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deebrisbyfish · 2 days
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Look, there are just times when you have no other way to jot an idea down, and don't want to forget it. It happens. She knew what she was in for when we got together. lol
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deebrisbyfish · 4 days
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I'll admit, that doing these strips about Poe getting older were HARD. I debated making them for a LOOOONG time. I am emotionally not good with the idea that he's got far more years behind him than he has in front, and is starting to show that more and more. Lately, I've been pondering what that would mean in regards to the comic, where he's a MAIN character. Would I just ignore the issue and pretend he is a "forever puppy"? Would I address it head-on? I honestly still have no idea, since he's still very much with us. But he's getting older, and I've been thinking about him a lot. I've been thinking that at least NOW, whatever happens when, I've set that stage. I KNOW that I am not processing his age well in the real world. This is only a SLIGHT exaggeration of how in denial I have been. lol
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deebrisbyfish · 9 days
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No poodles were harmed in the making of this comic strip. In reality, we've had steps for Poe to get up and down off of our bed for a few YEARS now, but I've been a bit reluctant to show that he's getting older in the strip itself. But despite our best denial, he's not a puppy anymore and has become quite the grumpy old man of late. He is still, however, a bundle of manic energy and a regular source for laughs, so we're all good there. :) Also, if you're a fan of the comic, please help by VOTING for FINDING DEE in the 2024 RINGO AWARDS at www.ringoawards.com today!
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deebrisbyfish · 10 days
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I had originally wanted to run this idea when we saw our first robin of Spring on the 10th in the snow. It just looked so weird all puffed up posing like that. (Yes, it was alive and flew away after we drove past. lol) But I got sick last week and didn't get around to drawing it until now, and with TODAY being the same crazy, snowy weather here, it seemed SUPER appropriate to tweak the script to acknowledge today being the first day of spring.
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deebrisbyfish · 16 days
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So, I had been wanting to do a strip homaging the amazing work of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed and his comic, Bloom County, for a while now. I had done a character piece attempting the style, but needed an idea for a gag that worked. Later on, I began playing with an idea about my mounting anxiety in the face of a renewed legal assault against the transgender community that comes hand in hand with the Orange Cheeto and his ilk. The more I thought about it, the more anxious I got, and the lightbulb went off. The two ideas could be connected, considering how Drumph had been used in the original end of Bloom County back in the day. As such, here's another parody gag. Hope you enjoy. :)
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deebrisbyfish · 18 days
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This strip is an OBVIOUS exaggeration. I mean... I do NOT run. ;P
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deebrisbyfish · 22 days
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On the weekend of April 26th, I'll be in Chicago for the annual C2E2 convention setting up at the NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY booth! This will be my first time in Chicago, and I am super excited! I will, of course, have copies of the Finding Dee trade paperbacks and more with me, but I wanted to do something... special for the show. And I wanted to have something with a sketch cover, as I love those. As such, I came up with THIS!!! It's a new, 40-page, FULL COLOR comic collecting all of the homages and parodies I've done over the last few years such as this strip homaging Jim Davis' GARFIELD! (Seen here in COLOR for the book for the first time! Woot!) And for the cover, I wanted it to be an homage onto itself, and so did it goofing on the old "Marvel Masterworks" covers that I used to love back in the late 80s. They had covers similar to this, with a really cool, embossed, gold-foil border around images of the classic covers of the comics collected within. For THIS, it seemed like the PERFECT way to frame a blank area for custom sketches! For NOW, this book will be exclusive to my convention and/or in-store appearances, but if there's a demand, it may pop up in other stuff later. I'm really happy with how it came out, and if you're gonna be in Chicago this April, I hope to see you at the show!
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deebrisbyfish · 23 days
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I had a fun conversation with some other cartoonists in a National Cartoonists Society open house Zoom a couple of months ago about the difference between traditional inking and "digital" inking. I mentioned always feeling a little weird calling it "inking" as, obviously, no "INK" is required in any way. The idea sat in the back of my head until I also realized how often I draw myself at a drawing board I RARELY use anymore, and I figured I could combine the concepts and make Dandy the voice prodding the questions. He's FAR less antagonistic than Skeezicks, who I used to use as the Anxiety Demon in the strip, but still able to get under my skin for the sake of comedy. Plus... I never get tired of drawing him. What can I say, it's my comic strip. I'm self-indulgent. lol
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deebrisbyfish · 25 days
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An Abandoned Homage...
