Eeeeeks! I am a werewolf…and I am in the trunk of a car…I think.

It’s dark in here. Had I not been adept at telekinesis, I couldn’t have sent the word out. I think they were counting on my being one of those normal humans – not realizing that they were actually dealing with a werewolf. They might discover it eventually, but the Keeping clause says that if our existence was discovered, the entire pack will have to disperse; and I can’t jeopardize my pack, can I?

The point of the matter is that unless I design an escape plan, you’ll have to make do without my wolverine yet benign presence in the blogosphere. This might make things a bit dull for you but fret not, for when I return, I’ll bring you the tail (oops, the tale) of my escape from this dark, confining place! My fabulous nose tells me that I might be rescued by the one and only Napoleon Bonaparte whose caricature will grace this blog upon my safe return.

The wolf inside me a growling. It appears that it has sniffed a threat to our existence. I need to send my soul back into the boot of that tin-box now…

Until I escape and return, I leave you to discover Nicky Charles’ books, The Mating, The Keeping, and The Finding, in that order. They’ll help you figure out the reason behind my recent transformation into a werewolf.

And while you are at Smashwords, do look for Barbara G. Tarn’s “Books of the Immortals”, AIR and now FIRE!

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Caricature/Cartoon of Sarah Palin – The Glamorous Ex-Governor of Alaska has got Everything that Matters!

When you go to China, you bring home Chinese Dragon Art (or in some cases, an Apple computer from a fake Apple Store), when you go to India, you bring home a replica of the Taj Mahal, when you go to Egypt, you bring home a bust of Nefertiti or Cleopatra, but when you got to Alaska, you bring home a caricature of Sarah Palin.

The Caricaturist has just returned from Alaska, and here’s what she brought along.

"Bring 'em on!" says Palin. (Beauty, Brain, and Brawn.)

 

Sarah Palin – A Biographical Sketch

Sarah Palin is someone who creates waves everywhere she goes. The fact that she was born in the Gem State of the US could have something to do with the stars favoring her, but then it could be unadulterated hard work too.Though Palin was born in Idaho, her family moved to Alaska when she was five. She grew up in Wasilla, one of the six largest cities of Alaska. Palin did move to Hawaii for higher studies but then moved back to Wasilla.

Here are some of her early achievements.

• Miss Wasilla 1984
• 3rd in Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant
• Miss Congeniality

Then she moved to Moscow, Idaho to complete her Bachelor’s in Communications and Journalism in 1987, after which she eloped with Todd Palin, her High School sweetheart.

Shortly after (well, four years is a short time) she was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992. In 1996, Palin ran for the Mayor’s office and she won. She then was the Mayor for 2 consecutive terms.

Palin became the youngest and the first Woman Governor of Alaska in 2006 at the age of 42…(I love the gubernatorial services…where at 42 you are young!) It was now that Palin acquired a passport and traveled outside of the US to Kuwait (some oily issue, I bet.)

Read Palin’s complete Biography here.

So…what did Palin do as a governor?

Well, among a lot of other good things that she did for Alaska and that you can read about here, she also reduced governmental expenses (including her own). Later in her tenure Sarah Palin faced a lot of ethical charges, and she resigned stating that a lot of money (state’s and hers) was being spent to address the complaints about her ethics. John McCain selected Palin as his running mate, and Sarah found herself catapulted to the National scene.

Sarah Palin’s Books

Palin penned two books, “Going Rogue – An American Life“, her memoirs; and “America by Heart” a collection of excerpts from her speeches etc.

Palin Potpourri

• She is against Gay Marriages and Abortions.
• She supports Sex Education.
• She supports Israel.

And some other interesting links:

• The Sarah Palin Blog
• Sarah Palin’s confidence
• Sarah Palin’s Hot Pictures (I know you are going to click this one. Go ahead. I am not looking.)
• Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page
• Sarah Palin’s Twitter

How to Draw Expressions – Part II – Animated Faces make me Smile :)

Though in the previous tutorial “How to Draw Expressions – Part I – Raising Eyebrows” we understood the role that the eyebrows play in expressing emotions. As you must’ve realized, it was but a primer, because of course, if you want to create a wide range of expressions, you need to work with other facial features as well.

