Gonogo.

Mayor McChez Sleeps With the Fillet-O-Fishes

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Avid readers of GONOGO will have followed last weeks strip with glee because we are tying everything together in a nice little bow. Our Private Dick reveals that he is hot on the trail of Mayor McChez and he hints at a wider conspiracy involving the pharmaceutical companies. I am a fan of the film Noir genre, and this series of episodes have tried to hit lots of the tropes. Chinatown is of course a big influence, hence the band-aid on P.I. Remex’s face, and the hints at the greater, unknowable forces at work (Big Pharma…Big Water) No noir parody would be complete without the rapid fire back-and-forth, which figures prominently in this episode (so much so that it breaks with the format of the strip entirely)

This is the penultimate strip before the midseason finale. I hope to take stock and check-in with you loyal readers then to see if you like where things are headed in the comic (and to see exactly how many of you are out there) I would also like to know how you are reading GONOGO? (From GONOGOCOMIC.com, Facebook, Webtoonz, Twitter, etc?)

Noir Detective. Sorry, not Batman

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You may have noticed that the strip is now in black and white. Don’t worry, the painstaking watercolor will be back soon, we just need to solve the mystery presented by GONOGO’s latest character: Bazooka Remex P.I.

I have always been a fan of Noir comics. Not so much for the plot, but for the use of black and white to create drama and mood. In fact, my favorite Batman anthology is “Batman, Black and White” which is a series of short stories where each artist interprets Batman through the black and white lens. Someone once pointed out that artists do best with limitations (mostly because it gives them rules to break) but I truly appreciate the elegance of the project behind Batman, Black and White. The limitations are set out with elegance and economy: Make a short story just using three ingredients: Black, White and Batman.

While Bazooka Remex P.I. is no Batman, he is a hard-boiled noir detective. My hope is that once this set of episodes is done, that we will have an opportunity for him to come back and struggle to solve more mysteries under the Roosevelt Bridge…in Black and White.

A Long Walk, But Worth It.

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One of the books I have read about webcomics reassures the budding creator, “the first hundred comics you write are gonna suck” (or something like that) and that is good advice, because it is true that I have seen a vast improvement in the quality of GONOGO with each passing episode. But the Teapot Rats have been with me since the beginning. I devoted four whole episodes to their shenanigans. In the end I am proud of their payoff. Yeah, you could say that this episode is just a vehicle for a series of Rat-based puns, but to me it is so much more than that. Getting GONOGO’s comedic footing has not been easy (and we are definitely not there yet) but I do feel that the Teapot Rats episodes have moved the needle significantly towards the funny goal, and more importantly, they are the type of thing that I find funny (If I didn’t find them funny I would sincerely need to reevaluate this whole “webcomic” thing) We say goodbye to the Teapot Rats in Episode 10. Only 90 more episodes to go…

Digital Darkness

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Each panel of GONOGO is a hand painted watercolor that is scanned into the computer, with the final comic assembled in Photoshop. The results a kinda wonky at times, but that is a feature not a bug. I dont even use black ink, I use a dark brown for the outlines. (Winsor & Newton Nut Brown, to be precise) It is a far more labor intensive process than what many “Webcomics” artists do. I hope that it’s wonkyness conveys as a “handmade” look and not a lack of skill (although I am increasing my skill in every comic I make) This choice, of course, has consequences. The new format for webcomics is that they are being read on phones and not PC screens. Many webcomics capitalize on this and abandon the left-to-right-page format in favor of a vertical scroll. Although this looks great on a phone, I just cant seem to wrap my head around how this format would look printed. And yes, I realize that it may never be printed (a kid can dream, cant he?) but I feel like abandoning the format that we all grew up with to accommodate a platform that has only been around for about a decade is not “on brand” for GONOGO.

I am not such a luddite that I am against using photoshop wizardry when needed. In this weeks comic I needed to depict the rats in the dark, so instead of doing a very risky watercolor wash over the finished artwork, I simply applied a blue/purple gradient in Photoshop. The result does have a more “digital” look than the rest of the comic, but I just chalk that up to the director using “special effects” to tell the story.

Breaking in and Breaking Out

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This episode of GONOGO was a bit of a revelation for me. Up to this point in the first “season” all of the events happen under the Roosevelt Bridge. At the time I could see that this might become a bit limiting if the comic were to continue for several years. The idea that the Teapot Rats could tell us their origin story in flashback gave me the license to take the story to a different locale (even if it was just 10 blocks away to the White House) and it gave me the opportunity to draw something else besides the underside of a Bridge. Also, I dearly love a Heist Movie. I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have rats put on ski masks and gather round a floorplan of the White House.

Too Close, Too Soon?

