The Magic Of Christmas

He travels around the world in one night.

He slides down chimneys.

He can fit all of those presents into one bag.

     I'm sure I'm not the first one to come up with this theory, but I'm convinced that the entire Harry Potter franchise spawned from J.K. Rowling coming up with a way to explain Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Prisoner of Azkaban - Hermione Granger

     I've drawn Harry... and then Ron. I couldn't let the year end without completing the trio, so here she is: my latest take on Hermione Granger!

     We all know Hermione likes cats... maybe it comes from practically being one for a while. That being the case, I thought it'd be fun to give her a cute kitty-cat headband.

Overture, Curtain, Lights!

I figured the blog needed some more Looney Tunes.

Disney Star Wars - The Scoundrel

     Today is Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday and, as opposed to the birthdays of actual celebrities that live to be 90, this one is waaaaaaaay easier to capitalize on! I, for one, am using the occasion as an excuse to post some more additions to my Disney Star Wars series. Here's some more of the birthday boy, himself, as the Corellian without a people - Han Solo!

Randomz Part Six

"Must you be so eggstra, little girl?"

Gollum from The Hobbit

Kilowog from Green Lantern

Treat Heart Pig from Care Bears

Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Egghead from Batman

Part Of Your Balanced Halloween

     I see the boxes on store shelves every year, but October 2018 was the first time that I've ever actually bought and enjoyed a bowl of Count Chocula cereal.

Well... 'enjoyed' might be overstating it.

     Nevertheless, the festivities of the season must be commended! Here are a couple of penguins dressed as the fudgy nosferatu as well his reanimated counterpart, Frankenberry! May they be more pleasing to your palette than their chalky blob-shaped marshmallows were to mine.

Happy Halloween!

Sort of a Marvel DuckTales Mashup

Because sometimes it's just fun to make something dumb.

Little Men of Disneyland

     So great news! Disney actually commissioned me to mock up some of my Smidgeon characters for a Disneyland lineup!

Yeah. None of that was true. April Fools?

     But seriously... while we were at Disneyland recently I was inspired to knock a few more of these bad boys out. One good thing about being in a magical amusement park full of whimsical little details is that no one really blinks an eye when a guy gets down on the ground to take a closeup photo of (not to spoil the magic) ...absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, it was after our trip that I found out about the actual little man of Disneyland. It might have made for a fun photo-op with a smidgeon or two, but oh well. At least I enjoyed the churros.

     Now that I think about it, Disneyland would be a terrible place for tiny people to live. Despite the fact that it's home to a famous mouse, it's also full of cats!

I'm Celebrating!

   

     Next time you're in a Disney park, be sure to ask for one of these buttons. They're free and make for some pretty decent souvenirs. When you wear them in the park, cast members are really good at noticing them and using them as conversation starters. They'll say "Happy Anniversary!" or "First time here? Welcome!" You know? The sort of small talk that makes the overall atmosphere a little more friendly. 

     To have a little fun with this friendly atmosphere on our recent visit to Disneyland, my wife, brother, and I thought it'd be fun to make our own custom buttons that would catch the cast members' eye the same way, but hopefully spark some slightly less-generic conversation.

     Alas, we weren't able to find the means of producing these buttons in the same size as the official ones. So, being sticklers for detail, we scrapped the whole idea which, let's be honest, probably wouldn't have played out as hilariously as we intended. Nevertheless, our buttons were too fun not to share.

Like I said, we were going for LESS-generic.

Birds Sing Words

     I went to Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room when I was a kid and, while I had the famous song embedded in my brain for the next 20 years, I wasn't that impressed. It was just a bunch of robot birds hanging from the ceiling. My wife and I went to Walt Disney World in 2010 and again in 2015. Both times, we skipped the Tiki Room.

Whatevs.

     AND THEN we went to Disneyland earlier this year. During some downtime, my wife and our six-year-old daughter went into the Tiki Room to rest their feet... and my daughter's mind was blown. She loved it! We had to go back a couple more times during our visit and have watched the show countless more times since on YouTube! All of this to say, I've changed my mind. I also love it now., though I can't really say why. Maybe it's just seeing how much our daughter enjoys it, or maybe it just took a while for me to get wrapped up in that Disney magic. Regardless, those robot birds are now on our list of must-see attractions for when we revisit the happiest place on Earth!

"Everyone's" Favorites

     I've been doing a lot of patting myself on the back this month, so I figured I should wrap it up! To cap off this series of redrawing things I've already drawn, here's my original originals - Nate and George!

     Ever since I was a kid, I've enjoyed pretending that these two were just as beloved as Mickey and Minnie, Bugs and Daffy, or Kermit and Piggy. In the same way, I've enjoyed pretending that this blog has been something that has been entertaining the masses for the past decade. Neither, of course, is the case but so what! It's fun having this spot where I can always indulge in these little fantasies.

Here's to playing pretend! 

Cosplay Was Never This Cool!

     By far, one of my consistently favorite things to draw for this blog over the past 10 years has been these lovable little guys that I call 'Penguin Suits!' I'm a little fuzzy on where the concept comes from. As I said in my last post, I'm a sucker for mashups and, while this isn't technically a mashup per se, it's still along those same lines. 

     Back when things like Custom Mighty Muggs were all the rage, I wanted my own little thing to make look like other things. I don't remember why but I chose these emotionless little penguins to be my canvas and voila! Penguin Suits!

     These little guys have gone through a couple of revamps over the years and so I only thought it fitting to bring the first lineup up to date. Hopefully those of you checking in have enjoyed looking at these as much I enjoy drawing them because I don't think I'm going to let up anytime soon.

Disney Star Wars - The Special Edition

     Since I'm celebrating the tenth anniversary of this little blog, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my favorite posts from the past decade, and on that list of favorites would definitely be my Disney Star Wars mashups!

     In 2010, my wife and I went to Walt Disney World. While there, I noticed several action figures of Disney characters dressed as Star Wars characters. I eat this type of stuff up, but what bothered me with this lineup was how few of the Disney characters were being used OR what Star Wars characters they were cast as. There was no Artoo! Donald Duck was both Han Solo and a Stormtrooper! Um.. okay. But the biggest of the what-the-what's... Goofy was Chewbacca, Threepio, AND Darth Vader!!! I mean, REALLY?!? You expect me to believe that the pickings are so slim at THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY that Goofy has to pull a Nutty Professor and play three distinctively different characters from the main Star Wars lineup?!? How were kids supposed to play with these? Was this a reference to those old shorts where literally everyone was a Goofy?! I lose sleep over this stuff!

Seriously though, an All-Goofy Star Wars would be epic.

     Fortunately for... me, ...I guess... I'm a nerd with time on my hands. I went home, pulled out my trusty spiral, made an extensive list of what Disney character would play who from the original Star Wars trilogy, and got to work bringing said list "to life." A few months after I posted these mashups, I received quite the surprise!

     For the first time, my blog was flooded with comments! People were sharing my work all over the internet! A couple of different websites reached out to me for interviews! I didn't have anything interesting to say because it's just Mickey Mouse fan art, but still! One complete stranger even had my Pluto Artoo tattooed on himself! And on an appropriate part of his body! It was a great .5 seconds of "fame" that changed my life in no way whatsoever and I'm glad it happened.

     In the spirit of Star Wars, I decided to take another stab at these characters, this time in the style of the Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse shorts which... side note, I absolutely love!

   
    Hopefully these will be as well received as the originals, and to all of you who were kind enough to make such a big deal of the originals... Thanks a TON!