Here’s the second interactive art tutorial in the “How to Draw Expressions” series.

Of course, you know where you can find More Interactive Tutorials by Shafali, but just in case.

Draw to Smile!

Anna Hazare’s Pen-and-Ink Portrait: A Tribute to the Survival of Honesty in an Ocean of Corruption – Whose Lokpal is it anyway?

Anna Hazare is a name that most of the urban Indians can recognize with ease today. Yet ask them and most won’t be able to tell you his full name, nor tell you much about his past. But this unassuming Gandhian has made the Indian Government sit up and think about an extremely emotional and very delicate issue, which every Indian talks about, almost every day of his life. CORRUPTION!

Here’s my tribute to his honesty and his untiring effort towards eradication of corruption.

Anshan Karenge, Jail Jayenge; Ek Majboot Lokpal Payenge!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I have been receiving a lot of emails about using this portrait of Mr. Anna Hazare in the campaign against corruption. I must tell you that I have no objection to your using the drawing under the following conditions:

1. You don’t change the picture in any way. You can’t strip away the copyright information from the drawing if you want to use it online or otherwise. (Refer to Copyright/Permissions.)

2. You don’t use the picture of any “commercial purpose”. Which means you can print it on t-shirts that you’d sell to the protestors. You want to print it out and pin it to your own t-shirt, you’ll make me happy and proud to be an Indian.

3. You can use the picture as-is (without stripping away the copyright information on the three edges) on your blogs/web-sites – without seeking specific permission for doing so.

Why a Portrait and not a Caricature?

I do a lot of caricatures. Usually the personalities I caricature fall in the following categories:

• Globally Famous
• Globally Infamous

Once in a while I create a caricature of a not-so-famous celebrity, who made me respond at an emotional level – either through a character that he played or through his work otherwise.

But I don’t do a lot of portraits, despite starting my art-journey as a portrait artist. The reason had been rather simple. Portraits are made of a lot of serious thought – and I, as an artist had to feel something beyond awe, recognition, or a weak emotion; if I wanted to create a portrait.

I experienced that feeling, which I’d call respect, for Mahatma Gandhi – because he, a lone man, through his charisma had hard work managed to create a free India, not-with-standing the division, which was an extremely unfortunate fallout – and which primarily happened because people decided to move on the basis of religion.

And lately, I’ve been feeling a similar respect for Anna Hazare. I know that we might not eventually end up seeing a strong anti-corruption act, but I also realize that to take this fight against corruption out in the open; and to have no skeletons in his own cupboard that either the media or the governmental agencies could find, is a feat only a handful of people could perform. True that there are honest people, but they are busy trying to fight off hunger – others, are all engaged in some measure of corruption. It may not be completely out of choice, but ask an Indian (who lives in India – not someone who lives in another country but retains the Indian passport) whether he has never bribed anyone in his life, ever? I don’t think you’ll get a confident NEVER, as an answer.

And then there are those others.

We saw Ramdev’s copycat fast, and we saw how he changed his tone completely when his own accounts of Crores came under the scanner – we are actually used to seeing people change tracks oh-so-completely-and-smoothly…that when a man like Hazare comes on the scene, we can’t believe that he could be real.

Anna Hazare’s Biography – The Caricaturist’s Way.

There was once a young boy called Kisan, who lived in a tiny village called Bhinger, somewhere in Maharashtra. Kisan was among the seven children born to an unskilled laborer called Baburao Hazare and his wife. (Though Kisan’s mom had to go through the painful process of childbirth 7 times, her name escapes my research.) Kisan’s Grandfather was in the Army (in those days, Army equaled the British Indian Army) and he stayed with the family. When Kisan was 7, his Grandfather died. After a few years, his father decided to move to Ralegan Siddhi, a village that would later become prominent as a milestone in Hazare’s career.

