Gonogo.

Season II Endings, Season III Beginnings

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GONOGO webcomic season III announcement

As Season II draws to a close, we look forward to the beginning of Season III! Yes, the world has changed a great deal since last April when we launched Season II with the “once-a-month” format. Although times have been tough lately, I want to take this opportunity to thank you the loyal reader for sticking with us through the relentless slog that the past year has provided. A new subscription model (still free!) is in the works so that we are not so dependent on social media for getting the word out, so keep finding us where you find us for now! The next season of your favorite Monkey and Troll living under the Roosevelt Bridge goes live Thursday April 3 2025!

 

The litter box may have some externalities…

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Sketch for GONOGO episode 11 Season 2
Sketch for Season II Episode 11

I read a headline the other day saying that Microsoft had created a new state of matter to power quantum computers, the “topological qubit”. It is actually really big news and we should all be preparing for what this level of computing means for, well, humanity…But I draw funny cartoons, so I cant go on and on wide-eyed at pushing the limits of quantum mechanics to create computers so powerful that they could realistically create a simulation so powerful that an observer inside that simulation would have no way of distinguishing “reality” from their “reality”….instead, Foggy produces money out of thin air, with the side effect being kittens (spay and neuter your pets, please BTW). Which in a way, is my feeble attempt at pointing out that for all of these companies that are pushing the limits of the quantum realm the bottom line is ultimately the profit motive, and that whenever “externalities” (i.e. side effects, unintended consequences, pollution, etc.) get in the way of making profit, they are simply swept under the rug, or thrown over their shoulder like an unwanted kitten….

Gilded Age Rocketry

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Sketch of GONOGO comic
Pencil Sketch of Season II Episode 10

I have always had a complicated relationship with spaceflight. I used to host a  very successful, (if I do say so myself) Yuri’s Night space party, which celebrates the first human spaceflight on April 12, 1961 by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. But nowadays celebrating billionaires playing astronaut feels a bit ooky. (and a Russian themed party also seems a bit ooky too) Part of the joke of this cartoon was to point out the desire to get away from all of BS and start fresh, which is a fantasy for all us non-billionaires. But as it turns out, this fantasy might be the thing we have in common with the Elon Musks of the world. He has said he wants to die on Mars, I wonder if he might be trying to outrun his creditors too…

 

Alexa, Drones and Black Sites, Oh My!

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The strikes at Amazon announced today make this months GONOGO comic particularly relevant. I freely admit that I get lots of things from Amazon, and it is a necessary evil for most Americans. I also happen to believe that the relationship between Management and Labor is a pendulum, which has swung over into Management’s side for far too long. (I suppose the other aspect of the comic, the drones, are also particularly relevant today too…) Anyway, please be nice to your Amazon driver (or other delivery folks) especially around Christmas. Those cheap delivery fees do have a human cost that is not reflected in the price you pay. And as always, be careful what you say around Alexa, she’s always listening. Merry Christmas from GONOGO!

Aggressively Unfunny

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The image is my sketchbook sketch of Episode 7 which shows the date it was made, 1/31/24, about 10 months in advance. In fact, they are all written that far in advance so that I can keep up with the pace of physically painting the watercolors that go into each comic. So, whenever there is political commentary in the comic I have to be sure its evergreen. Well, this particular issue (Pizzagate) is an evergreen issue for me, and boy howdy does it bring out the commentors! Over 230 people liked it on Facebook (while one person called me “unhinged” and another “aggressively unfunny”) but the flame war now holds the GONOGO record for most comments on a single post. So, lets say, I struck a nerve. Nevermind that the comments seemed to center around someone trying to blame the Democrats for Pizzagate, at least people are talking about GONOGO, and that’s a win.

This is the last blog entry (and comic) before the election, and I am a bit wistful that I don’t have a comic that is election centered, but I simply couldn’t predict what this election was going to look like back in January of 2024. So, let me just say what everyone else says, “go out and vote”. You know who to vote for. I am a bit conflicted, because one candidate is way better for GONOGO that the other, but I think I can find aggressively unfunny things to say no matter who wins…

Advertising Troubles

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Watercolor from Season II Episode 6

Well, loyal GONOGO fans, Facebook and I are fighting again. It seems that I keep getting conflicting advice from Facebook about the “ads” I pay them for. That is, Facebook will not show content to my readers unless I kick them some dough. But, when I do give them money, they cant seem to tell me who they showed the comic to AND they billed me twice in the same month, which triggered a fraud alert at my bank, which shut down my business account card. Anyway, The serious question I am posing to you all today is, what is the alternative to Facebook? Webtoon and Tapas dont work for me because I can never get “word of mouth”, because like Facebook they dont show the work to anyone unless you pay. I know some people have flirted with Cara, but I want more than just other artists to see the work…What has worked for you?

