I’m super crazy busy and needed a little help this week. So today’s comic strip comes to us courtesy of Gabriel Reed. Gabriel is a long time Raccoon Toons reader and creator of his own comic strip: Vise Verca. Thanks again Gabriel for helping me out on short notice!

And now, as has become custom on guest comic days, you get a list of random things you may not have already known about Raccoon Toons.

1. The current storyline about making a movie was inspired by the fact that I just finished [finally] writing my own screenplay. I need to polish it up in the 2nd draft, but it is something I am proud of, and was on my mind which is why it’s made it into the comic strip.

2. Clips from this baseball cartoon that I made can be seen on the scoreboard of home games for the San Jose Giants, a professional minor league baseball team. That’s pretty flippin’ sweet if I do say so myself.

3. It’s summertime, which means the number of readers visiting the site is lower than it is during the rest of the year. But you’re reading this. And that makes you my favorite.

4. Once, many many years ago, I considered drawing Wendy with blond hair. I drew one picture, and immediately decided against it.

5. Advertising revenue has increased as of late. Go team.

6. I have some cool projects for the site that I’m hoping to start work on in the fall, once all the summer craziness is over. I’ll give you a hint. One of them involves both my animation and camera skills.

7. There are over 400 comic strips on this website. Good heavens, where did I ever find the time to make over 400 comic strips??

8. One day, Michael will pay the rent. Both literally and figuratively. Ok, maybe not literally…

9. Wendy doesn’t have whiskers because I thought it might look like facial hair and make her look less feminine.

10. I work 6 other jobs in addition to doing Raccoon Toons. That isn’t an exaggeration. I have 7 jobs. But Raccoon Toons is my favorite.

11. This list isn’t terribly exciting, but this post goes live in 10 min., so whatever. Thanks for stopping by. You’re aces.

The post Random List O Mania appeared first on Raccoon Toons.

This week’s art comes from Mike Lugaresi a stellar cartoonist and a pretty cool guy. I especially like the “He-Man” version of Michael there. Good stuff Lugaresi. Check out his Mike Bookseller series, which I regularly enjoy reading. Quality work right there.

And now, as has become tradition here at raccoontoons.com, we present you with a random list of things you may not have already known about Raccoon Toons.

1. You can always tell when I’m insanely busy when I start posting guest art. This week is especially crazy for me. I feel like I’m working 4 or 5 full time jobs. And yet, I am not receiving the income of a guy working 4 or 5 full time jobs. What the heck. But hey, if you would like to see your Raccoon Toons art posted on the website, draw some guest art of your own and email it over to me. I like getting email from people who read my work. And I always try to respond, even if it takes me a really long time. When I get guest art I save it for future use during busy weeks like this. Maybe yours will get posted. It’s even more likely if you send me Fig Newtons too. Just sayin’.

2. One of the most common questions I get are from people who want to know how old the characters are supposed to be. I’m not really sure how to answer that. I mean, they’re raccoons. How do raccoons age?? How many raccoon years equate to one human year? See, now you’re asking me to think and do some math and that just isn’t going to happen.

3. The town my characters live in was initially called “Oak Town” which was taken from a seriously awesome screenplay that I wrote, which was based off of a true story, which took place near a school called “Oak.” But most people around here think of “Oakland, CA” when they hear “Oak Town.” So I’m thinking of changing it.

4. There’s a secret ending to this animated cartoon I made. You have to click around to find it. In it is a landlord character. He looks and sounds like one of my former landlords. I was not a fan. He totally burned me on my deposit. Oh, and he thinks I murdered his friend. Seriously. I’m not joking. But that’s an entirely different story.

5. A lot of my female readers tell me they really relate to Wendy. Apparently I write women well. I’m not sure what that says about me… I’m going to go eat some beef and watch ESPN.

6. As a freshman in high school I took Japanese. When our final project was due, I didn’t know a lick of Japanese. Seriously, the only thing I could say was:  毎日、 3時では、私は大規模な牛を食べる。 So I created a comic book featuring my characters as they analyzed the difference between American and Japanese cartoons. There wasn’t any Japanese in it. Totally got an “A.” That’s the power of Raccoon Toons people.

7. Next month my web site traffic will drop. Apparently all of you are less likely to visit during the warm summer months. You’ll be back though. You all get really bored in the fall.

8. I hadn’t intended to use Bunny as a reoccurring character after her initial appearance, but she’s a fun character and the story demanded it. Also, a lot of my male readers seemed to really like her for some reason…

9. Some of you have purchased Sell-out raffle tickets. I’ve noticed. We’re gonna get there. No worries.

10. I have some really cool short film and animation projects in pre-production. Stay tuned. They should be fun. Assuming I ever finish these other jobs.

11. These lists used to go up to twenty-nine, but it’s seriously hard to think of twenty-nine things after already doing a few of these. So I’m sticking with eleven. Our lists go up to eleven.

The post Random List of Things You Didn’t Know About Raccoon Toons appeared first on Raccoon Toons.