When his father moved to this other village, his aunt (couldn’t find her name either) took him to Mumbai, looked after him, and sent him to school , but Kisan had to drop school because his half-a-dozen siblings needed financial support. He became a flower-vendor in Mumbai. As it always happens in India, when one in the village reaches the city, he first brings his family, then his extended family, and then his village to the city – so did Hazare, but he stopped after bringing only his two brothers and didn’t get his entire village over. Perhaps his stopping at bringing only two of his brothers and not the others to Mumbai has something to do with his enlisting in the Army. He enlisted in the Indian Army in 1962 and worked there as a driver, until he retired at the age of 38.

It was during the war, at the age of 26, that he had his first brush with death as he lost all his peers when the Pakistani Army blew up their convoy. It was then that he realized that his life was spared as he was destined for greater things. He continued working for the Army, but decided to stay clear of the burden of a family, and so he never married.

In 1972, when he returned to his village, he began working towards the economic and social progress of his village. The changes that he brought about in his village included tackling issues such as lack of education – especially for girls, farming issues, alcoholism, irrigation issues, and dowry, he also worked towards eradication of untouchability in the right way  (and not by demanding reservation in Government Jobs and Educational Institutions.)

It was his work in his village that he was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

Later, Hazare worked towards forcing the Maharashtra government a stronger RTI act, and also towards a more transparent transfer system in Government. (Anyone who watches enough Bollywood movies knows that honest officers, who don’t toe the line and get on the wrong side of the politicians, are often transferred to other “miserable” stations.)

Anna Hazare’s Future Plan of Action:

Though Government appears to have contained the Lokpal fever and administered prophylactic treatment, but a relapse is a distinct possibility. Though another Ramlila Ground stunt might be difficult to pull off, yet you can’t discount the fact that our politicians are some of the smartest and brightest people that India has produced. With corruption gone – many politicians would have lost their prime motivator to be in politics…and so, we can expect to see some sort of politico-legal magic…as we march towards August 15, 2011 our Independence Day, aptly chosen by Hazare and his team, to resume their fast and anti-corruption movement.

What’s on the Caricaturist’s Table? Planning the New Posts.

I didn’t feel like doing much today. It’s always the case after a tragedy. I begin thinking about serious matters and such matters, in the deteriorating world of today, seldom brighten up your outlook towards life.

So I pulled myself up by the collar (the proverbial one) and made a plan for this week.

I intend the make the following posts this week. If you are a regular visitor, you’d like to return when your favorite post comes up:)

• July 15, 2011: A Pen-and-Ink Portrait of Anna Hazare (Posted on: July 15, 2011), who has surprised not just the caricaturist but also the Government, by remaining honest all his life. If the Government has not yet been able to find anything to taint his reputation, I doubt that they would do so in future.
• July 17, 2011: Interactive Art Tutorial – How to Draw Expressions – Part II – Animated Faces. (Posted on: July 18, 2011 – Delayed by a day – blame it on work and on the ‘orrible ‘orrible weather.) This tutorial is also a fun activity (and the character has turned colorful – based on a few email requests.) So, whether or not you are an artist all bent out of shape, you should download it and enjoy.
• July 19, 2011: A Caricature of Sarah Palin, the colorful Alaskan Governor, who’s been criticized for being a bimbo, but who makes me wonder whether she really is one?

These are all positive posts, and I hope that they’ll all help us brighten up our week.

Mumbai Blasts 2011: Osama vs. Gandhi – Can we fight Mindless Terrorism with Non-Violence?

Not many of my international readers would be aware of the three blasts that shook Mumbai yesterday, and left 21 dead and more than a hundred injured. I wonder whether we need to assert ourselves more – whether we need to go after those who are responsible for such dastardly acts that take human lives and tell us that the perpetrators are spineless terrorists who don’t have the courage to fight the way the brave and the righteous do – but who stealthily plant bombs and slink away, while innocent, unarmed people die!

Is this a war they are waging on us?

Or is this some sort of parasitic invasion?

