Clattertron

Foxes & Boxes Comics and Blogging by Daniel J. Hogan.
  • New Readers
  • Patreon
  • Archive
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • Society6
  • Blog Archive
  • RSS
  • About
    • Appearances
    • Support
  • Contact

Newsletter

About Me

daniel j hogan photo

I’m a cartoonist who lives in Lansing, Michigan. Visit my shop to buy original art and more. Follow me on Instagram, @danieljhoganart.

My Books


Check out my fantasy-humor novel, The Magic of Eyri.
magic of eyri book by daniel j hogan
Amazon :: Lulu :: Ebook
Amazon Author Profile
clattertron blog

Behind the Scenes: Studying Classic Comics and Cartoons

by Daniel J. Hogan on January 6, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Behind the Scenes, Blog, News

[dc]I[/dc] always try to keep learning when it comes to cartooning, drawing, and comics. This usually requires a fun task: reading old comics. I recently picked up a couple of old comic collections for this very reason: Hey Look by Harvey Kurtzman and Nancy Likes Christmas by Ernie Bushmiller.

I did not learn about Hey Look and Nancy on my own, but rather by those influenced by the work. I heard or read about Hey Look and Nancy in podcasts and articles online, and after looking at a few samples (thanks, Google Image Search) I ordered both books.

hey look nancy

My copies of Hey Look and Nancy Likes Christmas.

 

Hey Look: Body Language and Expressions

Kurtzman is widely known for his work with MAD Magazine. Hey Look came before MAD and ran between 1946 and 1949. Old yes, but still gorgeous and hilarious—and weird, in a good way. I first heard about Hey Look in an interview with Ren & Stimpy creator, John K (this Nerdist podcast episode). John K’s recommendation was good enough for me and I looked for a copy of the collected Hey Look, which is out of print (I finally found a used copy for about $15 a couple of weeks ago).

After reading a few Hey Look comics, I could easily see its influence on Ren & Stimpy: the exaggerated expressions, the extreme body language, and the (at times) bizarre humor.

I love the expressions and body language in Hey Look (the jokes too), and these are both areas I always try to improve upon with my drawing. It reminded me of a bit of cartooning advice I read recently, about ‘pushing’ (exaggerating) poses and moment.

Continue Reading

└ Tags: autobio, behind the scenes, cartooning, comic creating, drawing, photos

Christmas Cartoons: Watercolor Snowman Families

by Daniel J. Hogan on December 30, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]S[/dc]tephanie and I went with the ‘crafty’ route for Christmas gifts this year. As in the ‘hand-made’ crafty, not the ‘sneaky, cunning’ crafty.

While Stephanie labored over her sewing machine making 16 pairs of mittens (from re-purposed¹ wool sweaters and Snuggies), I painted cartoon snowman families.

Do You Wanna Paint a Snowman?

I decided watercolor cartoons would make fun Christmas gifts. I got lucky, as I only needed to make six paintings, where Stephanie had to make 16 pairs of mittens (for my fellow communications majors, that’s 32 mittens total).

star wars snowman family

For the Star Wars fans in the family.

At first, my idea was to come up with six different ideas, and make each painting unique. A fine idea, if I could come up with all those different ideas. Inspiration struck while brainstorming ideas in my sketchbook. I don’t remember exactly how I got the idea, but a snowman popped into my head, and from there it became ‘snowman families.’

Assembly Line Cartoons

With my idea figured out, arguably the most difficult part of the project, I could get to work. Instead of starting and finishing each watercolor cartoon one by one, I took the assembly line approach, like I do with my comics and the mini-paintings I sell at shows.

snowman fam

Steph’s sister really has a shirt with Bacon the pig.

First: I thumbnailed the paintings and figured out how to customize each for the recipients.

Continue Reading

└ Tags: art supplies, cartooning, christmas, family, holidays, photos, star wars, steph

Amazon Enigmas: 2014 Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide

by Daniel J. Hogan on December 18, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Amazon Enigmas, Blog, Humor

[dc]O[/dc]h, snap. It’s that time again. Time to buy a gift for someone you can barely stand and hope it is the Perfect Gift, because BATMAN HELP YOU if’n it ain’t.

If you are like me, you probably waited until the last-minute, just like last year.

Look. I had 100 more hours of Mass Effect to get through, and those reruns of Riptide weren’t going to watch themselves (…if only they could).

Here’s my Amazon Enigmas 2014 Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide

Ice to See You

Christmas conjures up images of winter, a season of death, cold, and most importantly: ice. The water slowed to a solid state by extreme cold ice, not the rapper kind. For the ice lover in your life, consider this Iceball Sphere maker.

ice sphere maker

So many ice balls. I mean spheres. Image via Amazon.