I am not in town. And in case you missed it, I updated 5 days a week last month. That was pretty flippin’ awesome of me. I’m not in town this week to do a comic strip, so you get this: an informative list of things that maybe you didn’t know about Raccoon Toons.

1. This is the second time I have done a list of this sort. The first list of 29 interesting things was done last June and can be read here.

2. Raccoon Toons readers cover a large range of demographics, but the largest portion seem to be between the ages of 25-35. I find that interesting because I’m always trying hard to keep everything appropriate for all ages.

3. While we’re on the subject of readers, I’ve discovered that Raccoon Toons has 3 different groups of readers: Readers who come just for the comic strips, readers who come just for the blog writings, and readers who come for both. (The last group is my favorite. Shhhh….don’t tell the other groups. They’ll take it the wrong way.)

4. I have a constant battle with myself over how personal I want this website to become. I also have a constant battle with myself over how many Red Vines I can eat in one sitting, but that’s a different matter entirely.

5. As I’ve stated before, when comic strips update, they always update at 12:29am California time. It always makes me feel bad when I see people looking on the website for the new update at 12:26am, and I want to yell at them to wait just a few more minutes. I’m looking at you, Ohio.

6. Some of my readers are lazy. They only come to the site when the updates hit the Twitter or Facebook feeds, which I don’t usually update until at least 10:30am because that’s when those feeds are at their peak internet traffic. Want the updates immediately? Check the site at 12:29am, or subscribe to the emails or RSS feed.

7. I do have a Google+ account, that also publishes my comic strips. For those who are so inclined.

8. Speaking of social media, did you know you can also follow the site through Blogger? Yup. Just add the URL (http://www.raccoontoons.com/comics) to your Blogger feed or import it from Google Reader.

9. In the past year or so I redesigned the raccoons somewhat, trying hard to focus on the simple reoccurring shapes. The result was a younger, more vibrant set of characters, which I’m very happy with.

10. For the most part, I keep all my comic strips and storylines to myself before running them on the site. But I do have a couple of close confidants that I occasionally get feedback from before I run them.

11. Michael started wearing an orange shirt a while back because I felt the strip needed more color and contrast between characters. I felt orange fit his personality best.

12. I’m a pretty private person. As a result, the people who regularly read my work, probably know me best.

13. Nothing excites me more than when someone discovers I am the author of the comic strip and then they tell me how they’ve been reading my work. In a local town where my cartoons are printed in the paper, it happens every so often and that’s a thrill for me.

14. Each comic strip is drawn in blue pencil, then inked in black ink, then scanned, colored, and lettered in Photoshop. Someday when I have a few extra thousand dollars lying around, I’d love to skip the paper and scanning and use one of these bad boys.

15. One of the most challenging things I have to work with is the height difference between Matt and the raccoons.

16. I have stacks and stacks of the original comic strips inked onto bristol board paper, and I have no idea what to do with them, except stack them in my closet.

17. I used to never do color strips because they took too much time. Now I’ve gotten pretty fast at coloring and I won’t do strips without it because they look so much more alive.

18. “Useless Fruit Smashing Day” was created by my little brother, and is a day to remember my father and his life.

19. January has been selected a few times to update comics strips more than once a week, because I can typically draw a lot of them over the holiday vacations prior.

20. My roommates sometimes ask if anything they do will ever end up in a comic strip. I told them that it seems unlikely to happen until one of us moves out, at which point it becomes very likely.

21. Sometimes I think I can multitask and draw or ink cartoons while watching television. I can’t.

22. The past year or two I have been trying to further develop the characters and personalities of my cartoons more. I’m pleased with the progress that has been made. I am especially proud of the character Wendy has become. When I first started with her she really didn’t have much of a personality. Now she’s probably the strongest and most complex character of them all. I wonder if that is why my reader demographics as of late lean slightly more to females.

23. I find that I can often find traces of myself in any character that appears in my comic strip.

24. Matt is always reading a newspaper, even though no one reads newspapers anymore. It’s probably because he’s old, or maybe I’m just a little old fashioned that way.

25. I’m very pleased with how much the site has grown in number of readers. But sometimes I grow impatient and I wish it would grow faster. Grow faster dang-it!

26. It’s harder to come up with twenty-nine things than one would think.

27. Most of the random extra human characters that appear in various comic strips, are often based off of the physical appearances of people I actually know, although I rarely ever tell them of that fact.

28. San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson once appeared in one of my comic strips. I’m not going to link to it. You’ll just have to find him yourself. Pretend it’s a game of “Where’s Waldo?”

29. I’d do this anyway, even if no one was reading it. But it sure is nice to see the stats grow from the hundreds to the thousands and to read comments and get emails from people who do enjoy reading my work. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for reading me.

The post Another 29 Things You Didn’t Know About Raccoon Toons appeared first on Raccoon Toons.

