Going forth to Vanquish the foe!

Priscilla the warrior goes forth and smite and vanquish the foe....okay.  I wonder if she can get into trouble for not following correct Army Protocol.  Will Willy ever get to finish his nap?  Will Carlos the Coyote rue the day he met up with Priscilla?  Tune in tomorrow bright and early for the smiting.

New and improved Priscilla

Drawing females has always been a challenge for me. Making a little rodent a sexy female has really been a challenge for me.  There is just not very many female rodent cartoon characters out there to get ideas from. 
Prairie dogs have really small ears and are hard to even see and besides that they look sort of like a chipmunk rather fat chipmunks.  But I think I have Priscilla down pretty close to the way she will be looking from now on.

Tomorrow Carlos the polecat or Coyote will be meeting up with our little Priscilla....

Priscilla Prairie Dog Warrior

 

The concept of Priscilla Prairie Dog Warrior is still in the design stages and over the next few months there will be some changes with how she looks.  This shows some of her moods....She can be almost an air head blond.  But rile her up and she will bring out her trusty sword she wears on her back like a Japanese Samurai warrior and lay on some serious hurt on who ever riled her up.

She calls her sword KATANA after the person who forged the sword in Los Angeles, California.

Her back ground is a little hazy but since she is a black tailed Prairie Dog what can I say?

Priscilla: Warrior Princess

Creating a sexy prairie dog, that is also a warrior princess type gal is not the easiest thing in the world.......... I have come to realize.
I actually kinda-sorta borrowed the concept of Priscilla's uniform from XENA Warrior Princess and added a viking helmet for affect.
Funny thing about something like a comic strip, it sort of writes itself.  Especially if you start adding off beat characters.  Anyway tomorrow more of  Priscilla Warrior Princess on the front lines of the prairie dog town. 

Females in Foxholes

Tomorrow we meet Priscilla ( the Hun).  For Willy and Joe 

their world is about to make a major PARADIGM SHIFT. 

Females on the front line

They are going to allow women to go into Combat....like that is something new. 
Her name is Priscilla and she is one very sexy little prairie dog.  I wonder if Willy and Joe will be able to remember to treat her like one of the guys.

It's a bird It's a plane...nope just a couple clouds.

Joe & Willy standing sentry duty and Willy mistakes a couple clouds for large birds. 

I have finally given the two little sentry prairie dogs names Joe and Willy.  Sort of like the the Joe and Willy cartoons from WWII except they are little prairie dogs.  Joe is the one with just four flowers in his helmet for camouflage and Willie is the one who looks like he has a flower garden on top of his head. 

Air Raid

Below are some penciled pictures of different Prairie Dogs done today.  I find drawing the critters between doing a cartoons, sometimes it actually gives me inspiration for another comic strip as well as getting the characters looking better.
You may notice that all these little guys are a little on the fat side.  I have never seen a skinny prairie dog and I would guess that their fat index must be way up there like 50% or more.  They need it to live in the elements like they do.

OFF TO WAR!

Not much of a gag as they say, just thought it would be fun to do this picture.  Note the mouse pulling the supply wagon.  The irony here would be that you will never see a prairie dog in a stream or any body of water....mostly because where prairie dogs live there is not much in the way of bodies of water.
Sergeant John Striker would never have his "Men" do what he him self would not do, so off into the body of water.  As Sergeant John Striker would say, "An idle Army is an Army that is idle", or something like that.  There is a sign at the Marine Corps Boot camp in San Diego that says,  "It is better to sweat in peace than to bleed in war!".  Another sign says "Pain is just weakness leaving the body." 
I wonder if those little guys following Sgt Striker thinks he is the biggest pain in their collective back sides they have ever known?