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I am as shocked as anyone that the plot line where the Teapot Rats “break into the white house” would become so…close to reality. In fact, the layers of scandal alluded to (Warren Harding, Teapot Dome, Tea-Party Crackpots, The Boston Tea Party and the Radical Right) seem rather quaint, in retrospect. Even the fact that I was able to work in two puns seems like it is not enough somehow. I have been working on the second half of season 1 lately and I can assure you that I am learning from the events of last year. I suppose the fortunate thing, now that we are returning to less scandal filled times, is that I won’t have nearly as many “accidentally relevant” moments…we can all hope.

Rats.

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As I have mentioned before, the comic is created about 8 to 12 months before it is published. One of the storylines that has been in the works from the beginning was that of the Teapot Rats. Of course, like Mayor McChez, these little guys are a metaphor. They are a representation of a certain segment of society that, let’s just say, some people find deplorable…

But what was once quirky and cute has lately become quite sinister. The insurrection of Jan 6th has created an atmosphere where calling these people rats is too kind. They are traitors and fascists. Full Stop. If January 6th had happened when I was coming up with this storyline, there would have been a completely different comic.

So, having said that, I would like you to take in the next few GONOGO comics through a nostalgic lens. Cast your mind back to the benign loonies of the Obama era’s “Tea Party”. These are the wacko conspiracy theorists of the X-files saying, “The truth is out there”, not today’s Q-Anon folks who say “There is no truth”. After all, there are plenty of sympathetic rat characters out there (Chuck E. Cheese comes to mind) and there are plenty of sympathetic kooks out there (Kanye West for example) but where you will get no sympathy from me is if you support the insurrection of Jan 6th, those people don’t even deserve to be called rats.

GONOGO Cheeseburger TO GO

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Our Buoyant Mayor and the yellow freezer of his dreams

And so, as mysteriously as he arrived, Mayor McChez departs…stage left. It is unclear if the all-beef-patty of politics will ever answer for his crimes. I suppose if we take the idea that he is a metaphor for events happening around us, then it is absolutely plausible that he will get off scot-free. He’ll probably even be able to block any commission formed to investigate his crimes…

We must also bid adieu to another character that has been with us from the start: The freezer filled with expired boner pills and cash. We never really got a chance to say goodbye…

You Could Have it Your Way, If He Were Burger King.

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Mayor McChez falls into water
A Cheeseburger Politician is Rarely on Solid Footing…

I started this comic as a way to deal with the pandemic. Most of the first part of “Season 1 A” was written and drawn about a year ago. Back then, if you can remember that far, we had a President that wasn’t very good. I created our beloved “Mayor McChez” as a way to deal with that guy. I know it’s a bit juvenile, but to my way of thinking, Mayor McChez fits perfectly as a stand in for the former president. His suit is flashy and ill-fitting, he signals his importance by wearing a goddamn sash that announces his title and he has a giant cheeseburger for a face. He has the sorta face that begs the question, who voted for this guy?

Of course, the root of all evil in politics is not just one bun-faced idiot, it’s money; which is why it’s only natural that the freezer full of expired boner pills and CA$H belongs to this guy.  This episode ends with him falling into the Potomac, facing an uncertain fate. I suppose that was my way of coping with the last guy in office…that is, if I draw it, maybe it will come true…

 

Two All Beef Patties of “NOPE”

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Mayor McChez stumps for votes under the Roosevelt Bridge

The bots may have won this round. Facebook has denied me the ability to advertise this week’s cartoon, for nebulous reasons, but I suspect it’s because I have the words “Republican” and “Asinine” in the same sentence. Its funny that the week I get blocked is the same week that the former President gets blocked by Facebook. I have been aspiring to have this little satiric cartoon be “politics lite” because it is part of my lived experience here in DC. That is, while politics is ever present in my life, it is not the main focus. There are, however, certain universal truths, like putting “Republican” and “Asinine” in the same sentence.

 

Fortunately there are things that the bots simply wont catch. I doubt that they have seen the commercial with the gorilla and the Samsonite luggage from the 80’s. The derecho of 2013? Or my universal metaphor for a corrupt politician, Mayor McChez. Mr. Mayor is the first outside character to be introduced in the GONOGO Multiverse. How can you not love a politician with a cheeseburger for a face? We will be seeing some more of him in the coming episodes, but rest assured he’s not moving in under the bridge with the boys, he’s going to be long gone before the bots catch on….

