B-B-B-BABOON!! Sly little critters are they. Speak like Yoda day it is, yes? It is now.
Okay, put your pencils down or slide you keyboards back. I don’t care what anyone thinks or says, but the Who’s “Wont’ Get Fooled Again” is the greatest damn rock song… ever. Nothing before it, or since, even comes close. Period. Nothing gets my blood going more than Daltrey’s primal scream at the end of the song. Goose bumps you have, no? Every time. You can argue better songs have been written, recorded and/or performed, but you’d be freakin’ wrong. Nuff said. And the moment I typed Jeff saying “fooled” this song hit me and was an obvious, and this time excellent, choice for the song of the day.
So, start your Wednesday off with some great rock and roll from the Gibson Les Paul of Pete Townshend.
******************
FIRST! Seriously, I like that you sometimes show the strip as a sketch. it harkens back to the A-Ha video “Take on Me”. Or books I got by Ben Caldwell. It looks so cool it would almost spoil it ‘inked and colored.’September 19’s and 23’s are my faves because of the shading/contrast. Viva variety
It’s been a huge struggle for me, for I personally love them colored, BUT… I SOOO love my original sketches. I am thinking of putting out a book that features both the inked and sketch versions of each comic (I never toss the sketch layers). That way you can see both versions.
From a time point of view, I could do 5 days a week if I only did the sketch versions (cleaned up a bit more). Inking and coloring adds about 2 hours or more to each comic. That doubles my time on each comic. So, I could produce a lot more comics if I skipped the inking/coloring process.
It’s a big debate and one I’ll never really settle for myself.
“I am thinking of putting out a book that features both the inked and sketch versions of each comic (I never toss the sketch layers). That way you can see both versions.”
Oh-hell-yeah! I’ll start saving bottlecaps or something like, whatever it takes. I love the raw energy at the sketch level. Not to say anything bad about the colors … you’re doing great on those .. but I have a special love for black & white and grayscale. Definitely consider it, and how to present it properly. Damn I need a job that pays the bills! 👿
Yeah, the more I think of it, a book of selected comics featuring the sketches and the finals would be very cool. I could include commentary on how I draw and what influenced me for the original sketches. I even keep rejected poses a lot for the comics as they’re on a separate layer and it why delete them?
I’ll work on that for the spring for sure!
SECONDED!!!
I know what you mean about sketches, inks and coloring. I’d love the time to ink and color with a watercolor look, but it takes forever! I’ve tried a two-tone flat color like you use. I’ve even fethered the colors to give it more of a shaded effect. I won’t even talk about picking colors & color schemes! Even just a black & white. I just don’t have much time right now to even draw since work has gone to 55 hour weeks. My brain seems barely functional.
“You silly giraffes!”
Best line ever.
That makes me laugh too… but I’m my best audience. 😛
Excellent depiction of the baboon! (note spelling, heh)
BABOON! I spell like a baboon… So, I tossed in a bunch more B’s just to throw everyone off… or to rip on BTO’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”
🙂
You ain’t seen nothin’ until you’ve seen a baboon’s big red bottom 😛
YES, and AGREE, and DAMN STRAIGHT “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is the best damn rock song ever (or evar). I could not believe that Rolling Stone, in their list of 500 greatest songs, listed this as #133. This is one of the three songs where the volume gets cranked up to the max every time I listen to it. (The others are Journey’s “Separate Ways” and Bob Seger’s “Hollywood Nights”.)
Right on, brother… And what is up with Rolling Stone magazine putting that song at #133? That’s soooo wrong. Maybe Pete pissed off the mag or something. But it is WAY higher than that. Top 10 or #1 in my book.
I’m a huge Seger fan since the 60s. Great voice!
Won’t get fooled again was recorded with Pete playing a telecaster
Really? I’ll be damned. I’ve always seen him with an SG or a Les Paul, but I guess that would be his stage set up of the time period. Thanks for that!
🙂
Smoke enough of that stuff and soon all of the zoo animals have “Wallace & Gromit” smiles and are telling you about their life’s problems with British accents.
Crackin’ good toast, Gromit!
Too bad W&G came out after 1977, that would be a killer guest appearance! 😛
I seem to remember there’s a time machine lying around somewhere… 😀
Agreed on the Who’s – Won’t Get Fooled Again, absolutely one of the best ever Rock songs.
As has been said, the volume gets cranked up to 11 when this comes on!
