The Downloadable "Get Out of Hell Free" card no longer available here

Well drat. There went an offer that was too good to last. It seems that some enterprising and alert soul got to the idea first and is actually selling them (See the first comment on this post). I do not believe in Hell, but I do believe in intellectual property, so I took my far superior, or at least, free, card down. Apologies if you end up at the sooty gates without protection, but as the original post stated Void where prohibited by law.

We Coulda' had Tripartisanship

This is just cool

Michael Scammell who recently wrote a well-received biography of Arthur Koestler asked if he could display my Koestler caricature on his blog about the author. Of course I said yes. I did the drawing as part of an ongoing series of portraits of famous people with Parkinson's Disease. You can see more of this series at my Parkinson's Disease blog "Off and On, The Alaska Parkinson's Rag".

It's Just "Special Rights" for Trauma Victims

Sullied

Reanimator

It's a curse of Art that looking back at old work is painful. Clumsiness, tentativeness, and poorly-chosen colors scream out their pitiful, obvious wrongness. The best thing to do is to take that as a sign of growth and move on.

But what if there is something there worth reviving? I always liked the script to this piece, (the only dialog is in the Venusian Jblorgonese dialect) but over time, the animation itself began to pall. I thought it would be fun to upgrade it. It wasn't long before I remembered a certain Dr. Frankenstein, who had his reanimation woes, too.

Reanimating your old work can be frustrating as you wallow in old problems that must be solved again. Meanwhile your fresh, untried ideas sit on the sidelines, moldering. From now on, I'll try to get it right the first time. And if I don't, suffering the consequences once will be plenty.

If you would like to see the earlier version, it's onYouTube. You've been warned.

PS, after I posted this the first time I found a few more things that were out of whack enough that I went back and re-edited the movie. Hours and hours later I have come up with a version I am going to live with. All the original files have been wiped off my machine. As God is my witness, I will live in the past no longer!

Alaska Press Club Marketing Coup

With marketing savvy only a journalist could love, the Alaska Press Club has targeted a rapidly shrinking market to fatten its coffers. That market is of course, journalists. The Press Club is now offering my cover illustration for the upcoming Journalism week program (above) as a tee shirt. You can also get the image on water bottles and coffee mugs. How, you ask? Just click here! Act now,while you still have a paycheck! All profits go to the Alaska Press Club. Get one for your mate, your kids, your former editor! Don't delay! Supplies are not limited, but actual reporters are scarcer by the minute!

In search of Mark Twain

In Alabama, a boy of eleven is assigned an independent study project on Mark Twain. Something in the writer's work, perhaps the attachment Twain retained to his own boyhood, kindles the young man's interest. He especially admires "The War Prayer", Twain's frank and frightening indictment of those who invoke God as their patron as they go about destroying his creation.

Interest grows to passion, and the boy trails the great man on the internet. There he finds a picture that clicks with his understanding of the sardonic yet sympathetic writer. The boy becomes obsessed with the picture, but there is problem. It's a small file with low quality that cannot be easily enlarged. There is no name attached to the image. The boy and his mother scour the internet, and somehow, some way, track the image down to an obscure cartoonist in Alaska. A cartoonist whose love of Mark Twain was inspired by "The War Prayer", which he purchased through Scholastic Books when he was a boy of about the same age as the eleven-year-old in Alabama. Somewhere in Hell, the ghost of Samuel Clemens is smiling.

The Iditarod will not be routed through Tok this year

The Iditarod trail committee instituted marijuana testing after being lobbied by a group of racers. Turns out that the agenda of the mushers was to make life difficult for three-time champ and cancer survivor Lance Mackey who makes no bones about using pot to help control pain.You can find the story from Alaska Dispatch reporter Jill Burke here.

Oh... THAT two billion dollars....

Uncommon Wisdom #29

EPIC BLOCKBUSTER PREVIEW EXCLUSIVE!!!

Here are the remaining finished pages with artwork done to go with Sarah Hurst's sweeping history of Alaska "A Native Lad" (You may see earlier pages from this scene here, and here..) Originally a play, Sarah had the terrific idea of presenting the text in comics format. You can let her explain here. (5 min. video)There are a surprisingly large number of Alaska-based artists at work on this, including Lee Post, Evon Zerbetz, Dimi Macheras, and Lance Lekander. Sarah has a publisher and is now herding these cats to the finish line.






(Artwork copyight Peter Dunlap-Shohl. Click to enlarge)

Throwing Alaska Rescue Dogs a Pro Bono

Here are two possible t-shirt designs done for Alaska Search and Rescue Dogs. They wanted a shirt to commemorate their yearly seminar. This year's session will feature a Bloodhound handler from down South who will teach the art of "mantrailing". Something about the subject got me channeling my inner R. Crumb. This was a mite disturbing as I wasn't aware I had one. Makes you wonder who else is in there.

They are of course, on a budget, and told me the colors available would be gold for the ink and dark green, dark blue or maroon. This pushed me toward a scratch board look to make the image read. Not sure which, if either they will go for, but I am pulling for the one on top. I'll update when a choice is made.