Something I did just for the heck of it...

The Website ––

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on this project (I've always wanted to use that phrase––that and "jump the shark").

Sooooo, deciding how to design this thing or what to include was difficult, because I can't obviously throw everything I've ever illustrated into it. And for those wondering about the "flooglemop" thing, there's an explanation in a posting somewhere below this. 

You'd better all hope this brings me some work, otherwise I'll be calling all of you to sell you Amway soap. . .  Just kidding. 

A quick color sketch just to noodle around with Photoshop brushes... 

So, What's a "flooglemop"?

In 1999 I bought an Apple G3 Powerbook which now serves as the world's most expensive Leap Pad for my pre-schoolers. Before merging onto the internet highway, I needed to choose an AOL screen name and quickly discovered that practically every word or phrase in the English language was already taken.

Wanting to avoid the usual, unimaginative, first name/last initial/cup-size that most people seem to default into, I searched for something different (I actually didn't try bubbaismygirl@aol.com, but I figured that username was probably already being used by a guy in striped pajamas who turns KFC sporks into shivs and trades them for candy-bars). 

And then I recalled a term I encountered in a Guitar World magazine from way back in '85 (amazing, the useless information we recall). The article quoted a stanza from the following poem (imagine this read in a 60's coffeehouse, bebop jazz providing background ambiance along with the sound of snapping fingers, and the word "daddy-O" being uttered between drags on one of the few things that can still produce death-by-sucking).

The songs that erupt

Are gist of the posey,

Come by themselves, hark,

Stark as prisoners in a cave

Let out to sunlight, ragged

And beautiful when you look close

And see underneath the beards

the holy blue eyes of humanity

And brown.

The stars on high sing

songs of their own, in motion

that doesn't move, real,

Unreal, sinsong, spheres:––

But human peotries

  With God as their design

       Sing with another law

 Of spheres & ensigns

     And rip me a blues,

     Son, blow me a bob,

     Let me hear 'bout heaven

     in Brass Fluglemop

–– Jack Kerouac's

     195th Chorus from

     Mexico City Blues

     (242 Choruses)

I suspect the "Fluglemop" here is a reference to a fluglehorn, a brass instrument that resembles a cornet, but with a wider bore. 

Anyway, I originally used that spelling, but for reasons long forgotten I respelled it. Since then I've used the term for a children's book character of mine.

As it turns out, finding an unregistered domain name is as difficult as finding an available AOL username. Bubbaismygirl.com turns out to be available (probably not for long), but I figured 'flooglemop' has served me well thus far, so I decided to stick with it.

So there you have it. Mystery solved. Now quit asking.

Just returned last weekend from the ComiCon, which has really morphed into a MediaCon or Pop-Culture-Con, which is why it's bloated to the point that you have to shove your way through the isles like a spawning salmon trying to swim up a stream of sweaty pudding.

Somehow I managed to spend only half the fortune I normally burn on art books ––the Bud Plant booth being the main reason I attend. Either I'm becoming more discriminating, or I'm just running out of shelf space, the latter being the likely reason for my moderation––well, that, and being broke.