8/21/06:

THE END IS NEAR . . .

. . . for the BIG, IMPORTANT, HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL YET CUTTING EDGE t-shirt design idea contest! Contest ends August 31st! Enter now!

8/14/06:

Don't forget the BIG, IMPORTANT, HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL YET CUTTING EDGE t-shirt design idea contest! Contest ends August 31st!

8/7/06:


NOTE: Don't forget to enter the BIG, IMPORTANT, HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL YET CUTTING EDGE t-shirt design idea contest!

8/2/06:

7/23/06:

UPDATE - CONTEST EXTENDED TO END OF AUGUST!

Submit your ideas in the comments field below!

ANNOUNCING
THE BIG, IMPORTANT, HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL YET CUTTING-EDGE
UP TO BAT T-SHIRT CONTEST!

So here's the deal: It's just not a webpage these days unless there are CafePress items for sale. In the spirit of Web 2.0 I'm opening this up for suggestions. What do YOU want to see on an "Up to Bat" t-shirt? I don't know, maybe . . .

• Vincent in a white-powdered wig, quoting George Washington in a humorous way
• "Devil Dog for President"
• Vincent fawning over Milla Jovovich in a humorous way
• Your favorite comic strip
• Vincent quipping about some aspect of pop-culture in a humorous way

Whatever . . . You tell me!

So here's the cool part. I'll select my favorite, and the winner will receive a matted and framed original strip! Yes, I am that egotistical that I consider one of my own strips to be a worthwhile prize! The more specific your idea, the better! Go for broke!

Submit your suggestions in the comments below! Let the games begin!

7/16/06:

7/2/06:

6/25/06:

6/18/06:

6/11/06:

6/4/06:

5/28/06:

I work at a coffee shop.

On Sundays, I sometimes manage to work loose enough gumption to put pen to paper and attempt to make funny. The vehicle for this funny is "Up to Bat", a strip I first did for my high school newspaper. It gives me a chance to playfully vent about politics and pop-culture.

I've uploaded just about every strip I've drawn over the last two years. I may or may not scan in my high school strips (they're painfully bad, but part of the canon. Also, they show the first version of Vincent, and I really like how the character evolved.)

I will attempt to keep this comic-blog weekly, but I make no promises.

NOTE TO ALTERNATIVE, SMALL, AND CAMPUS NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS: If for some reason you're starved for content and have empty column-width that's going to waste, feel free to reprint any of the strips posted here. My only requests are that you reference the URL of this blog (www.uptobat.blogspot.com) and that you drop me a line so we can arrange for you to mail me a gratis copy of your paper (andrewmoore_AThotmail.com). I reserve the right to revoke this permission at any time.

5/21/06:

5/14/06:

5/07/06:

4/30/06:

4/23/06:

4/16/06:

10/30/05:

(10/31/05 was the TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Oingo Boingo's farewell concert at the Universal Amphitheater. I keep hoping for a reunion tour.)

10/23/05:

(Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.)

10/16/05:


(I should really try to stay away from autobiographical strips ;-)

10/9/05:


(This was the Sunday after Good Night and Good Luck debuted.)

10/2/05:

8/14/05:

(I remember this week vividly! "Thunderbirds are Go!")

7/17/05:

(Seriously. I would gladly have the geniuses at Scholastic handle Homeland Security. And FEMA. And the Social Security Administration. And the CIA. Actually, let's put Willy Wonka in charge of FEMA. Just imagine: Oompa Loompas cleaning up after natural disasters with a song and dance!)

7/10/05:

(Not particularly funny. I was moved by what Deepak Chopra said in an interview I read in one of the local "alternative" papers. The interviewer was belittling Chopra's viewpoint [if you can believe that!] I think Chopra's spot-on. It's what John and Yoko were trying to do with their "bagism" and billboards. Citing Yoda is just my weak attempt at a punchline.)

7/3/05:

(More basketball humor, this time at Kobe Bryant's expense.)

6/26/05:

(David Geffen infamously claims the public beach adjacent to his multi-million dollar house as his own private property. He's put up signs, fences, etc. It's absolutely crazy. Almost as crazy as the lady who came in, read this strip, looked up at me and said "Those damn conservative judges!" Yeah, right. Souter, Kennedy, Ginsberg, Breyer and Stevens. The "conservatives" on the bench.)

6/19/05:

6/12/05:

(Cheap? Yes. But effective!)

5/29/05:

(Yikes. I got some icy stares that day! For the record, I'm glad they didn't change the rule [the shoe will be on the other foot eventually -- probably this November!])

3/27/05

3/20/05:

(I may have the date wrong on this one . . . it was around the time of George W. Bush's second inauguration. That's what I was riffing on. I love trivializing politics by equating it with pop culture. People take it so damn seriously. "You could say I lost my faith in our politicians/They all seem like game show hosts to me" to quote Sting. Too true.)

3/13/05:

3/6/05:

(Seriously.)

2/27/05:

(Mayor Hahn was the incumbent. He was whooped by fellow Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, or as I liked to call him at the time "Hahntonio." It was like chosing between Vanilla Bean and French Vanilla ice cream. I hate local elections.)

2/20/05:

2/13/05:

2/6/05:

(I introduced Devil Dog to the strip thinking I could get away from the topical stuff (read: politics) and instead make funny about non-controversial things. As it turns out, Devil Dog usually has the last word, and he tempers Vincent's sarcasm and makes my conservative/libertarian viewpoint easier to swallow for my overwhelmingly liberal audience.)

1/30/05:

(Ahhh . . . Life in Hollywood!)

1/23/05:

1/16/05:

(I like goading Los Angeles sports fans, especially the ones who bemoan St. Louis "stealing" the Rams)

1/09/05:

(This is what happens when I listen to too much left-wing agitprop on the radio.)

1/2/05:

12/19/04:

12/12/04:


(See related strip here. This is Beanman, as I draw him. Jimmy loved this strip, and talked about doing a real "cross over" of our two strips. I vaguely remember the idea ... something about Vincent trying to order a cup of coffee. Jimmy was a fun collaborator. He'd tell me what he thought (He flatly rejected a Beanman strip I did once, saying that the customer looked too much like a crazed witch) but at the same time he was willing to let me contribute. A couple of times edited his dialogue (for brevity, if you can believe that I'd be concerned about brevity!) and I was worried he'd get pissed. Instead he'd laugh and say something like "yeah, I thought I put in too many words.")
(Jimmy was one of the few people I really clicked with out here. We had similar tastes and senses of humor. I looked forward to future collaborations, and to be completely honest, thought I had found a life-long writing partner. His death is still unreal.)

11/7/04:

10/31/04:

("Up to Bat" is a strip I did for my high school newspaper. "Devil Dog" was a strip I did briefly in college. Putting them together in one strip is a truly personal joke -- only I get it. Note that Devil Dog's spots are pretty fluid over the course of this strip [talk about "off model"!] The only consistency is the spot over his eyes. Both of my dalmatians at the time had spots in the same, er, spot.)

10/17/04:

10/10/04:

("Beanman" was the creation of the late Jimmy Zerda. Jimmy was a friend and co-worker at the coffee shop where I work. On Sundays we would post our strips side-by-side at the register. Most of the time, we'd produce our strips totally independent of each other and bring them in to post. Occasionally, one of us would inspire the other to get off his lazy ass and produce a strip. A few times we "raced" to see who could finish a strip faster. "Beanman" is a humanoid construct of giant twist-ties and a head-size coffee bean.)