And I scream with Roger every time, even when I have passengers in the car with me! 😀
Ah, scaring the normals as you drive along, eh Bob? I have caught myself way too often heavily involved in some air guitar while driving and folks have taken me for some idiot or I’m trying to flip them off. Good way to get into a fight by accident. I keep myself in check most days, but every so often one must play along with some great riffs!
🙂
It’s a conspiracy! Well, or an organized crime gang. I’m certain the giraffes have a kick-back agreement with the baboons. But, will the baboons honor it? So hard to give up a stash in the hand, especially if it’s primo.
What Jeff needs to do in a situation like this is to negotiate. Collect the “good sh!t” from the animals, provide it to a solid grower, and give a cut of the “good sh!t” back in kind. Trust me on this … I am well familiar with stoned logic. Much more hilarious than fuzzy logic, although (admittedly) you had to have been there to fully appreciate the moment. 😉
Some stoner logic may be coming up soon enough… stay tooned! 🙂
Absolutely fantastic song. Also note the brilliant bass playing from John Entwistle (though brilliant is his base-line, if you’ll pardon the pun). The Who just fused so well on this song — on this whole album, in fact. One of the truly great moments in the history of rock and roll.
And just for a bonus, I’m wearing my Who tour shirt (Quadrophenia 1997) today.
And oh yeah — great strip, too. I’ve always enjoyed primatology, and the shifty look on the baboon is just terrific.
Yes, Jeff getting pick-pocketed by a baboon makes me laugh every time I see this strip. Sometimes my music rants overshadow the comic, but both of these are great!
Two bass-playing Johns influenced me, Entwistle (who’s a freakin’ genius) and John Paul Jones of Zeppelin. Always played along with him back in the day as I practiced. Also, he played keyboards and I dabbled on the black and whites myself at times.
“I don’t care what anyone thinks or says, but the Who’s ‘Wont’ Get Fooled Again’ is the greatest damn rock song…*puts on Cool Shades* ever.”
YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
There! Fixed that for ya!
Thank you! That’s perfect!
Won’t!Get!Fooled!Again! Ohhh YES. Arizona desert. Walk-through van with the doors open. Driving at insane speeds given the load, and Who’s Next on the stereo at volumes that would wake every rattlesnake for miles…now *there’s* a cherished memory.
Dunno if I could choose a ‘best rock song EVAR’, but WGFA is certainly up there in the Too Awesome To Assign a Number To heights for me. Along with Ackdacka’s You Shook Me All Night Long and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Century City and Queen’s Hammer to Fall (tied with Tear It Up, also by Queen of course)…
Hammer To Fall is way overlooked Queen rocker. Great tune! With love of Canada’s BTO, it is hard for anyone that knows me to think I’d pick WGFA as my all-time favorite, but “Who’s Next” hit me when I was 14 and really turning on to hard rock and FM rock stations (late nights in the summer listening to Floyd on headphones is a great high next to actually being high). But I can imagine you in van waking up the wildlife… good times indeed!
😛
The same van that gave the world that deathless Stone Roadie Quote: “Who cares if we’re lost – we’re making great time!” 😉
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
This song reminds me of bar hopping – our ritual was hanging out of a sunroof while driving down the road yelling at the crescendo at the end of the night.
I had a mix-tape for the car of “scream” songs including Ian Gillan of Deep Purple (who could scream a storm as well) but it was WGFA’s ending that always got the crowd’s attention at the downtown Dairy Queen as my friend and I blew past in his old Skylark with the 100watt cassette system in it. Talk about waking the dead on a late summer’s night!
‘Ian Gillan of Deep Purple (who could scream a storm as well)’
CHILD. IN. TIME. Probably too moody and operatic to count as a great rocker, but OMFG Gillan’s ever-rising tortured wail!
Holy crap – Deep Purple? = YES. I was always partial to Highway Star, myself.
OK, WGFA – if not the “best rock song EVAR”, then absolutely “best SCREAM in a rock song EVAR”, narrowly beating out ‘Plant’s wails & howls on “Whole Lotta Love”, & Axel’s beastial shriek on “Welcome to the Jungle”!..
BTW Jeff in profile in this strip has a very Doonesbury look. Specifically, he resembles rockstar Jimmy Thudpucker as he looked in, yes, 1977. Coincidence or homage? Either way, win!
Heh…
Fun 1977 Fact: 1977 was the first year Berke Breathed began to draw cartoons. He worked as a political cartoonist for his local newspaper.
Later that year he drew the comic Honkey Trek making fun of a particularly sensitive school board debate and was literally thrown out of the office by his editor after people threatened to hang the both of them.
The word has not been safe since.
All that is missing are the Horatio glasses…;)