Who are these terrorists? Who are these people who order such cowardly acts? Who are the ones who bring down the twin towers in New York, who repeatedly kill innocents in Mumbai, and who then hide either under the ground or in houses that they don’t even call their own.

They are the Osamas of the world. When Osama Bin Laden was killed by the US, a symbol of hatred and discord was destroyed. But actually evil goes deeper and spreads unseen by the eyes of the innocents and the saviors – because neither innocence nor heroism dwells in the dirty dark sewers of insanity. So the existence of that evil is discovered in different forms, in different places, at different times; perpetrated by different groups of people who are infected by the same evilness.

India, with its Gandhian Ideology and its secular policies has always been at a cross-roads. How much can we do without stepping out of the Gandhian guidelines of peace, harmony, and non-violence? How much can be achieved without destroying the secular fabric of this nation?

These terrorists, they don’t have love for anyone. They are the ones who’d kill their own spawn if the act could help them in their way ahead. Mahatma Gandhi‘s ideology worked well in ousting the British rulers from India, because they were educated, practical, and could talk rationally. How do you sit down for a talk with an ideology that only seeks to destroy?

With the recent blasts in Mumbai, I find myself withdrawing into a shell. I don’t want to watch the news, I don’t want to look at 4 or 6 or 8 panelists throwing inane paper-planes of ideas on one another, and I really don’t want to read a newspaper that moronically tells me that this evil act was to celebrate Ajmal Kasab’s 24th Birthday or which touts numerology as the reason behind so many people losing their lives.

I am done with all this. I know that I am not too secure either. One of these days, when I am out shopping for a new set of pencils, I might become a victim too. I won’t feel secure, until our Government takes some concrete steps to weed these sickos out of our system and isolate India from the threat of terrorism. Follow the lead of the US – do something. When and why did it become a crime to keep your own people safe?

The question that I ask is – if Gandhi were alive today, and if he had to handle terrorism, would he not modify his own philosophy?   I think that a man of his intellect would know that every ailment has to be treated differently.

Update: July 16, 2011

Read the Common Man’s Perspective here.

 

Caricature/Cartoon of Charlie Chaplin – The Silent Millionaire Tramp of Hollywood

Update: September 03, 2013

Click to view.

Painted this caricature 🙂  Check it out here.

Original Post follows:

Everyone knows Charlie Chaplin, so let me come straight to the point. Here’s my rendition of “The Tramp” the character that made Charlie Chaplin famous. I will save myself the trouble of telling you all that you perhaps already know, and end this post with a short biographical note about him.

Charlie Chaplin’s Short and Sweet Biography

Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16th 1889, in London. Both his parents were entertainers so the believers of genetics might say that his genes made him what he was. Yet I believe that how you nurture your talents has a lot to do with how far you go, and so the credit of Charlie Chaplin’s success cannot be given entirely to his genes. Biographies usually are a lot more than a nature-vs.-nurture discussion, so allow me to proceed. Charlie’s dad was an alcoholic. (Why do most celebs have a twisted childhood? Does it mean that people with normal, regular childhoods don’t stand a chance at greatness? Jot these questions down and ruminate upon them when you have nothing better to do.) This must’ve led his mom to a nervous breakdown – so, in a manner of speaking, little Charlie was more or less on his own. At the age of 13, Charlie landed a role as Billy the Page boy in a Stage Play themed upon Sherlock Holmes. The long and short of it is that Charlie had started walking the rickety bridge to stardom, when he stepped into his teens – he just didn’t know it yet. It was in 1910, when CC was 21 that he first arrived in the US. It was in this land of opportunities that CC first found himself working for films and during 1914/15s he was presented to the world as THE TRAMP! Who would think that a Tramp could become so popular – and a tramp that couldn’t talk at all! But it was the tramp wearing a really tight coat over a huge pair of trousers, shod with a gigantic pair of shoes who caught the fancy of people and brought them back the laughter that the First World War had stolen away. In 1919, not long after the success the tramp, Chaplin co-founded the United Artists film production company and made many more silent and talking(?) films.