Postal Possum

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Process Watercolor: Postal Possum Delivers

I have been searching for a metaphor for the rumor mill, Washington leaks and social media all rolled into one. This months episode introduces that character: Postal Possum. I always enjoyed the episodes in the Sunday comic “B.C.” when the main character would float a stone tablet across the water and then receive a response at the end of the strip. I felt that Postal Possum could provide that kind of device to GONOGO. We are living in an age of disinformation as well as an age where all of our information is not only second hand, but much of it is from unqualified sources. A possum rooting through the garbage under the streets of DC seems kinda on the nose these days. I hope that he becomes a recurring character, because depending on how things shake out in November, he may just be the only news source we can trust…

Teddy’s Paradox

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The whole point of this months GONOGO (with Teddy Roosevelt professing to love animals in order to shoot the bejesus out of them) is the contradiction (or paradox?) that someone would preserve wildlife in order to shoot it. I hope that it is not lost on my readers that this was the Republican stance over a hundred years ago.  In a way, Teddy’s paradoxical view is light years away from where the current parties stand on these issues. It will be interesting to know how the Republican Party will react to the attempted assassination of Trump, however I doubt the answer for them will ever be “fewer guns”. It will not be lost on my readers that Teddy Roosevelt also survived an assassination attempt (and kept his speech rolling for a 50 minutes after being shot in the chest) which proves that GONOGO is once again “predicting the future”… It is my sincere hope that we, as Americans, can steer our parties away from the extremes and towards the center, even if it’s a paradox like Teddy’s.

A Bridge to History

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Season II Episode 3 Pencil Sketch

I have often said that the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge is a character in GONOGO. But this month’s episode takes it a step farther by unlocking the ghost of the former President himself. I am cautious about introducing new characters too often, because it can feel like there are too many people to keep track of, but I feel that this one is worth it. The comic would suffer if Foggy and Smithson only talked to each other. Having new characters is a way for them to communicate with the outside world and react to the profound weirdness that the DC area provides. In a way Teddy is personifying a feeling that any DMV resident carries with them subconsciously all the time; the weight of history in this place. All of the monuments, the civil war, the revolutionary war, civil rights, the world wars, Vietnam, 9/11 (the rest of America may forget that the Pentagon was hit that day, but folks around here find it hard to forget) even Jan 6 is part of the history around here. So, that is part of why Teddy has popped up in GONOGO, he’s a refection of the ever-present feeling of history that we have around here, and as a bonus I get the opportunity to make another republican look ridiculous (although they don’t seem to need my help doing that lately…)

Groundhog Day Watercolor

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Scanned watercolor used in panels 3 and 5

I have said many times before that I am intentionally being a luddite when making a webcomic. That is, while I do assemble the comic in Photoshop, each panel is a painstakingly hand-crafted watercolor painting. (I buck convention with webcomics in lots of other ways, specifically the one page format, which not the “vertical infinite scroll” format which is very popular with people consuming comics on their phones) I did make a small, but significant, concession to my luddite process in Episode 2 of Season II. I made a watercolor of the background which I then inserted as the same background in 6 of the 8 panels on the page. I have heard that when contemporary webcomics do this with background characters (sometimes main characters) the term is “Sprites”. I can see the appeal of not having to draw characters over and over again (and to be fair, for the gag in this comic I have used the same watercolor of the characters in panels 3 and 5) but I think that the “wonkyness” of repainting each character is part of the, ahem, artistic point of this comic. I have always tried to play up the hand-made nature of GONOGO, but I am not so dogmatic about it that I don’t allow myself to cheat on my ideals from time to time…so there, you caught me. Happy now?

“Sprite” Elevator Background in panels 2-7

Welcome to Season 2!

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Watercolor of Bazooka Remex P.I.
Original Watercolor of Bazooka Remex P.I.