A Bridge, a Troll and a Monkey

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Foggy and Smithson under Roosevelt bridge
Foggy and Smithson in their natural habitat, under the Roosevelt Bridge

Back again with a brief discussion of last week’s Episode (#2)

This project was many years in the making, which means some of the jokes were first written down a long time ago. Fortunately, bashing Republicans seems to be a perennial punchline, who knew it would be so very true today? Also, because this comic takes a bit of time to make (its drawn and watercolored by hand) the jokes and ideas need to be able to land as far as eight months into the future. The idea of a Troll and Monkey living under the Roosevelt bridge is actually one of the elements that has survived from the very beginning. The first element was, in fact, the bridge. I have worked in Arlington and lived in DC for over twenty years, and I often cross this bridge during my commute. It not only connects Virginia and DC, but it also flies over Roosevelt Island, Federal parkland in the middle of the Potomac. I wanted to speak to characters that were in DC but not an actual part of the DC political scene (that is, I didn’t want to do a straight-up political cartoon, nor did I want something along the lines of Doonesbury) In this “no-mans-land” underneath the Roosevelt bridge give the characters the ability to travel between worlds without going anywhere.

If you have a bridge, you need a Troll. Foggy Bottom is just the Troll for the job. He’s named after the neighborhood just south of the bridge. I think today we encounter Trolls more often than they ever did in ancient times. I like the idea that he is not up to speed with the times, he doesn’t have a computer, and he seems powerless to enforce tolls for crossing his bridge.

Foggy is so bad at being a Troll that he even has a companion (trolls usually being solitary creatures). Smithson is a monkey. He is named after the founder of the Smithsonian, James Smithson. We will get into his past a bit more in the coming episodes, but for now all you need to know is that he is the erudite counterpoint to the brusque and uncouth troll.

If you have something you’d like to add or ask a question about GONOGO, please visit the Facebook page for GONOGO 

Tune in next week for Episode 3!

If it’s Thursday, this must be GONOGO

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Detail of Episode I GONOGO
Detail from Episode 1. Foggy and Smithson sitting under the Roosevelt Bridge

Welcome back to GONOGO. On Thursdays between comic postings I am going to feature some commentary about the previous week’s comic.

First, let me introduce myself, I am Jared Davis. I’m an artist, painter, set designer and occasional “Elvis” living in Washington DC. Last year, during the darkest days of Quarantine, I decided that the world needed another webcomic. So, I dusted off some of my old drawings that were rattling around in some pocket sketchbooks, and began to “get serious” about this comic thing. I  created some comics back when I was in high school. Of note was Sign of the Times, which was a comic critiquing the draconian sign ordinances in Novi, Michigan that was published in the Novi rotary newsletter….I know, once a cartoonist has reached such great heights, its only downhill from there.

In the intervening decades I did a lot of painting, and a bit of comedy writing (mostly for Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club) and it took a global pandemic to get me to realize that I could “put the chocolate in the peanut butter”, so to speak. The nature of comics has changed in the past few decades. When I was creating Sign of the Times, there were gatekeepers and barriers to entry (like the editor of the Novi Rotary Club newsletter) but those barriers no longer exist in the brave new world of webcomics. Aside from barrier smashing, the actual way comics are made has changed. In the early Nineties, I was drawing with India ink on Bristol board and then sending it out to be photographed. Today, I modestly submit, that I am a Photoshop wizard. The kind of comic I wish to present has been greatly colored by the changes in the technological landscape. To be honest, I have been struggling with these changes, and I hope that you, dear reader, will come on the journey with me. These first few episodes are going to be a bit wobbly (Have you ever gone back and read any of the early Garfield? Those drawings of Garfield represent the Neanderthal state in the evolution of the Garfield strip)  so I hope you will indulge me as GONOGO finds its comedic footing over the next season or two.

Now that we have introductions out of the way, I am looking forward to the next blog post (after Episode 2, on April 22) where we can discuss the development of your newest favorite Troll and Monkey duo: Foggy Bottom and Smithson.

GONOGO is “GO”!

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I am super exited to announce that the GONOGO launch date has finally arrived! Launching this webcomic thing has been an obsession of mine during the entire pandemic, and it is, frankly, a relief to see it up “in lights”.  A webcomic about getting to know these two guys (a Troll and a Monkey) who live under the Roosevelt Bridge (which runs over the Potomac between Virginia and DC) has been idea that I have been kicking around for almost a decade, it simply took a global pandemic to make it happen.  It’s going to be the Diet Pepsi of political cartoons…not the high fructose politics of Doonsbury, but more fattening than Garfield (did I mention that strained metaphor is “on brand” for GONOGO?).

The plan for this first season is to post a new comic every other Thursday for the next year.  Alternating Thursdays will feature a blog post about the previous week’s comic. Bottom line, check back Thursdays for new stuff.  I will be the first to admit that I am not tech savvy, but the web gurus (Jason! Brian!) tell me that you can subscribe to GONOGO via the RSS feed button above, or by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

I want to close this intro by calling out my wife, Kate and my Father, Clark for supporting this project, getting us to today where we get to break the champagne bottle across the GONOGO hull! (insert catchphrase from episode 12 here) — Jared