ah, mini golf. One of my favorite sports. If you can call it a sport. I don't play very many sports. That's probably why I draw comics.
But seriously, I'm pretty awesome at mini-golf. But I sure hate when you miss a hole by just a couple centimeters. I guess Billy does too.
I have a lot of weird questions like this is my brain. I'm not sure what that means psychologically, but it probably isn't good.
More in a small 'poetry'-themed section of Billy the Pop. I always find this poem a bit too tragic-sounding to be a children's poem.
It's my friend Jack's birthday today! Happy Birthday, Jack! Hope it's a goodun!
It is a rather fascinating question. Who decided that Humpty Dumpty was an egg, of all things? Why not a glass jar, or something else that would break when it had a "great fall?"
Good ol' Pete. Mischievous ol' Billy. That's it for this series. See ya in two more days!
For those just tuning in to the story: Billy and them have been fossil hunting, and while Harley and Pete have found nice interesting fossils, Billy's found nothing but some rocks. Poor Billy. I suppose there's a lesson in this, kids - Don't spend the whole time complaining and not listening or you won't be able to find any fossils and you can't talk about them with your friends and instead you'll be interrupting the conversation with inappropriately loud sighs.
. . . I'm pretty bad at lessons.
After that brief colored-strip interruption, here's more of the fossil hunting storyline. For those just tuning in: Harley is taking Billy and Pete along to go fossil hunting. And it looks like Pete is doing really well! Billy. . . not so much. But rocks are good! Kinda! Sort of.
As we say goodbye to our last moments of summer, here is a nice commemoration strip. Goodbye, summer.
It is now officially fall.
No Calvin and Hobbes inspiration here. Nope. Not a bit.
(I'm being sarcastic.)
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed by my cartoon characters are fictional and not necessarily those of the cartoonist. I think paleontology would be an awesome job, and it does have a point. Sorry if I offended any paleontologists.
Next Comic, Last Comic and Home links are up here!
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