This is the promised blog post after the first episode of season 2. I am very hopeful that the new monthly comic format will be a realistic one for me. Thing is, I simply cant draw (and write and paint) them fast enough to keep up with you guys. The more leisurely pace has also given me the time to make the comics in a more considered way. That is not to say that they will be any funnier, just slightly more well drawn… 🙂

Bazooka Remex P.I. is the character I have always considered my narrator for the series. For some reason it makes me giggle when I read him in the voice of Humphrey Bogart. It has a certain gravatas that the rest of the comic lacks…Now for a little contest: The first person to respond with the correct answer (without Google!) of the significance of “#221b” gets…well…bragging rights!

Tune in the first Thursday of every month, for more of the exciting adventures of GONOGO!

 

Season II Premiers APRIL 4th 2024!

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Get ready for GONOGO Season II!

We are changing up the format of GONOGO this season. You can look for new episodes monthly (the first Thursday of every month, to be exact) with an informative and entertaining (fingers crossed) blog post sometime between episodes. The pace of every two weeks was just too hectic for such a finely crafted piece of, er, art…

Again, I would like to thank you all for your continued support, and I look forward to providing a sliver of comedy monthly to your drab, monotonous existence. (you know I kid…)

 

Season 2 Announcement!

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Today marks the one year anniversary of the end of Season 1 of GONOGO and we want to make an announcement. We have sharpened our pencils, raided the piggy bank and knocked the cat off the keyboard so that we can announce that GONOGO was greenlit for a second season! There will be a few changes to the format this time around. GONOGO will be posting/broadcasting/publishing (whatever you call it for a webcomic) monthly. So, mark your calendars for April 4, 2024 for the first Episode of Season Two. After that expect a new comic on the first Thursday of every month! I’ll be throwing out a blog post somewhere in the middle of each month discussing the previous episode and dispensing insider information for the whole season.

If you are still reading this you are a either a GONOGO superfan or you create comics yourself. I just wanted to address the change in format for you folks. Making a comic is hard work, especially when you think its funny to be contrarian and do full color watercolors for every panel. It is also hard to get noticed on platforms like Tapas or Webtoon because of a million factors. In short, the pace of 26 episodes a year was simply too much for virtually no reward (except for the love of you loyal fans, which is priceless!) I do still have the Season 1 book for sale, but really at this point, encouragement and likes are all that I need….who am I kidding?! SEND MONEY!

Again, thank you for reading this little webcomic about a monkey and a troll living under the Roosevelt Bridge, I couldn’t have done it without you!

Jared

Cue the Dramatic Music

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Welcome to the blog post about the penultimate episode in season I of GONOGO. It has been a wild ride, and I am really excited about posting “The Hatch Part II” next week, as it will be the capstone on two years of hard work. When I started this comic in the early days of the pandemic I had high hopes that I would be able to dash off episodes in a manner of minutes and spend my days drinking DC Brau beer in a hammock. The reality is that because I decided to “buck convention” in webcomics and “kick it old school” I set myself up for around 20 hours of labor for each episode, start to finish. That, my friends, is a part time job. I am not complaining, but as this season comes to a close, it has given me reason to reflect on how I might make the process go faster for season II.

I do hope that my musical friends appreciated the insertion of the “dramatic chipmunk” music into the last episode. I don’t read music, so I don’t know if it actually says what I wanted it to, but I haven’t had any complaints either, so the internet must get things right occasionally…

This week’s comic is dedicated to George C Parker.

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This week’s comic is highly indebted to my armchair philosophy about capitalism. My idea goes like this: Capitalism is largely getting somebody else to pay more than you did for the thing you own. This works out well for things like oil companies because they simply pump black stuff out of the ground, which is about as close to free as it gets, and sell it for huge profit. Similarly, there are real-estate predators (flippers) that are simply trying to do this same thing. I don’t feel bad for them when the deal turns south. The boys are exploiting a loophole in the philosophy that actually goes back to the Magna Carta: One cannot sell what one does not own. The whole “wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn” con was created by George C Parker around the turn of the twentieth century, sometimes referred to as “the Gilded Age” (which I don’t have to tell you, looks frighteningly like the present day.)

There are only two more episodes to go in this first season of GONOGO, so, once again, I am hoping to solicit feedback about the future of GONOGO. Would a monthly comic slake your thirst for below the bridge humor? Would you actually pay money to receive the comic? Would you prefer I beg for tips on a platform like Patreon? Know anyone who would be interested in mass producing plush dolls of Foggy and Smithson? I am interested in your thoughts. Thanks for reading!

