Gonogo.

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.