So, it’s no secret that I LOVE making homages to my favorite cartoonists and comic artists for “Finding Dee”. I’ve done a bunch for strips that inspired me such as “Garfield”, “Peanuts”, “Calvin & Hobbes” and more. I’ve also done a few for different styles of comics, like the work of Mike Mignola, Walter Simonson and even Al Williamson. Those, however, are a little different. In those, the “model” for my cartoon avatar is basically still the way I draw it, with the rendering style of the artists I admire pasted over them. Those are kinda more… style OVERLAYS as opposed to direct style homages. And, it turns out, there’s a very good REASON for this. A reason that became abundantly clear with a strip idea that has since been abandoned. See the above piece… That was to be an homage to Frank Miller’s classic “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”. It was a massively influential book on me and one I had a script for a strip that I wanted to homage. This was… to put it mildly… as far as I got. This was the 3rd attempt, with the first two having proportions MUCH closer to Miller's famous cover of issue #2 of DKR. Those I outright loathed seeing, so I altered the proportions more to my own model sheet, trying instead to just overlay the rough, craggly line style Miller used on the comic. This was coming out fine, but was causing me some AGRESSIVELY uncomfortable gender dysphoria drawing. I couldn't look at it without seeing the image I really try to NOT see when I look in the mirror, and not in a good way. It was making me hear every jerk and transphobe snickering in the back of my mind, and that is NOT a good or healthy thing. I poured over Miller’s work, and found a remarkably thin selection of women that weren’t his specific brand of hyper-sexualized cartooning or… well… women that looked like bloated tree trunks. There was not a lot of middle ground. I did not want to draw an entire comic strip where, in order to homage the Dark Knight Returns, I had to draw myself like a gnarled, knotted rhino-mutation. That would NOT do well with my sense of self-esteem. I mean, I’m not always kind to myself in cartoon form, but I’m not this:
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Curse you, TCRI!!
Now, and I say this KNOWING it will be more controversial, this is the same reason I’ve yet to pull off a Jack Kirby homage. I could homage his stylistic quirks and rendering style, but to try and draw MYSELF like a Kirby woman would be… unsettling. The King drew a LOT of lovely ladies, but anyone that wasn’t a pin-up model started looking a smidge on the... rough side, too. So, if you’re wondering why I almost EXCLUSIVELY homage comic STRIP and cartoony artists when I do homages, this is a BIG part of why. I don’t mind drawing myself like a potato. I just don’t want that potato to look like it was grown in Chernobyl.
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deebrisbyfish · 1 month
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"Dee", you may ask. "Didn't you JUST finish a 2-week guest stint as the artist on the syndicated DICK TRACY comic? Why are you having an anxiety attack!?" "Well..." I would say, reader from the future as I'm writing this on February 13th, "It is BECAUSE I just had a fairly big creative career success that I am fairly certain that I will be DEEEEEP in the pit of anxiety and self-loathing by the time this strip runs. My brain cannot allow me to have a win without giving me an equal amount of stress to compensate." "That's sad, and seriously unhealthy, Dee." You might say. To which I might respond, "Yes. Welcome to 'Finding Dee'." ;)
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deebrisbyfish · 1 month
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This was inspired by a VERY real thing. Mewsikeen LOVES sleeping directly on my chest, with her wee face right up towards my own. It's adorable, until I fall asleep. THEN I wake up with various nightmares of choking or being suffocated. Wheee! I knew this needed to be a strip, and my GIANT GIRL ADVENTURES collaborator, Sabrina, recommended the ALIEN homage as the "dream", which was far funnier and cooler to draw than just the horror of me choking in my sleep. lol
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deebrisbyfish · 1 month
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In my defense, Poe is VERY warm sometimes. If I added the cats, it would be even warmer. And no, I still don't REALLY have a Star Trek nightshirt. (I am a size 3X if any fans want to get froggy. lol)
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deebrisbyfish · 2 months
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This strip is something of an answer to everyone who read last week's extra Monday strip and wondered why too much lotion wasn't a great solution to my dry hand issues. Yeah, I COULD slop even more lotion on than I do, buuuut...
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deebrisbyfish · 2 months
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This is a strip that I debated back and forth on regarding the use of a punchline. Ultimately, I decided that it didn't need anything more than the visual. Hopefully, I'm right and the gag plays. I was an insomniac for the majority of my life until I got on hormones, but every now and again, this still drives me nuts. Such is life.
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deebrisbyfish · 2 months
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This is a KINDA gross strip on a lot of levels. But while I drew it, I had about FOUR bandages on my fingers thanks to cracked skin, so it felt like something strip-worthy. Also, "Don't hate" is VERY much a Heidi-ism that lets you know you've scored a metaphorical point, and that she has no comeback... yet. ;)
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deebrisbyfish · 2 months
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A few years ago, Heidi's son (and my stepson) Rick, moved down to Florida for a job. After the pandemic, he moved back, but I never folded any of that into the strip. he just kinda... vanished. Since then, every now and again, he says or does something strip-worthy, but since he's not been IN the strip for years, I needed a way to bring him back in for future use. This gag came to me after a weekend in which he was so engrossed in gaming that we almost forgot he was down there until he emerged for food. It was a simple and funny solution to reintegrate him into the narrative. lol
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deebrisbyfish · 2 months
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I've been wanting to try another ARCHIE COMICS homage for a while, and had a lot of fun with this. It was NOT easy, as most of the main characters are pretty darn thin, and most of the fatter characters are designed to LOOK funny. That, and my OWN style is fairly close to the classic ARCHIE look. I think my linework is a bit too busy in the hair here, but It feels pretty close. I'll have to ask Fernando Ruiz what HE thinks. lol
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