Tao and Then: Single Panel Gag Cartoons | Where Funny Ha-ha Meets Funny Strange

#43

2010-12-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

New Work on Display

2010-07-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the 1000s of people who have read, or accidentally stumbled on, Tao & Then cartoons.

I'm currently working on a new cartoon series entitled Centsless World.

Come take a look!

#42

2009-07-18T07:51:00.001-07:00

It's been a pretty hectic week, so I'm cheating and offering up an old cartoon. I hadn't really noticed something until Nichole pointed it out, but the drawing style has really changed over the course of a few short years. Sort of reminds me of back in the early 80s when Garfield was really fat and had small eyes rather than his current version of huge oval eyes and a smaller body.

#41

2009-07-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

#40

2009-07-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

#39

2009-07-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

#38

2009-06-30T22:02:00.001-07:00

#37

2009-06-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

#36

2009-06-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

#35

2009-06-23T21:52:00.001-07:00

#34

2009-06-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

#33

2009-06-19T15:57:00.001-07:00

#32

2009-06-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Special Thanks to Tim McLaughlin for his editing, words, and insight.

#31

2009-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

#30!

2009-06-09T21:05:00.001-07:00

#29

2009-06-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

#28

2009-05-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

#27

2009-05-28T22:38:00.001-07:00

#26

2009-05-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

#25

2009-05-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

#24

2009-05-18T07:05:00.001-07:00

#23

2009-05-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

This drawing is an experiment. I'm using a thinner pen than the other drawings. I'm not sure that I'm in love with it. I think it works for this drawing, but I don't think that I'd go with this style of drawing again. It's missing a "softness" or what I call a "Nerf-like" quality. The next drawing will have more "Nerf".

#22

2009-05-15T11:25:00.001-07:00

#21

2009-05-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

#20

2009-05-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

#19

2009-05-06T08:12:00.001-07:00

#18

2009-05-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

How do you draw an atom? This was the question I wrestled with for this drawing. I could go really small, but then how do I draw the scientists? They would be enormous and completely out of scale... plus they'd just be a bunch of atoms and not look like people at all. The answer I finally came up was, "Why don't I not draw the atoms at all." So with that, here's number #18: Scientists with a Girlie Magazine.

A Letter from a Cartoon Syndicate & #17

2009-05-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

Since I'm sharing my cartoons with you I thought I'd also share some of the process. One of my goals in cartooning is to become syndicated and appear in daily newspapers. I've been drawing for most of my life and have been illustrating "quasi-professionally" since 1999. Heavy on the "quasi". I even won some awards for illustrating textbooks in 2000.

I started cartooning back in 1994 when I would draw editorial cartoons for my college newspaper "The Lumberjack". I applied for syndication seriously once back in 1996 and looking at those drawing with an honest eye... I really wasn't ready yet. Recently I submitted the cartoon on this website for syndication to a company called Uclick just as cartoon #5 had been posted. I didn't expect to hear back from them since there was such a small sampling to share with them, but at cartoon #16 they sent me an answer.

Here's a copy of that letter:

Dear Mr. Seidell,

Thank you for your interest in syndication with Uclick. I regret to inform you that while we enjoyed reading your submission, we do not feel strongly enough about your work to take it on here at uclick.

Many factors were taken into consideration when coming to this decision including issues of scheduling, marketing, and the quality and uniqueness of your work.

We certainly appreciate you giving us a chance to consider your work, and we wish you all the best with it.

Thank you,
Morgan McGee
Uclick Acquisitions

I wasn't expecting an acceptance letter my first time out, however there was some sting when "quality" and "uniqueness" were cited as reasons why I'd been rejected.

Nichole (my self-proclaimed Marketing Manager and lovely wife) and I have decided that as of cartoon #24 we will begin seriously submitting Tao and Then to the larger syndicates (King, Creators, etc) to apply for syndication. I think our best chance for syndication is the fact that we have no idea what the odds really are, so we don't know when to stop.

On another note, my Rotring pens are unclogged and I've drawn and inked 3 new cartoons since last night. I hope you enjoy today's presentation of Cranky Kid at Aquarium, aka #17.

#16

2009-04-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

#15

2009-04-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

#14

2009-04-24T22:01:00.001-07:00

#13

2009-04-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

#12

2009-04-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

#11

2009-04-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

#10

2009-04-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

#9

2009-04-15T07:07:00.001-07:00

#8

2009-04-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

#7

2009-04-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

#6

2009-04-09T20:15:00.001-07:00

#5

2009-04-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

#4

2009-04-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

#3

2009-04-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

#2

2009-03-20T14:06:00.001-07:00

#1

2009-03-19T17:36:00.000-07:00