Sunday, March 13, 2006

JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM OF SOAPY THE CHICKEN

 

   


Cartoonist Scott McCloud introduced the concept of the "infinite canvas" of the digital cartoon... the idea being that since you can scroll to areas off the screen for as long as an image exists, there is no limitation to the size of the individual comic strip. A big idea, indeed.

It was inevitable that soon the "infinite cartoon character" would come along.

Soapy the Chicken is presumed infinite... no one has seen what lies below Soapy's neck... or if they have they never returned to tell about it.

Could Soapy be truly infinite? Let us find out. This page is a journey down Soapy's neck to see what lies below. And you can help us in this quest.

Assistance is easy... download the template image here, edit it, and send it back to us to add to the journey below.

Perhaps someday, together, we can all reach Soapy's bottom.

A few guidelines...

1) Soapy's neck must be at the points indicated at the top and bottom of the template image.
2) Let us know your name, so you can be credited appropriately if your image is used.
3) If you include a website, we'll link your image to it.

Email completed images to mrmonkey23 at hotmail.com (replace the "at" with a @... I'm trying to avoid spam).

And so our journey begins...

Downward...

Downward...

  
    To start off we have a submission from Max Konardy... check out his website at www.maxeem.com, and don't miss his weekly comic strip My Three Bosses on the Big Time Attic Blog.  
    Next up we have Ken Avidor, aka Ken Weiner... in the upcoming (March 24th) Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show that I'm helping organize we're featuring Ken's spectactular work... he's an old cranky bastard & has been drawing comics since the 70's and we're having a big overview of his work. Ken's probably best known for his car-hating comic strip Roadkill Bill. Additionally, we just completed The Weiner Roast, a 52 page mini comic anthology honoring/insulting Ken and his work... it will be for sale at the Sushi show and a copy will be included in all of the boxes... you can see the list of artists for that on the Sushi site as well, if you're interested.  
   

Here's one from MJ... check out his fun comic Fiddlestix here.

  
    Those of you familiar with David Steinlicht's work may be surprised to see he can draw well without the aid of a computer... David does some wonderful comics every Thursday for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which you can see online at cornercomic.com and you can see other stuff by him at allsmall.net. Also, David is a practicioner of crop art, a staple of the Minnesota State Fair... artwork created using different colored seeds... check out his work (as well as other crop artists... including Ken Avidor above) at cropart.com. David focuses his crop art on the heroes of Hong Kong Action Cinema, among other things.  
    And another one from David Steinlicht... the first animated gif... this one is corny.

UPDATED 04/10... David altered this section, so now it is the first flash section rather than a gif. 		 
    This neck segment is by Kathleen Sherohman. She recently started a comic strip called Kitty Kitty, which is looking great so far.  
    Josh Maher did this segment... Josh isn't a cartoonist, but he is a cartoon character! He stars in his wife Shelley's comic at joshuatreecomics.com. Check it out!  
    This one is by my friend Sean Tenhoff... as you can see it shows two hands united in brotherly love, which is a theme that Sean explores daily in his comic strip The Bean Men. You can also see a lot more work by Sean on his website at seantenhoff.com.  
    The next two are by my friend Doug McNamara... Doug publishes some funny-as-hell mini-comics, including his ongoing series Bigfoot Comix and Mox Nix. You can buy a big set of his Bigfoot comics at the Poopsheet Foundation. Doug also runs the wonderful Mini-Comix Co-op, where cartoonists can trade their mini-comix for a random selection of other mini-comix... you can read more about it here.  
    Here's Doug's Second one...  
    And another one from MJ, artist of Fiddlestix...  
    This one is by Nik Arnoldi... it features Nik's character Fred the Pear climbing up Soapy's neck, looking for magic beans. Nik recently completed a comic for the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B box set of comics called "Yuck!!! It's Sticky," which he hand stained with actual coffee!  
    This neck chunk is by Soapy Pong world champion Shell Maher!