Approval Ratings

It makes one wonder what the Grand Poo-Paw's approval rating will be like after the citizens of Olde London Prairie Dog Town get wind of the tax increase. 
I have been in a bit of a writers block as they say for the past week, having sort of drawn my self into a corner. 
Writers blocks are pretty depressing.  Even though this is basically a hobby for me and I just do it for the fun and pleasure, I gave my self some goals that I intend to keep.  Being self intrinsic goals, they are the ones we most want to keep.  I am glad that I do not have any deadlines imposed by an editor or some outside source and as such.  I probably have more freedom on my subject matter and style than do people who do this sort of thing for a living.
Anyway, it is now back to the drawing board on a daily basis and see where this whole thing will end up.  That is one of the things I never took in account, Cartoon strips like this are almost a never ending story that sort of evolves over time. 
At times I almost feel like one of those mice in a maze.  I try something and if we run into a road block we have to back up and try another path.  I wonder if other cartoonists run into this type of thing.

The Grand Poo Paw!

Meanwhile in the chambers of the Grand Poo-Paw (see Prairie Dogs have paws...)The Grand Poo-Paw is lashing out at his faithful and underpaid adviser, Gimpy, about the lax security around the Prairie Dog town.  Hopefully Bobby the Werepoodle won't be losing his head any time soon. 

Chirp chirp.....

The Latin name for the common Prairie Dogs that can be found in Colorado is Cynomys ludovicianus (black tailed prairie dog) .  Farmers and ranchers hate them but for me they are lots of fun to watch.  When you come close to these little rodents a look out or sentry will raise both arms and start chattering away like they want to tell you to get the hell out of their area.  
As I develop this thread of thought with these little critters, more and more prairie dog critters will be showing up and hopefully you will get a sense of the little world they live in.  There will be the leaders and the followers, the thinkers and the non thinkers.
Of course my vision of a prairie dog town or village is a wee bit different from reality but it should be fun to create a brave new world in which the struggles of every day life of the little guys comes out and maybe you will recognize some of the same things going on in our own world (hint hint)

I am not fat, I am just under tall.

Sometimes it is good to be a little on the pudgy size...
I am kinda sorta proud of my self...yesterday at the food store, I actually walked through the aisle with all the chips, cookies and snacks and did not stop once.
My wife and I have a plan and goal, to each lose 20 pounds by this summer.  One way we plan on reaching this goal is to simply not buy any junk food, soda pop or beer.....That plus doing some exercising (besides running off at the mouth and jumping to conclusions).
Since I do the cooking and food shopping for us it is up to me to concoct low fat and low caloric meals.  No ice cream no chips not crackers, no pizza, no hamburgers, no more tacos or other fast food type meals......
just the thought of nice spicy taco or juicy hamburger makes my stomach growl....
Why is it that everything I like is either fattening, immoral or illegal?  This is a question that has plagued mankind for the ages.  Oh well one step at a time as they say.  Week one started last Sunday and even though I know it is 99% mental and we can do this, I could sure go for a nice tall milk shake about now. 

Sniff Sniff

Sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for.

Private Smithers, on guard duty near Olde London Prairie Dog town, is about to meet Bobby the Werepoodle. 

On Patrol

Private Smithers on his highly mobile patrol for enemy infiltrators.  He rides with the speed of the Army Calvary of the Wild West as long as the Army was riding large turtles.

Brave Private Smithers

Meanwhile, back on the front defensive lines of Olde London Prairie Dog Town, Army Privates get volunteered, just like in the rest of the world.

Grumpy Goose

After spending the yesterday and part of today up in the really cold Colorado Rocky Mountains and seeing the cattle and horses standing around in sub zero temperatures my appreciation of a warm home is now many fold. 
As for Bruno, the goose, it seems someone in FAA grounded him until his attitude improves.  Don't scoff, it could happen.  

Another Cialis moment.

Off we go, to celebrate our fourth Anniversary; in the same place we have spent our last couple anniversaries.  BTW, we actually got married on Elvis Presley's birthday Jan. 8th but my wife has to be back at work teaching little 3rd graders so today off we go up to the mountains to commune with hot stinky water and lots of snow and ice.  See you all in a couple days.

Grumpy Kitty advice.

And here we start another new year...