October 2009

Trash day

Aside from Dandy’s line in the last panel, this is pretty much a word for word recreation of MANY days from my childhood. My mom LOVED the thread to the trash bag to get me to clean up my room. And while she never actually DID throw all my toys into a trash bag, I was forced to give a lot of them up under that threat. I’ve since heard that many kids went through similar situations. It IS pretty depressing in hindsight and I’ve spent a good chunk of money re-purchasing some of those childhood memories via eBay over the last ten or so years. (Not RECENTLY, of course. One needs regular income to spend it thusly.)

UPDATE: I’m putting out the call to all the Dandyfans out there who can help out a little by making A DONATION TO “DANDY & COMPANY” TODAY! ANY and all help would be extremely appreciated.

CHAOS is closing in…

In 2002 during the week of October 11th, to celebrate the 1st anniversary of “D&C” being online, I left the reins of the strip in YOUR hands! That’s right… Guest Strips submitted by readers such as yourselves ushered in TOTAL CHAOS: ATTACK OF THE GUEST ARTISTS!

Then, in 2003, the guest artists RETURNED!

In 2004, it was THE CONQUEST OF THE GUEST ARTISTS!

Then, in 2005, things kinda came off the rails. While I ran a week of guest strips, it was run during the summer as a part of Beanie-Quest III , and as such, there was no official “Chaos” that October. But in 2006, I kept counting like nothing had happened, and we had TOTAL CHAOS V: REVENGE OF THE GUEST ARTISTS!

Then, for a while, there was no official annual celebration, and guest strips were used as content on Saturdays for many months as part of what was called TOTAL CHAOS Saturdays! (That stretch of strips is now to be considered “Part 6″.)

And now, starting on October 12th, 2009, the original tradition RETURNS with… you guessed it… TOTAL CHAOS 7ish: THE GUEST ARTISTS STRIKE BACK!

While notice is short this year, I’m STILL accepting submissions of guest strips until the 16th of October for an all new, two week stretch of fantabulous new “D&C” strips directly from the minds and pens of YOU, the readers! So if you’ve got an itch to join in the chaos, send your guest strips to: derrick@dandyandcompany.com and if they’re CHAOTIC enough, They’ll become a part of the celebration! (Who am I kidding, so long as it’s not PORN, I’ll run it, folks! So sharpen those pencils and get DRAWING!!!!)

To Quest no more?!

Let me just say that as an artist, I’ve encountered a LOT of things that are hard to draw in my nearly 35 years on this earth. Horses are hard to draw. Faces when you’re lookin’ up at them from below. But few challenges are as difficult as drawing Dandy with sincere sympathy on his face! *Whew*.

UPDATE: I’m putting out the call to all the Dandyfans out there who can help out a little by making A DONATION TO “DANDY & COMPANY” TODAY! ANY and all help would be extremely appreciated.

The Torchbearer

Sure, Dandy’s spent years mocking Bernard for that hat. But Dandy is also not a big fan of change, and Bernard discarding such a once-prized possession (Yes, I KNOW that’s not his ORIGINAL beanie-hat. It’s like a metaphor or something.) is certainly a big change.

But when I wrote these strips, it just seemed like a story that was past due telling. And there are so many directions I can go with this idea that it was too good to NOT do.

Smoothness

I wanted to make sure and end this mini story on a fun note since there were a few depressing moments in this arc. But life goes on and tomorrow is another day and NO, Dandy isn’t going to be wearing the beanie hat all the time now. Maryweather pretty much killed that right there.

Also, don’t forget to come back Monday for an all new, 5 day week’s worth of guest strips by the ever-awesome Andrew Kaiko for TOTAL CHAOS 7ish! The 8th anniversary of “D&C’s” online launch on October 11th, 2001!