A Very DC Problem

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I have tried to make GONOGO a universal comic strip. That is, it does not need special knowledge of a particular place or people in order to be understood. This week’s comic is still universal, but is very specific to DC. I have, (and lots of people I know) been outbid on houses by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The housing market is just nuts in the DMV. It is actually only borderline crazy that someone would try to buy a spot under a bridge. As for “historic designation status”, it is about as bad in DC as this cartoon makes it out to be. I find it interesting that the people who want to reexamine the past to find its horrors, are not as interested in maintaining a historic home because of the costs associated with it.

This is episode 23 of 26. Which means we are closing in on the end of season one. I am interested in soliciting your feedback about his season and looking forward to the future of GONOGO. I presume that most of you loyal fans follow us on Facebook. Drop a line in the comments if you follow us anywhere else (webtoon, Twitter, Instagram, Tick Toc, Parler, Walmart customer reviews, wherever) Thanks for reading!

MK ULTRA EXTRAVAGANZA

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Eagle eyed readers of GONOGO will be able to spot many references to earlier plot points featured this season in this weeks comic. Diving into the psychedelic horror that would exist in the minds of Foggy and Smithson, I wanted to highlight the paranoid and conspiracy theory driven world we are living in at the moment. I also added in a healthy dose of sixties era psychedelia art references because, lets face it, a little goes a long way, and the Federal Government is going to save money by using up the old stockpile. These last three episodes have been the most popular yet, which makes me wonder what that says about you, dear reader…
We are heading into the home stretch for season one. This was episode 22, and we are ending on episode 26. I am interested in collecting data from you folks about the future of this strip, but I will ask you all more about that in the coming weeks. Thanks again for reading, and as every Youtuber says, “Like and Subscribe!”

Mind Expansion Developments

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The tainted DC water storyline has been the medium for some character development. In a one page strip such as this it becomes difficult to get into the backstory of any of the characters. This week we gain a bit more insight into Smithson’s origins. We know from previous episodes that he was washed down rock creek from his home in the National Zoo during the derecho of 2013. We now learn that he was one of the Smithsonian’s “Simian ambassadors”, and was trotted around various schools and government offices (including the CIA…which is literally just upstream from the Roosevelt Bridge). We can suppose that it was on these field trips (and possible clandestine detours) that he developed the ability to reason and eventually talk (In my mind, a very similar, although less violent, development that Caesar goes through in the reboot of Planet of the Apes).  He did indeed build up an immunity to some of the mind control drugs, but the last panel might hint that he is out of his depth in next weeks episode…

Something in the Water

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Last weeks comic highlights an aspect of DC life that is intimately known by the locals, DC water sucks. Don’t get me wrong, its a lot better than it used to be, but there is always something wrong with it. I used to live in Petworth (part of Northwest DC, East of Rock Creek) in a rowhouse built in 1912. We had a lead line that came into the house from the street, and we routinely had 280 parts per billion of lead in our water (the “safe” limit is around 20). Transgendered fish are common in the Potomac due to birth control pills. Snakeheads have taken over. A well meaning group of rowers took disadvantaged youth out on the Anacostia and, on their FIRST outing, bumped into a floating corpse. But what this weeks comic is alluding to is not these mundane aspects of urban water life, but a particularly DC issue, the secret government agencies that are doing lord-knows-what in our name, and are dumping the refuse of their experiments into the waterways willy-nilly. Have you noticed that nobody talks about fluoridation in the water anymore? Exactly…

Expired Easter Eggs

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Happy belated Easter, loyal GONOGO fans! Last weeks episode was yet another attempt to capitalize on a holiday in the publication schedule. Because of the time it takes to make this comic, it is hard to be topical. Holidays are known well enough in advance that the least I can do is try to tip my hat towards something I KNOW will be happening regardless of current developments. It doesn’t hurt that the former president (the subject of last weeks comic) is also pretty consistent…

Relaunch of the bi-weekly blog

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GONOGO has returned for the rest of the season, and with new episodes the bi-weekly blog about last weeks episode returns also.

