Hermit Hill | #61 | 01/30/09

A Threat of Being Cool.

The ring tone on my phone you ask? The theme song to the A-Team. And now it's in your head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

"I love it when a plan comes together!" (stogie puff) (freeze frame) (credits).
Bum bah bum! Ba bum buuuum!

Scott Adams, Dilbert: Interview about product placement

The Washington Post's Michael Cavna interviewed Scott Adams about the recent Dilbert strip in which Adams plugged another one of his businesses. This apparently annoyed professional cartoonists and struck a chord with marketing folks. I guess Adams has gotten some flak over his use of a comic strip to promote another business, but I don't really see anything wrong with it myself. What's the big deal? The web site being promoted still falls within the world of Dilbert just fine. It's not like he's suddenly drinking a Coke or signing up for Geico auto insurance. It's an interesting read all the same. Nice to see a print cartoonist innovating like this. I mean, they need to do something clever if that industry is going to stay alive over the next few years, so let some experimentation take place.

Side note, if your name is Scott you are obligated to become a cartoonist. Just so ya know.

Hermit Hill | #60 | 01/28/09

Internet at it Again.

And so ends the L'il Internet. To be honest I had a lot more of those in me, but I thought it best to adhere to the comedy rule of "three" and just move on.

Hermit Hill | #59 | 01/26/09

Silly Ol' Internet.

Not sure where all this is going yet. So far I still think it's funny. Maybe a little weird, but funny.

Hermit Hill | #58 | 01/23/09

Internet Strikes Again.

Pardon me while head down this rat hole, but after I drew the last strip all these images from an alternate comic strip popped into my head and I just need to explore this for a while.

On a side note, the focus on feet and shoes in this strip and any that follow are dedicated to fellow Texas cartoonist Mike Hankins.

Hermit Hill | #57 | 01/21/09

That Darn Internet.

It's time to give Walter a shave and get things back to normal I think. Poor old coot.

Hermit Hill | #56 | 01/19/09

Hairy Revelations.

Whew! What I go through to entertain you people. Found my scanner amongst the maze of boxes still populating my new house and was able to hook it up and get the strip finished. I then headed out after dinner to a nearby Starbucks for internet access so I could upload the comic and make this post. The cable guy comes tomorrow and internet access will follow, so the rest of the week's updates should go more smoothly.

Hermit Hill Update on the Way

Today's Hermit Hill strip will be up this afternoon, just as soon as I find my scanner. This past weekend I moved my family into a new house, our first house actually. While everything is moved over we still have a ton of boxes everywhere and my office isn't quite up and running just yet. I'm trying to avoid having the move affect the strip, but that's a tall order. The artwork is complete, I just need to get it scanned in and uploaded. Of course, we don't have internet access at the new house yet, the cable guy comes tomorrow. Hmm ...I'll have to uploaded it from Starbucks or something.

Not to worry loyal readers, I'll think of something!

Hermit Hill | #55 | 01/16/09

Check, Mate!

If I had been asleep for several weeks I'd have a heck of a clean up job when I woke up, but I didn't really want to go there. I had fun drawing Walter with all that hair. I think he looks kinda cool ... in an old man, not-cool-sort-of way.

Hermit Hill | #54 | 01/14/09

Return to Slumberland.

A decade of New Year's Eve gag glasses

Last week I posted a Hermit Hill comic strip that had Francis finishing off his 2000's New Year's Eve gag glasses. You can see the comic strip here. I remember seeing these being sold on the street back in 2000 when I lived in Philadelphia and really just assumed they've made them for every year there was a double zero. So, I did a few searches on Flickr and found the confirmation I was looking for. I didn't find every year's worth of silly glasses, but there's enough out there to confirm their yearly existence:

Hermit Hill | #53 | 01/12/09

Take me Away.

Walter's finally getting the rest he deserves. Poor l'il guy.

Hermit Hill | #52 | 01/09/09

Walter's Little Helper.

An anthropomorphized pharmaceutical with goofy, oversized shoes may be silly, but it was fun to draw. So there.

Happy Birthday Charles Addams

Yesterday was the birthday of the astoundingly awesome cartoonist Charles Addams. He was the cartoonist behind several dark and macabre cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker during the 50's and 60's. Some of these cartoons featured recurring characters later dubbed "The Addams' Family", which had a TV show in the 60's and films in the 90's. He was a funny and smart man who's work I admire very much. He passed away in 1988.

A Cartoonist's Christmas Card

Every year I design a new family Christmas card. Here is the one I did for Christmas 2008. Since we have a 5 year old boy in the house who was very eagerly awaiting the holiday I did not need to dig too deep for the concept of the card.

Card Front

Card Inside

Hermit Hill | #51 | 01/07/09

Reaching for Higher Ground.

I just love that Walter wears one of those old fashioned night shirts. I was going to throw in a sleep cap, but I thought that might be over the top. He still has the slippers though.

Original Comic Strip Artwork Christmas Gift

Original Comic Strip Artwork Christmas Gift
Originally uploaded by natebramble

This is what I gave my father as a gift for Christmas this year. It's the original comic strip artwork from my comic Hermit Hill. I had the board I use to pencil and ink the comic mounted and framed. Since I finish the strip in the computer by adding the panel borders, text and word balloons I took a sheet of clear projector film and printed out onto it the layer I create in the computer and layered it over the artwork. I had to paint the back of the balloons white to complete the effect of a finished strip. I'm very happy with how this turned out. Maybe I should do more of these hang them up in my own house.

Hermit Hill | #50 | 01/05/08

10 Years of Glasses.

I first saw these glasses for real New Year's eve 1999 when everyone was freaking out about the millennium. I was in Philadelphia at the time and every street corner had some guy selling some version of those things. I guess they'll have to figure something else out now.

Hermit Hill | #49 | 01/02/08

Party Aftermath.

Another update made just under the wire. Looks like that was one hell of a party. My personal favorite part is whatever is going on with the bird and the rabbit in the corner. There's an untold drama unfolding there.

This weekend marks the end of my vacation from my day job, so it'll be back to the office and back to the old routine. It shouldn't take too long to get back into the swing of things. Here's to a whole new year of cartoony goodness!