A Dog of a Contest

I dozed off watching reruns and had a dream about licking the faces of two-thirds of the cast of Charmed. It’s four o’clock in the morning now, and my thoughts keep drifting to rubbing up against their legs. I think that’s much healthier, right?

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A few people I've heard from have forgotten how this works, so I'd thought I'd reprise a few key points:

1) YOU HAVE AN ART CONTEST? Yup. SUBSCRIBE to the Not-So-Daily Dog newsletter and you're in it. (If you're already getting the email, you're in.) You'll get a chance to win one of three pieces of original art from the book, or even a brand-new, frame-it-and-show-your-mama original sketch from me! And if you forward the newsletter to someone else, and they sign up, you'll receive an additional entry. (They'll be entered too; fair is fair). All this just for not unsubscribing!

If you do unsubscribe, your entry to the contest will also be voided, but then again, if probably weren't interested in the art in the first place, nor in the feelings of the artist, who is, despite his size, a delicate flower. (If you want to be dropped from the email but choose to subscribe to the RSS feed, just send a email with the heading “Switching to RSS”, and your entry(ies) will be preserved.)

2) CAN I GET MY DOG IN THE BOOK? Yes, please. Email  your photos to dailydog@seltzerstudio.com, and if your dog is chosen (an entirely arbitrary process), I'll sketch your pet and feature the drawing in the book. In return, you will receive a high-level resolution file of the drawing and the author's eternal gratitude.

3) WHAT IF MY DOG'S IN THE BOOK BUT YOU HAVEN'T SENT ME A FILE? Whoops. Sorry, sorry. Just remind me. Send an email, write a note, give me a call. My memory is not a point of pride with me. But be gentle with your rebukes, please. I am, as mentioned above, a delicate flower.

4) SO GETTING MY DOG IN THE BOOK ISN'T THE CONTEST? DON'T YOU THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SMARTER TO HAVE A DOG DRAWING CONTEST IN THE FIRST PLACE? Yes, it would have. But I didn't think of it. I didn't even think of having people send in dog photos for the first 10-12 entries of this megilleh.

5) WE THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE A DOG DRAWING CONTEST. Ahem. So I've heard from a few people, in great detail and at great length. So if people would prefer a contest about dog drawings, email or comment on the blog, and I'd consider rejiggering the contest. Instead of just three winners, maybe everyone who has a dog drawn in the book could win the original art. Just a thought...

I'm very fond of this week's drawing. And also this week's dog, who is named Tator Tot, and comes your way from Jennifer Smith.

That's it for now. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.

Pee-Wee and His Discontents

You want to know a grave disappointment? I'll give you a grave disappointment. Flipping through a magazine, I came across a picture of Pee-Wee Herman reading a book, not my own, entitled Part-Time Dog. I have never liked Pee-Wee Herman and I like him twice at little now that he has led to such a savage disappointment for me. Apparently said book is a children's classic from the 1950s which I somehow never read. This is remarkable because, according to my wife, based on the number of books in my parents' basment, I had every children's book ever printed.

So I'll probably have to change the title at some point. But not today, I think. I'm too savagely disappointed.

In the meantime, yes, this is the first multpanel page of Part-Time Dog. I have resisted the urge to do multipanel pages until now because I thought they might be too comic book-y. Which is not to say that I have anything against comic books. I love comic books and always have. As my wife has also pointed out, based on the number of long-boxes in my parents' attic, I had every comic book every printed. (There is one word for the house I grew up in: flammable.)

This week's dog comes by way of Bradford Keller, of Special Citizens Futures Unlimited, Inc. This organization does amazing work with autistic adults. Also Brad's an awfully nice guy, so check out the organizations site and help make his day. (His picture also contained a cat, whose image was excised for obvious reasons.)

More soon! In the meantime, please send in your dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

More and better excuses

Yes, it has really, really been a long time. A surprising and gratifying number of you have asked me what happened and am I OK? In reverse order, I got absolutely inundated with work; and yes, I am fine. Apologetic, feeling deeply guilty, but fine.

Thanks so much for all the inquiries. They prompted me to come back to the table and finish this thing up. For those of you who are new readers, please stop reading my ramblings here and read the book so far. The up-to-date issue is now a sticky at the top of the page, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. (Old readers I hope will find this an enormous improvement over jamming the book on the blog page wherever it fit.)

Especial thanks goes to Miriam Charon who never stopped writing me an whose lovely dog Hanna is this issue's featured dog. (New readers should know that if you send me in a picture of your dog, there's a good chance I'll draw it and put it in the book. You get a printable image and a chance to win a piece of original art. Details can be found in innumerable past blog entries or sign up for the newsletter and you'll find the rules in the traditional hard-to-ready type at the bottom of the page.

More soon! (The next page is already pencilled, so I mean it this time.) In the meantime, please send in your dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so faror check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

What the ??!!##! is with all those missing graphics?

Here's a short answer: blame Blogger. Google used to allow me to host this blog on my site, but then forcibly migrated it to a google.com site. I wrested it back to my new blog (hosted by the inimitable Squarespace) but somehow in the transition my graphics disappeared. As I am today preparing a new Daily Dog email (yes, you read that right!), I thought I'd better have a post up top explaining the problem.

And a problem it will remain, until I come up with the month of free time needed to relink all the graphics. In the meantime, every last one of those pictures -- story and dog drawings -- can be found at full size in the book excerpt at the top of this page. Fanatics among you can still read through the archives and rediscover the "joys" of my so-called prose.

-Tom

Holy Intersecting Ellipses!

This has gone too far. The kid’s dad refused to refill my water bowl. Again. Even when I arfed very clearly and brought it over to him in my teeth, he did nothing.

So I just got up and refilled the damn thing myself. I bored my eyes into his head the whole time while I lapped it up.

Loser.

••••••••••••••••••••

A couple of quick pieces of info:

1) If you have a blog and you want comments, mention either Batman or Venn Diagrams. I got more emails on last week’s entry, which had, let’s face it, only the most tangential relationship to either Batman or Venn Diagrams, than I have to any other entry in months. Evidentally there is a large Venn-Diagram/Batman-obsessed audience out there, which presents a remarkably weird yet apparently under-served market opportunity. Exceptionally daring capitalists, go for it!

2) I have also gotten quite a lot of queries about my gallery show. The good folks at TAMA have decided that the recent business environment isn’t quite suitable for any openings, and who can argue with that? Thus we’ve agreed to postpone the show for now, but we’ll revisit the idea down the line.

3) Which leaves me now one PR stunt short. Here’s an idea for another one: Anyone interested in a dog drawing party? I’m a pretty fast hand with a brush, and while I can’t see getting dogs to sit still for me, I’m pretty sure a digital camera and my trusty laptop could solve that problem. All I’d need is a venue, a stool, a couple of dozen dogs, a couple of bottles of ink, a couple of bottles of bourbon, and a couple of bottles of aspirin. Anyone interested inhelping me organize this?

This week’s dog is a particularly affecting Chihuahua, courtesy Jessica Wicken of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Must run – I’m off to draw Spider-Man and Captain America battling the Pythagorean Theorem. Spidey will be wrestling a hairy hypotenuse.

More soon! In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.