Comic strips from a bygone era

January 25, 2013

Latest Post The Hound of the Baskervilles by Owen Soule

Listening to internet radio yesterday I came across a song I hadn't heard in a long time, Kokomo by the Beach Boys.  This is a classic late 80's tune, and even though the video is polluted by clips from the film "Cocktail" it is still worth a look and listen:

I guess Brian Wilson couldn't access his uncrazy side for the filming and yes that is the dude from Full House in the video. Anyway, this tune got me thinking of middle school and I decided to see if I still had any of my old drawings from my Tuskawilla Middle School days in Orlando, Florida.  And after digging through boxes in the attic I located a few, which is good because this would be a pretty lame post without them.  So let's go back to a bygone era and checkout some early Soule Designs work...First off is a gut buster from December of 1990 - a classic Frosty the Snowman scenario:

Yes, I didn't say these were good comic strips from my early years, just comic strips.  Clearly the use of "Yo!" here is from too much viewing of "Yo! MTV Raps" as a child.  Actually, I think this strip lends itself to re-captioning, maybe something like this:

Aaah, the old zombie-snowman gag, now that's a winner.  This next one is even stranger - an end of the school year cartoon that was published in the June 1991 edition of the school paper:

Ok, so the kid does a handstand while singing a Pointer Sisters tune, then is about to be mowed down Final Destination style by his bus after school has just let out for the summer?   That's gold!  No re-caption necessary there.I saved the most grandiose comic for last - an epic pictorial narrative of Homer's "The Odyssey".  This was done for some kind of school project and since it's format is vaguely comic-strip-like I figured I'd include it:

Looking at these now it's clear that my drawing style hasn't progressed much past 6-8th grade levels - now I just have new tools to help me render bizarre images!   That's it for my blast from the past - now go on about your business.

Owen Soule

Published January 25, 2013