A Couple of Caricatured Charlie Chaplin Highlights

(You know that I look in awkward places.)

• Charlie Chaplin could’ve written books on wooing women…but he was too busy making films. The guy’s ability to charm the…oh well…the sandals off the feet of women has been considered mysterious, even mystical by many. I mean, how a 5 feet 5 inches “tall”, twiggily-built gentleman could do that with women who were half his age, is something that should be investigated thoroughly by the historians.
• Charlie Chaplin sired 12 children (that’s if I counted right – I suffer from double-vision at times,) and he made the last one appear when he was a young and healthy 73! I know that a dozen kids is nothing when compared to Osama bin Laden’s 24 and Osama’s dad’s 54, but they weren’t 73 and so what amazes me is that when most playful male septuagenarians of our time include viagra in their staple diet, how did Mr. Chaplin manage this feat in the pre-viagra era.
• Charlie Chaplin couldn’t enlist in the military because he was too short and too light – characteristics that endeared him to people the world over.
• Charlie Chaplin made a movie called “The Great Dictator”, in which he played the role of a Jew. This movie brought academy nominations but it also ignited the controversy that CC was in part a Jew. (According to this information here, the Jewish people are the highest IQ community on this planet, and so, if he really had Jewish blood, it could have played some part in making him the legend that he was.)

Guess that’s all that I have on Charlie Chaplin 🙂 Coming up…

• Sarah Palin
• Shia Labeouf
• Napoleon Bonaparte

Shafali Hitler shares Some More SEO Humor!

You may have read the SEO Humor Post that I made a while ago. While writing that post, I never thought that I’d be inspired to write another, so shortly after my first attempt at finding humor in the keywords that appear in this blog’s list.

But then what has to happen does. We can’t stop it, can we? Just like we can’t stop global warming, aging, corruption…or on the brighter side, just the way we can’t put a stop to gold-digging, cuckolding, pick-pocketing etc.; we can’t stop posts from rolling out of absurd ideas.

So here’s what I found in the treasure-chest this morning.

Search Term 1: world’s funniest drawings

My dear searcher, you reached the wrong place, didn’t you? I mean, my caricatures border on the funny – but they never go the whole way. They keep twiddling their thumbs as they stand nervously at the edge of the cliff, awash with fear – never gathering the courage to jump into the shrieking swirling waters of funny-ness. So for all the future searchers of world’s funniest drawings, I recommend that they click the “Cool Caricaturists” link on this blog, or resume their search elsewhere without wasting another minute.

Search Term 2: drawings of ugly women

What?!
Aren’t you searching for something that doesn’t exist? I mean, you could find God if you tried hard enough …but impossible to find a woman who’s ugly. If you don’t believe me, organize a random poll and ask women to rate themselves as ugly or beautiful – and check the results!

We caricaturists could make ugly caricatures of women, but women themselves are beautiful. It’s the men-folk who have a large sub-set called “ugly men”. So My Dear Sir (I don’t know why but I feel confident that this search term was born in a man’s mind,) please don’t go looking for ugly women. You are wasting your precious time on an impossible quest. Look for beautiful, pretty, lovely, wonderful, fantastic, fabulous, super, great, glamorous women instead…and you’ll be swamped!

Search Term 3: queen elizabeth’s mom princess elizabeth

I googled that information for you, dear searcher…and when I read the first line on this link, felt so optimistic that I wanted to thank you for stopping by my blog.

Why?

Well, here’s why. Queen Elizabeth II’s mom, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born in 1900 and she lived to a ripe old age (and I mean really truly completely ripe) of 102 years! Wow! But believe it or not Princess Alice is going to beat Queen Elizabeth Bowes Lyon’s record!

If you haven’t seen Queen Elizabeth II’s caricature on this blog, click here.

Search Term 4: Salvador Dali’s Eyebrows

Salvador Dali’s Eyebrows?!
Are you sure that you want to look at his eyebrows and not his mustaches?!
I think you should be looking at his mustaches – they are quite a pair. Here’s Salvador Dali’s Caricature – it’ll help you appreciate why this search made me wonder whether the searcher really knew was good for him.

