What's My Line?

What's My Line? was another online-only comic series I drew for OlyBlog. There were 17 installments from Nov. 29, 2008 to Jan. 31, 2009.

I asked several OlyBlog contributors to draw a line on a paper, then the challenge was for me to make something out of it. Like the UML series, dogs smoking cigarettes was a theme. Take a trip to OlyBlog to read the text and contributors.

One set is missing from OlyBlog, so I'll see if I can find it in hardcopy around here.

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The Helium-Filled Potato

Montesano, Washington

Morty Comix # 2268

Drawn on sticky pads in Yakima, Washington

Left in the McCleary, Washington Post Office

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Don't Be Lazy

Olympia, Washington

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Not the preferred nomenclature

Elma, Washington

UML

UML was an online series I drew for OlyBlog from May 29, 2007 to Nov. 21, 2009. There were 37 installments, or "issues," I guess you could call them.

The idea worked like this: Our Washington State license plates (until recently) were issued in the form of number number number hyphen letter letter letter.


Here is my '96 Olds Ciera (with almost a quarter million miles!), the inspiration for the concept.

Whenever I spotted a fellow UML I would write it down. After gathering about 26 or 27 of them, I would record the sightings on a chart, like this:

Then I would remove the grid lines, allowing the dots to float free, thusly:

Then the dots would start to connect:


And finally the lines would form an image, which would almost invariably turn out to be a dog smoking a cigarette (or cigar):

In one case it turned out to a be a cat, but that was quickly undone and reformed into a dog. These sequences were all accompanied by text, which you can read on OlyBlog. Something happened to the graphics in the early ones, they need to be refitted. OlyBlog has gone through a couple major resets since they were first posted.

I'll skip the preliminaries and present here a gallery (in no particular order) of the final panels of each UML:

The Bulletin Board

When this was erected in 1986 it was clean and empty. But instead of removing old items, I just stapled over them. Soon I had to get a staple gun to attach paper to this bulletin board.

I guess the layer of paper is well over an inch, maybe two, in some spots. Lots of comix material buried in there, newspaper articles, posters, drawings by my daughter Rose when she was little, etc. etc.

Sometimes I would use it as a tool in creating a new comic. I'd photocopy the art, then staple it on this board, and stand back to evaluate how the different panels worked as a unit. Those working drawings are still in there too. Here we can see some images from We Rode With the Clowns.

One piece I wish I hadn't put in there is an original page by Jeff Nicholson, who sent me a brief visual narrative of his visit here in the late 1980s. Another buried treasure is Ken Kesey's autograph from the time I talked with him-- probably circa 1987.

So I continue to add stuff to this board. After I croak some archaeologist can carefully peel back the layers and mark comix eras via the paper strata.

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Elma, Washington