What happens in Jersey City...

From Aesop's Fables, coming soon...

This time last year I was back in the States for an expedition. Among my many savage adventures, I spent time in a heretofore uncharted patch of jungle known as New Jersey. There I encountered a coven of thankfully uncivilized cartoonists indigenous to the area, that gathered weekly to drink beer and foment wicked magic using the medium of comix. As all evildoers do, they record their exploits in an online blog, @ http://jerseycitycomics.com/

For your benefit, (or perhaps for mine) I'm sharing a few of the improvised jams I participated in... as you'll see when you follow the link, nothing is sacred in New Jersey.

Thanks to Geoff Mosher for letting me tag along, and to the rest of the Jersey City Tribe for not tossing me into a pot!
Happy Halloween, Lance Tooks

8-Track Flashback!

Here, for entertainment's sake, are a few moldy oldies from the days of Alley Oop! 

A lot's happened since 1980, when the photo above and the drawing below were committed to paper... most of it good. (Thankfully!) The photo's by my dad, Ed Tooks (with a slightly defaced Mort Drucker gem attached) while the following illustration (and accompanying poetic snippet) inspire me to hope I've grown up a bit in thirty years. (I've heard that it springs eternal, anyway.)

The rest are from a 1983 sketchbook, a variety of comix that lay bare my preoccupations of the moment. The next one for example, has proven to be more prophetic than I care to admit!

And now, a bit of satire in honor of the Nassau County Mounties 

and their timeless credo of "injured before proven guilty."

 Nothing was funnier in 1983 than Buckwheat. Really, you had to be there.

The Angry Alligator was a recurring character in that particular sketchbook, and the Ewoks had just ruined a perfectly good bit of summer escapism, so their encounter seemed inevitable. 

(If not all that memorable.)

 Here are a few random thoughts, strung recklessly together... at the bottom of the first page are 

caricatures of my brother Eric's Laurelton, N.Y. hangout crew, circa 1983.

 "EVA" was a friend's ill-fated Vampire story that I provided a few production sketches for. I'd say that  85% of the projects I've been involved with over the years never saw the light of day for one reason or another. I consider it a victory every time one does, though... so I keep on trying.

 Back in the Reagan Years, I worried a bit that politicians would guide us to apocalypse someday... 

but we know THAT could never happen!

I know it aint much, but hey... what were YOU doing thirty years ago?

Hope it was something fun!

Lance Tooks

(PS... here are two images from today... The protagonist of my adaptation of Aesop's The Lion in Love, and a couple of very pissed-off church deacons who've got a bone to pick with him. LT)