Second Rodeo

 

Happy New Year! Almost. This year brought me into a whole new parenting phase, with two kiddos. This comic was spawned by a phrase I saw somewhere along the lines of "I didn't realize I needed to know everything by my second rodeo - that is still a very low number of rodeos."

Text:
A: What's it like, having two kids?
L: Feels like my second rodeo. 

Spice Organization

 

Being with family over holidays makes you realize that there are just so many ways to do common things. Some are more intuitive than others. This is not based on a totally true story - the actual even was my mom looking for something in my spice cabinet and it is all organized by first letter but she wasn't seeing how it wrapped to the second shelf or something like that. But after drawing this I realized how many spices have 'a' as the second letter. Organizing by second letter just makes you look at words in a whole new way. 

Text:
L1: I thought you said that your spice cabinet was alphabetized?
L2: Yes, by the second letter.

Help from Apolo

And now to draw a speed skater:

True Story, if I were to be an Olympian I would like to be a speed skater. I just think that'd be fun, skating super fast. Due to this, Apolo Ohno is probably my favorite Olympian.

So for Thanksgiving I was making a Colossal Coconut Cream Pie which has a huge meringue on top and it was a little stressful to get that correct. It was a super good pie though, let me include a photo:

I'm not sure if that picture does it justice but it was tall and toasty (my spouse bought a kitchen torch for me and it was a little tricky to start but works great and I've made two meringues and a 6-pack of crème brûlée). As for calling on Apolo, I was stressing and started rhyming. And for some reason I was thinking about the Hershey Gold commercials from the last winter Olympics (Apolo starred in them and set me off on a quest to find the candy which is what commercials are supposed to do). 

Text:
Title: Separating eggs for a meringue

L: Oh no - oh no - calling on Apolo...
M: How is a speed skater going to help with this?
Bonus:
AO: You rang?

Snack Cake Merrily on High

 

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you have a simply wonderful Christmas time. Remember the reason for the season - the Savior of the human race came down to Earth to be born and live a sinless life, to be the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sin. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

Text:
C: Do you know the other verses of "Ding Dong Merrily on High"?
A: 🎵 HoHo merrily on high 🎵
B: 🎵 Twinkie 🎵

A Spinosaurus for Christmas Repost

I originally posted this one on Dec 25, 2018 and it's one of my favorite Christmas comics. I like the Spinosaurus - it has a cool history of discovery and I recommend a deep dive if you have the time. 

Text:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh
I want a Spinosaurus for Christmas
Only a Spinosaurus will do
No Velociraptors, no Triceratopses
I only like Spinosauruses
And Spinosauruses like me, too!

Yonder Pheasant

 

This is my attempt at a kingfisher and chickadee. I thought "what bird is nice and royal?" and figured the one with "king" in its name would fit. And I wanted the (checks lyrics of song for rank) page to be a bird with a hat, so one with "cap" in its name fit perfectly. 

Explanation: In the song "Good King Wenceslas," the good king asks his page "yonder peasant, who is he?" and I thought "peasant" and "pheasant" were close enough to make a bird version of this song phrase.

Text:
K: Yonder pheasant, who is he?
C: He's a quail, my good king.

Twelve Days of Christmas Repost

 

This one was originally posted way back on December 8, 2012! And it took me a while to find it because my search wasn't working and I also didn't write much on the posts back then so I needed to remember the title and I did not. I know there's symbolism in this song but when you think of the gifts in actuality, it's a bit weird. Also I recall reading somewhere that gifting someone 13 waterfowl is not an act of true love, but rather an act of violence, especially since the geese were in nesting mode. And that's just the waterfowl! There's nine more birds, for a total of 22 bird gifts. Most people could not handle that. 

Text:
Lady on phone, holding 5 golden rings and with 5 of the bird gifts in the background: Please stop all further shipments. 

Twanging Midnight Clear

 

And now this is what I think of instead of the proper lyrics. 

Explanation: the proper lyrics are "to touch their harps of gold" but I thought "twang" instead of "touch" and this comic happened. 

Text:
M: You know you're in the country when the angels twang their harps of gold.
L: But the midnights are actually clear out here.

Up on the Housetop Repost

 

A repost from Dec 23, 2021. A throwback to a song that I misheard the lyrics of until a few years ago, so that's like thirty years of thinking reindeer had paws for some reason. 

Text:

S: ♪ Up on the housetop reindeer pause - ♪

L: Reindeer don't have paws - they have hooves. 

Wenceslas Introductions

 

I did not realize how many comics I have done about King Wenceslas, but it seems to be only four. The fourth one is scheduled for later this month. Here are the earlier two! 1 2 

Text:
W: Yonder peasant, who is he?
P: My good king, we need to work on your introductions.

Green Sleeves Repost

 

A repost from Dec 18, 2016.There were a few years (2015-2017) when I used a whiteboard instead of drawing my comics. Before this, I would draw (on paper! with pencil then pen!) and scan in and crop each image and it was tedious but I do like physically drawing things. After the whiteboard era, I went digital. It's much simpler and I like how it looks, even if it doesn't have all the feeling of a hand-drawn comic. But I still hand-draw cards when the need arises. 

Explanation: The Christmas song "What Child Is This?" uses the tune "Greensleeves." 

Text:
A: The kid with the green sleeves lost his nametag.
B: What child is this?

Platypudding

My brother sent me the fact that platypus have both eggs and milk and therefore can make custard, so of course I had to look up if you really could and you CANNOT! It's illegal and they don't lay unfertilized eggs and also the eggs are tiny and they sweat out their milk so how would you even collect that. But then I was already on the platypudding train (I later realized that custard and pudding are not quite the same but we're already here dying things teal and giving out fedoras).

And now for some lyrics to hear incorrectly:

Explanation: The platypus is an anomaly since it's a mammal (has milk) and also oviparous (lays eggs). Custard requires eggs and milk to make. There's a famous platypus that's teal and wears a fedora (Perry, or rather Agent P).

Text:
A: Why are you looking up if a platypus can lay unfertilized eggs?
B: They have both eggs AND milk! You know what else has eggs and milk?!?
A: I think they're the only - 
B: Custard!
A: That cannot be legal.

Months of the Year Part 3

 

Happy almost Birthday to my sister!

A final appearance of the OctoBear for this year? Time will tell. We have left October so it's not very likely for him to show up again. Just completing the calendar for the year. Happy December! 

Text:
Months of the year, January through September, ending with the OctoBear holding a turkey and Santa.