I hope, perhaps in vain, that I could inject a little bit of character development into this “Sunday funnies” style strip. So, this week’s episode turns on the idea that there are many types of Troll, and that Foggy may have a spotty past when it comes to his troll identity. We all live in the age of the internet troll, and GONOGO has not been immune to some of the slings and arrows from the comments section (although they almost always centered around the confederate statue, Col. Magnolia Runsandhyde…I wonder if there is some connection there…) But, as they say, at least they are talking about you…

‘Tis the Season, of Reruns

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We here at GONOGO have decided to take a brief hiatus so that we may properly enjoy the Holiday season. We’re taking this opportunity to let people catch up on the first 13 episodes.

While you can always check previous episodes out on the gonogocomic.com archive, the “reruns” will be posted on Facebook every Thursday through March.

Happy Holidays!

 

Dirty Goldfish Water

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GONOGO is a political cartoon. Not really, though…That is, its not the type of political cartoon that you would find next to an editorial in a newspaper (remember them?) but rather, its a strip that will occasionally dip it toe into the political waters. That metaphor isn’t quite correct either, GONOGO is like the goldfish and politics is like the water. We don’t ever really see the water, but you know its there, and without it the fish wouldn’t be able to breathe. (and I get obsessed about drawing the best plastic castle I can, but that is a different tortured metaphor.) This week’s Episode is one of those comics that lets the water get a little dirty. Like Steven Colbert I try not to say the former President’s name too much, and mentioning his least favored son came very close. But there is no getting around it, I have to make fun of the MAGA crowd. The subversive bit that I hope came across in this episode was the addition of the Abuelita (the little Spanish speaking granny that pummels Smithson). Even though I am making fun of the MAGA folks on the surface, I am also giving a nod to the Latino (I have some friends who bristle at the term Latinex) folks that are often hiding in plain sight. It seems entirely plausible to me that a little non-English speaking granny would be in with a tour group to Washington DC, and that the MAGA tourists would fail to see her. But her superpower is that she can’t be blinded by the Trump name, and sees the emperor has no clothes (or that there is a talking monkey!).  Sometimes it takes someone with a different perspective to see that the water was dirty all along…

For the Record, I am NOT “Q”

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The Facebook algorithm is at it again. Last week’s comic featured the last panel where Foggy states “I am “Q”.”  If you are a human being, you read the comic and find it amusing that the troll claims he is “Q” in order to earn $100. But, if you are a soulless AI you decide that this is an affront to your very purpose in life. Yep, the comic was flagged for “Misrepresentation”. The Facebook AI believed that I was claiming to be “Q”.

So, just to be on the good side of our robot overlords I want to state for the record: I am NOT “Q”. Now, enjoy your comics, humans.

High Water Mark

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This week’s episode had the most “engagement” by the GONOGO fan base in the history of this webcomic. (If you must know, these are the stats according to Facebook: 3764 people saw the comic, 510 did something like click on it, 17 shares and 9 comments) So, what has changed? I blame the Civil War. Yep, the one line “Hero of the War of Northern Aggression” seems to get people’s hackles up. I find it fascinating that the civil war has such a grip on us a century and a half later. Really, GONOGO was making a commentary on the removal of civil war statues (told by the statue’s perspective) and y’all are just stuck on the Civil War itself!

If I would have known about Colonel Runsandhyde’s popularity beforehand, I wouldn’t have “killed him off”. Perhaps he can return in a later episode…at low tide…

The Lost Cause? Try writing a webcomic…

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Readers of GONOGO will hear me say for the millionth time that this comic is written almost a year in advance.  I often bounce ideas off of my father while writing the scripts and it was June of 2020 that I started talking to him about this wacky idea of Confederate statues falling from the bridge. Literally the next week the news was consumed with BLM images of confederate statues coming down. With that kind of lead time I can only hope that the jokes still hold up.

One of the difficulties about this topic for a comic is that it needs to be crystal clear where I stand on the issue. For the record (although I think I did a pretty good job in the comic) I am for pulling the statues down. Allowing The Colonel a voice does perhaps introduce some confusion on that point, but I feel that he is sufficiently ridiculous that pretty much anyone who reads it gets where I stand. My opinions on the Confederacy are pretty straightforward: They were traitors. But, it gets tricky when you consider the average joe conscript, who was essentially forced to fight. I am less in favor of tearing down that sort of monument. It’s that wiggle room that gives me a comedic opening. Our Colonel is known for running away. Does he really deserve to be torn down like the rest of the generals?

Probably….