Search Term 5: i hate my job+cartoon

Oh…oh. I am so sorry. You really hate your job? Do you? And I agree, you do become a cartoon when you begin to hate your job. In fact, you have to be Dilbert to love your work…right? In this horrible horrible world of today, who doesn’t want to be stuck inside a cartoon strip, free from the worries of loan-repayments and medical insurance premiums.

Search Term 6: half old woman half princess cartoon

You make a good point there. I think what you should be looking for is a cartoon of an old woman OR of a princess. In her mind, every old woman is a princess that she couldn’t be in real life (except of course, those anachronisms who even in this modern world stick to being Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses) and, every princess – from the day she’s born becomes an old woman – because she can’t do those little things that make life so much fun…because they have to corset not just their bodies but their emotions as well.

Search Term 7: unhygienic practices cartoons

Eeeyuck!
You mean – nose-picking, @$$-scratching, ever-spitting, not-flushing…etc. etc. etc. kind of cartoons??!!
But why…and where’s the humor?

Oh…I get it. Hee hee hee!

Search Terms 8a,b,c,d: indian necked men/handsome indian naked men/indian ugly man

I am curious. Who are you dear searcher…and what exactly are you looking for. It’s clear that you want to look at an Indian Man but an indian “necked” man? What’s an Indian neck? Are you looking for a Caucasian male who’s had a neck transplant so that his neck looked Indian…or an Indian who has retained his Indian neck or had got a new neck…in any of those great shades of Indian browns?

Oh…oh. it was a typo…right? I looked at the second term and it dawned upon me that you are looking for Indian men au-naturel – and handsome ones too. Now you really need to check out my first post on SEO-matters of importance here. You may not succeed in your search, my friend of either gender.

But what’s that third term? You needed to do a Google search for that? Really? I mean all you had to do was switch channels and watch some political news!

Search Term 9: art from ajit ninan

Thanks for the reminder. I shall make the promised post about the wonderful Ajit Ninan soon:)

Search Term 10: SHAFALI HITLER!!!

No. I am not. I will not take that insult, dear Sir or Ma’am or Bot! I am, and shall remain Shafali the Artist, Shafali the Caricaturist, Shafali the Egoist. Shafali Hitler is one title that I am not going to take lying down. Beware, or I’ll let Hitler the Satan loose!

The Time Machine: Exploration Mission 2 :: The History of the Popular Comic Strip – Beetle Bailey.

Beetle Bailey – a comic strip that begun on September 4, 1950, about sixty years ago, and which is still drawn by its creator Mort Walker, has been one of the most popular comic strips that this world has ever seen.

The Protagonist: Private Beetle Bailey

Once upon a time, Beetle was a college student, but after only about six months of the strip’s beginning, he left college to enlist in the US Army, and became their most famous and longest serving Private ever. Ever since he joined the army, Beetle Bailey has remained there – never growing, neither in position nor in age. Private Beetle Bailey is the laziest man at Camp Swampy, and for this reason his boss Sergeant Snorkel is never pleased with him. Beetle isn’t just lazy, he also suffers from bouts of insubordination. You can’t ever see Beetle’s eyes because they are always hidden under his cap or hat, whichever the case may be.

He’s been dreaming of getting out of the army for the last sixty years, but he has been unsuccessful so far.

Seargent Snorkel:

Remember the paunchy sergeant (Sarge) who wears a very wrinkled Garrison Hat, and who generally just can’t stand Beetel Bailey, but once in a while, exhibits maudlin behavior towards him. He loves his dog Otto, and he loves the army. Obviously he fails to establish an emotional connect with Beetle who dreams of leaving the army.

