Pixel Strips

I just uploaded this weeks strip to PIXELSTRIPS, along with a handful of colored extras in the member area. The site seems to be really shaping up and there have been quite a few newly added strips, with more added each month. Check me out at my other home.

I'm finishing up some of the stuff for the art show in February, so keep checking back here and I'll be putting some of the new peices up.

I got playing around this weekend and this is what I came up with as a possible t-shirt design. I was tempted just to have "violence" written on the bottom.  

Own Your Square Life (at least a small piece anyway)

This is your golden opportunity!

I just got a new large-format, archival quality printer and I’m cranking out reprints of the strip on demand. All of the comics are fair game and I have a large handful in full-color, if you’re interested. I printed out a few for my upcoming art show on some heavyweight matte paper, and they look like they were silk-screened. I can print in the regular 8.5x11 up to 13”x 11”. Please send me an email at yoursquarelife@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Got an idea for a mock-concert poster I may start tomorrow. Nautical themed. We'll see how it goes.  

Newer News

Check out www.itch.co.za to see photos of the ITCH exhibition in South Africa featuring a picture by yours truely ("The Flea").

News!!

SOME NEWS:

1) The strip is moving from my blog to www.pixelstrips.com.
I thought I would try to get a little more professional with the strip, as far as the web is concerned. The site should bring more visibility to the strip and, because the archives and extras areas are subscriber based, it should generate a little bit of income. The new strips will be posted weekly on Wednesday. They will be visible for the week, and then sent to the archives.


2) I am getting (or, rather, being given) an archival quality, large format printer soon, so I will be able to make high quality reprints of any of the past or future strips at sizes up to 13”x 17”. The ink is light-fast for 200 years, along with being waterproof and smudge proof. A handful of the strips are already in full color and would look wonderful on any wall in your home or the homes of your family and friends. Contact me for details. The reason I am getting the printer is:

3) I have an art show at Noble’s Dinner in Anchorage in February, 2006 where I will have prints of some of the strips for sale, along with a bunch of original artwork. I will send details soon.

*****The blog will still be up and will have random bits of artwork posted periodically, but please check Pixelstrips weekly for the latest Your Square Life and my comments

The Grind

An interview with Aaron McGruder, the cartoonist for "Boondocks" talking to the Onion's AV Club about cartooning. Illustrating the difficulty of week-to-week, or in his case, day-to-day creativity.


"AVC: Are you still finding it satisfying as a creative outlet?

AM: Yeah, I think so. I think, ultimately, the problem with something like this is that you actually have so many more opportunities to say something than you actually have things worth saying. And then, as an artist who doesn't want to do bad work, gosh, how do you fill up all that space when you really don't have anything actually worthwhile to say? And that's what makes the job tough, because the fans get mad—"That's not funny," or "You've been sucking for several months now." And you go, "It's not my fault! I'm trying." When there's things worth talking about is when it gets fun again, and when the news is slow, or when there's just so many other responsibilities bearing down on me that I don't have the time to do it right, that's when it gets frustrating. As an artist, you just don't wanna put bad work out. So when you have to do it seven days a week, you're just gonna have some bad days and bad weeks and bad months and bad years. If I could just pick and choose which days I did it, that'd be great. [Laughs.]"

Stink of Success

This is kind of a switch-up from last week. Mostly, it’s about the fleeting nature of “cool” and the importance of personal hygiene. Moreover, unicorns and dolphins are a vital component of home décor. If you don’t learn anything else from the strip, please take that home with you.

Unicorns . . . Dolphins . . . Important.

P.S. - [Dragons or sad clowns can be substituted at your discretion, but only as far as they enhance the natural beauty of the unicorns and/or dolphins].

YSL #203 -Week of November 27, 2005 

Best of YSL #14- Week of November 24, 2005 

Octopus

Here is a riff on my tendency to lapse into the obscure, that and I wanted to draw someone with an octopus head.

Oh, the wife and I are preparing the annual Christmas card featuring original art by yours truly. Please get me your address if you would like a personally addressed copy.

YSL #202- Week of November 20, 2005 

Best of YSL #13 - Week of November 22, 2005 

All Action

Action! Action!! Action!!!! That’s what the new YSL is about! Whooooo! Whooooo! Whoo.

I think you get the picture. Action.

YSL #201 - Week of November 12, 2005 

Best of YSL #15, Week of November 15, 2005 

Strip Number Two-Hundred

I think the strip says it all . . . Thanks to everyone for their support over the last four years.

(I would type a long remembrance of times past, but I’m off to celebrate my birthday in style.)

-Lee

YSL #200- Week of November 6th, 2005 

Best of YSL #11, Week of November 8, 2005 

Dreams do come true!

More longing dreams for that sweet leather 8-ball jacket that will solve all my problems. Sigh . . .



