Gonogo.

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…

 

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.