Other Important Characters in the Beetle Bailey Comic Strip:

1. Otto – Snorkel’s army uniform clad bull-dog, who walks on his hinds (well, he does! When he was introduced he walked the four-legged walk, but then he decided to be upright in all matters, including his posture.) He wears the army uniform (thus, looks like a miniature of Sarge) and he too doesn’t like Beetle.
2. General Halftrack – The old, mustached, alcoholic camp commander, who can often be seen with a golf-stick. Halftrack tracks only half the things (for instance, Miss Buxley) and leaves the other half untracked (for instance, his wife Martha).
3. Miss Buxley – The name tells you what she must look like. Yes. She’s the buxom beauty who is Halftracks Personal Assistant…and half the population of Camp Swampy is swamped by her charms.
4.Private Blips (not Bips, my dear Indian readers,) – Well…she’s Halftrack’s military secretary, who obviously doesn’t like the looks of Miss Buxley (Blips’ antithesis). While Buxley is pretty and voluptuous, Blips is thin and…well you know what; while Buxley can’t do anything right, Blips is downright accurate and efficient! To make a long story short, they are like oil and water…and they don’t mix.

New Tech-tech Characters in Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey Comics:

Gizmo: The guy who helps the Commander with all the techy stuff. His name was selected after a contest (from 84, 725 entries – WOW!)

Read about all the characters in the Beetle Bailey comic strip here.

The Creator of Beetle Bailey – Mort Walker:

• Meet Mr. Walker and his staff at the Mort Walker website here:
• Meet Beetle Bailey here.

Mort Walker’s Biography

Here’s a quick Biographical sketch of this prolific cartoonist.
(Source: http://beetle.king-online.com/morts-bio/)

Mort Walker was born in 1923, in Kansas. He published his first comic when he was 11! (Whew!) By the time he was 18, he had become the Chief Editorial Designer for Hallmark Cards. He spent his early twenties in the army and returned  to graduate from the University of Missouri.He then tried for a job of a Cartoonist in NY but he got his break only after facing the rejection of about 200 cartoons (whew…again!) Then he found Beetle Bailey…and rest as they say is history.

Mort Walker’s family corporation Comicana owns Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois and 7 other comic strips.

“Beetle Bailey” is syndicated to 1,800 newspapers, in more than 50 countries, with a readership of more than 200 Million. Read more about Beetle Bailey and Mort Walker here.

Honey, who shrunk the Caricaturist?

When I woke up this morning, I found myself in a room sans ceiling and walls. I looked around trying to figure out where I was, but I couldn’t. The place looked liked the inside of an igloo (not that I’ve ever seen one actually,) but the walls looked like they were made of glass.

I began to wonder. Was I abducted again? You know how I am slipping into a habit of getting abducted by different sorts of people all the time. So I steered my reasoning in that direction, trying to figure out what this hemispherical glass cavity could be. The glass wasn’t transparent – it was more like I was caught under an inverted Opalware bowl!

I looked around, trying to find an anchor for my reasoning. What was I lying upon? Uh…oh. It did look like a coarse napkin folded into a triangle. And what was that huge insect-like animal that stood near the edge of the room? An ant? An ANT?! Yes! It was an ant, and it looked formidable. I could ride it – the way they rode that ant in “Honey I shrunk the Kids.” But they were four and I was alone – and I really wasn’t that sure of my inter-species communication skills – especially with no translator in sight!

So I decided to stay put.

I am still lying in my table-napkin bed, being as quiet and still as I can, waiting for that gigantic ant to leave, so that I may get up and explore the place to find a way out. If this is the same bowl that I had set on the kitchen table to dry, I think I should be able to find my way out. I don’t think it’ll take me long. And until then, I might not be able to post. But my dear visitor, I’ll have you know that the thoughts of this blog shall give me the courage that I require in the hour of need.

I hope that this message reaches you, because I really don’t trust the Internet connection under this bowl. It’s too weak – it appears that along with me the GBs too have shrunk into KBs.

I intend to be out of this place and regain my normal form soon. My sketchbook too has shrunk to 2 pixel by 1 pixel and there’s no way I can squeeze in a whole caricature in that size.

Microscopically yours,
The Caricaturist
From under the Opalware Bowl
Placed upon the Kitchen Table