Well Christmas is around the corner. Sigh . . .

YSL #199 - Week of October 30, 2005 

Best of UAA #10 - October 31, 2005 

Topknot

Here is a disturbing image to get you though the week. Sometimes it helps.

YSL #198, Week of October 23, 2005 

Best of YSL #9, Week of October 25, 2005 

Loving me loving you

To start off, this comic is wife approved and this is not an attempt to air any private dirty laundry. She just likes to get her likeness in the paper every now and then.



From time to time, there arise problems between men that can only be solved by a seething hatred. No violence or forgiveness, just a few flashes of the old evil eye and muttered wishes for harm to strike the other person down. There is a quiet beauty to passive aggressiveness. For more on this topic, see my friend “Ted’s” blog Midnightsausage.com. It documents the struggle of a valiant man waging a war against evil, or rather a man who made a poor choice in roommates.

Week of October 16, 2005 

Best of YSL #8 - Week of October 12, 2005 

Lazy Joke

This is my stab at lazy observational humor, but in a meta-contextual, ironic way, that distances me from any attempt at actually making a joke. Its all highly technical and complex. I work on this stuff for weeks in the lab.

YSL #196- Week of October 9, 2005 

Best of YSL #7 - Week of October 11, 2005 

A better class of folks

The moral is that you are stuck with, who you’re stuck with and you better like it.

I decided to forgo metaphor with this strip as I am currently orbiting the earth with several poop-throwing monkeys. In contrast to the strip, I find them to be quite intellectually astute and genuinely charming. They’ve actually given me many suggestions for my fall reading list in our time together, including “Eeep: a story of a Monkey in Industry” and “Eeep Eeep Eeep: A true story”.

YSL #195, Week of October 4, 2005 

Best of YSL #6, Week of October 4, 2005 

My Mundane Life beats Your Square Life any day

This is just a short simple cartoon about buying snow tires and growing old. I really wanted to buy a piece of ice cream cake instead of the tires, but when the opportunity to spend $400 presents itself, I jump.

YSL #194: Week of January 25, 2005 

Best of YSL #5, Week of September 27, 2005 

Now with even more fame.

I was just was watching Dog the Bounty Hunter at my wife's insistence when we noticed the Cal Worthington ad which proudly showed my Press Cover. I was so shocked that I didn't hear what they actually said. It was either that they were an Anchorage Press Picks winner, or I am supper cool. I chose to believe the latter.

See the creator of YSL in the flesh

For those in Anchorage I’ve been asked to present at an upcoming Photoshop users group. I’ll be giving out all the tricks I use to make YSL a reality. I will also be giving free hugs and kisses, so get their early before my arms get tired and my lips get chapped. It’s worth it.

So here is the info:

WHO: The Digital Imaging Group

WHAT: "Photoshop without a camera"
By cartoonist LEE POST, a freelance illustrator, who
has produced a weekly comic strip (last four years)
"Your Square Life" and several covers for the 'Anchorage
Press', as well as designs and illustrations for concert
posters, CD covers and advertising in general.

AND: "HDR: High Dynamic Range Photos in CS2"
By TIM THOMAS, Photoshop Guru: "We'll take a look at
this new 32-bit feature in Photoshop CS2, and see what
it's all about"

PLUS: Bring your Photoshop problems and solutions -
there will be time for questions & answers.

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept 27, from 7-9pm

WHERE: Anchorage Museum of History and Art (classroom)

This event is free and open to anyone.

INFO: ludwig@acsalaska.net

I'm modestly humble.

This strip is all about the virtue being smart and not lording it over people (or at least having the best intentions, then getting frustrated and thinking, “What the hell?”, lording your intelligence over everyone you come into contact with, and then desperately hoping they are too stupid to notice).

YSL #193, Week of September 18, 2005 

Best of YSL #4- Week of September 20, 2005 

It's as easy at it sounds

I try to limit the interface between my day-to-day work and the flights of fancy illustrated in the strip.

Lately however, there have been a number of youth who have made reference to the football scholarships they “have”. When I’ve asked them about it, they say that they are planning on playing football soon and they are certain they’re getting a scholarship whenever the coach has a chance to see them, who will then recommend them to a collage for said scholarship.

While my knowledge of football is admittedly poor and, consequently, what I know about sports scholarships is even more limited, I have strong doubts that scholarships are handed out like candy to novice, uncommitted players with felony records. When I gently steer the conversation in this direction, they reply that is why they are hedging their bets by sporadically laying down hip-hop tracks in their friend’s basement. Because hey, if the football thing doesn’t work out, why not fall back on a recording contract?

Who am I to argue? This strip is a tribute to their dedication and resolve.

YSL #192 - Week of September 11, 2005