Sure, it runs just north of $4,000, but there’s free shipping! Plus, it makes baseball-shaped ice spheres! Ice baseball, it’s totally a thing.

As the product description says:

can mold 30 to 40 balls an hour With English manual!!

Sold!

Speaking of Ice

I don’t know if you heard, but Disney’s Frozen is pretty popular. We all know the height of popularity can be measured by something appearing on leggings, perhaps the best barometer in our modern times. Leggings, like these Frozen leggings.

frozen leggings

I’m sure they keep you warm. Image via Amazon.

All your favorite Frozen characters can now be stretched skin-tight against your legs: Frosty Junior, Rich Boy, Not Frozone, Peasant Guy, and Not Frozone’s Sister.

Continue Reading

└ Tags: amazon enigmas, christmas, holidays, humor, shopping

Behind the Scenes: So long, AdWords

by Daniel J. Hogan on December 16, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Behind the Scenes, Blog, News

[dc]R[/dc]unning several websites means I’ve tried my hand at a few online advertizing campaigns to increase readership: Project Wonderful, Facebook, and Google AdWords.

A few months ago, my use of Google AdWords came to an unexpected, and unfortunate, end.

First thing: I’m not bashing AdWords here. I’m only sharing my experience, as a way to educate others.

You Done Goofed

To my surprise, I found out my AdWords campaigns were not running—and were not for a few weeks. I soon discovered clattertron.com was flagged as a ‘bridge page’ and (unknowingly) violated the AdWords terms of service.

I had zero idea why this happened. The vague description of a bridge page in the AdWords FAQ did not help either (essentially: a website leading to another website. Okay…)

After a couple of phone calls with Google I had my answers.

AdWords Doesn’t Like Affiliate Links

The main culprit for being flagged as a bridge page: my Amazon Affiliate links. The Google AdWords rep told me I couldn’t advertize a site with affiliate links—which wasn’t really clear to me in the first place, or ever.

I also couldn’t link to my online stores via Society6 or Storenvy either. Yes, linking my online stores was a no-no, even though they were not technically affiliate links.

Images in blog posts linking to an item on Amazon were also considered ‘ads’ and not allowed, even though I wrote about the item in the blog post (like my review of the Surface Pro 3).

oh rags.

Rags doesn’t care about online advertising.

Me: “So, if my site was all about product reviews, I couldn’t link to where visitors could buy the product?”

Google person: “Yes. It is not allowed.”

Better still, this exchange:

Google person: “There’s also an ad for…The Magic of Eyri in the sidebar. You can’t have that.”

Me: “…That’s my book. I can’t link to where people can buy my book? I don’t have the means to print and sell copies on my own.”

Google person: “No, you can only have links to your own site.”

I explained the links were how I made money, which I in turn used to pay for my AdWords campaigns.

Google said, if I wanted to continue to advertize via AdWords, I had to remove all the affiliate links from my site. Not just the sidebars, but the posts.

I laughed and said, “Well, sorry. It isn’t worth all the hours I would spend going through three years of posts to remove the links.”

Dropping the Hammer

I get where Google is coming from when it comes to affiliate links and ‘bridge pages.’ I’m sure there are plenty of fly-by-night websites thrown up with scraped content, stuffed with affiliate links (or redirects) and bring in readers via keyword advertising.

Google needs to be pretty black and white about this sort of thing. I get it: it’s another example of scammers ruining it for the people who actually create content.They could also be a bit more up front about what you can’t have on your website (it’s possible the terms of service changed long after I signed up).

The AdWords situation was frustrating and confusing, but it now means I have one less thing to worry about each month. I’ll put the advertizing dollars to some other use (which wasn’t a lot of money to begin with).

To Google’s credit, during my second phone call the rep did spend a good 10-15 minutes with me trying to figure out a way to make both of us happy. We couldn’t reach a compromise without me totally overhauling my website and changing the way I make money, so I had to walk away.

The Amazon Affiliate program helps pay the bills, but more importantly I need to link to were visitors can buy my stuff.

Read those terms of service, kids. Read them early and often, because they are always changing. 

This post originally appeared in a newsletter. I’m publishing it here with some minor updates and edits.

└ Tags: behind the scenes, marketing
  • Page 53 of 136
  • « First
  • «
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • »
  • Last »

Latest Comic

new daniel j hogan comics on patreon
New Comics on Patreon!
© 2011 - 2020 Daniel J. Hogan. All rights reserved. | Patreon | Home | Contact | Privacy | Affiliate Disclaimers | RSS
Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Clattertron title and face logo designed by Steve Jencks

Archives

Blog Archive
Comic Archive