By the time you are reading this, I will be in a car driving across state lines. My brother got married, and I’ll be driving him and his new wife back to their college town. As a result of all that wedded bliss, there is no new comic strip today. However, you will notice some really awesome guest art done by HUGE Raccoon Toons fan, Gabriel Reed. Thanks Gabriel for sending me awesome cartoons! Keep ‘em coming!

With no comic strip today, I have no real topic to write and vent about. So here is a list of 29 things that you probably didn’t know about Raccoon Toons.

1. Michael and Wendy Raccoon were first drawn back in 1991. But they weren’t the only raccoons drawn that day. There was a wild and crazy “Oggie Raccoon,” a nerdy “I.Q. Raccoon” and later, a young detective named “M.T. Raccoon.”

2. Michael has two younger brothers. Deke, who is often cynical and negative, and Todd who doesn’t do much other than play video games.

3. When I was a kid and started creating stories and characters, Michael’s best friend was a rooster named “Funky.” Yup. “Funky Rooster.” I thought it had a nice ring to it. It wasn’t until later that I finally realized it rhymed with “Punky Brewster.”

4. It wasn’t until I started developing the comic strip and the website that I decided to put the raccoons into a human world with Matt. I thought doing so would provide a more interesting dynamic, and I didn’t want to be a guy who only drew a bunch of talking animals.

5. The original comic strip and website was called “Matt & Michael.” I changed it because as other characters developed I felt the title didn’t fit anymore. The facebook fan page still uses the old name because facebook is lame and won’t let me change it.

6. I usually create broad story lines well in advance. Sometimes I have comic strips done well ahead of time, but usually they are created just a couple days before they are published online.

7. Comic strips are published every Wednesday morning at 12:29am, California time.

8. I have a little black notepad in which I write down ideas. I have sections for comic strips, sections for animated cartoons, and sections for things to write about. I’m getting better about keeping it with me.

9. About 80% of the comic strips I do come from observations or experiences from my life or the lives of people I know. 5% are just totally random ideas. The other 15% are also based on real life, I just lie about it so as not to embarrass myself or anyone else. Unless of course I’m TRYING to embarrass them.

10. I broke up Michael and Wendy’s relationship in February 2009 with the intention of getting them back together by Valentines Day. But Wendy became so much more of a individual during that time that I decided to keep her single longer than I anticipated. Let that be a lesson to you young ladies. Don’t let your relationships define you. I’m not telling what the future holds for the two of them.

11. Wendy holds characteristics of many women I have known throughout my life, but is not based on one specifically.

12. Everyone thinks that Matt is just me in comic strip form. But he’s a little more negative and anxiety prone than I am. Really Matt is a manifestation of our struggles to become a successful adult and meet our responsibilities. Michael is our inner carefree youth trying desperately to put off the boring responsible life for the undisciplined and appealing life of pre-adulthood. That’s why Matt is often influenced by Michael. It’s a comic strip about not wanting to grow up. Yeah. I just blew your mind.

13. The number of visitors and readers has really increased over the past year. I keep pretty close tabs on the number of visits and page views to my website. This is especially useful when random girls facebook stalk me and then claim to love my cartoons, without actually having read any.

14. The comic strips don’t generate a whole lot of income, but they do create more than enough to pay for the costs of owning and operating a website, and that’s pretty awesome.

15. I would make this my full time job in a heartbeat.

16. The first version of this website was built in 2003. It was pretty awful. It’s slowly improved over the years. I do it all myself, which is why things go drastically wrong on occasion.

17. I really should be a better artist than I am, and am often embarrassed by my poor artwork.

18. Creating a comic strip takes anywhere from 3-6 hours depending on how quickly things fall into place.

19. If you look closely, every comic strip is signed. There are also occasionally hidden messages or themes in my comic strips. Many times they are written in Matt’s newspapers, but that isn’t always the case. The number 29 is also a reoccurring theme.

20. The early versions of Michael had him without pants or shirts. But I thought it was weird that my other characters were clothed. So now Michael wears pants. He’s a long pants man.

21. Michael drives a blue Datsun 280Z. And it’s awesome, and I’m jealous.

22. My characters are all avid San Francisco Giants fans. But that’s probably pretty obvious.

23. My favorite part of creating comic strips is doing the shading. I find it very relaxing.

24. To date, there are close to 260 comic strips on this site. There are about 20-25 early comic strips that I removed from the site because I was dissatisfied with their stories. Basically I did a retcon. The remaining parts of those story lines still exist in the category titled “Really Old.”

25. I can’t write dialogue for comic strips while listening to any kind of music that has lyrics.

26. I enjoy doing holiday cartoons, particularly Halloween, so I can dress my characters in costumes.

27. I want to do more animated cartoons on the website, and I’m trying to move in that direction.

28. I started writing these blog posts below the comic strips because they generate more search engine traffic and are additional content for readers. I’ve come to really enjoy writing them, and often look forward to it.

29. More than anything, creating this little world is a great outlet for me, and the characters mean a lot to me. I am genuinely appreciative of those of you who come back again and again to let me share them with you.

The post 29 Things You Didn’t Know About Raccoon Toons appeared first on Raccoon Toons.