Lackadaisy Flimflam

still-the-best-1973 submitted:Hello there! I’m a longtime reader of the comic and a fairly...

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:24:37 -0500

still-the-best-1973 submitted:
Hello there! I’m a longtime reader of the comic and a fairly large fan, and as my way of thanks for brightening my day with your bootlegging feline shenanigans for the past four-or-something years, I wanted to share this with you; the first track of what I hope to eventually turn into a small three-or-four track EP inspired by Lackadaisy! I’ve been working on the project on and off for about two years now (inbetween the many other projects I’ve spread myself over in that time), but I hope to have the whole thing finished in no more then maybe a couple of months. In the meantime, however, I hope this silly little jazzy ditty I’ve put together puts a smile on your face!

- Decon
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That was a fun listen - it did put a smile on my face. Thank you so much! I’m honored, really, and reminded that as much as I draw comics selfishly for my own gratification, it’s probably the resulting creative transactions with other types of artists that make it most worthwhile.

blonde-hurricane96: Mordecai Heller Aww. That’s the...

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:14:16 -0500

blonde-hurricane96:

Mordecai Heller

Aww. That’s the most adorable Mordecai ever.
(He almost looks like a match for an animated fairy tale princess…but she’d only have the googly-eyes for him until she found out who had ‘disappeared’ her talking animal sidekicks.)

Full size here.This is a response to the 10 or 11% of my ask box...

Sat, 11 May 2013 17:47:48 -0500

Full size here.

This is a response to the 10 or 11% of my ask box consisting of inquiries about pancakes, waffles and pancakes vs. waffles.

I promise I’ve been working on things that are at least a little less stupid than this too.

So, Lackadaisy shirts are a thing now.In case there’s any...

Sat, 11 May 2013 17:21:38 -0500

So, Lackadaisy shirts are a thing now.
In case there’s any interest, they can be found at the 4de.com Store.

A drawing of Rocky by my six-year-old sister

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:13:01 -0500

cinnamonpug submitted:
I didn’t realize my baby sis was looking over my shoulder as I was reading Lackadaisy until I heard her break into uncontrollable giggles at one of Rocky’s expressions. I decided to let her look at the pictures, figuring the heavy subject matter would go over her head. She was completely enchanted and began drawing pictures of the characters. She claims this portrait of Rocky is the best drawing she’s ever done :)

Rocky by Sunny, age 6

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I had a pretty crummy week, but this made it so much better I almost cried.

Hi, Tracy, big fan of Lackadaisy here! I just wanted to check in on you and ask if you were doing all right? I haven't seen you post anything in a while, so I've been a little worried. Hope you're doing well!

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:09:02 -0500

I’m okay. Thanks for asking. I ‘m sorry I don’t have anything very substantial to share right now - I’m working on that - but I’ll post some small stuff here this weekend.

Hiya Tracy~ I'm probably commenting on another useless piece of information you already know of and get comments on, but I've noticed this "thing" you do with Mordecai's face every so often. His head is turned down and he looks sort of...well, foxish. Like in the second to last panel in Wassail and 8th panel on the Powder-Keg page. I was just wondering if this was done on purpose to show off his sneaky cunning or what have you. It's very cool~ (That's not a question, woops)

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:47:51 -0500

It’s kind of an imitation of the sort of posturing cats do when they’re bristling at each other and threatening violence - they turn their heads down, pin back their ears and glare daggers. It’s just intended to put an occasional predatory animal angle on Mordecai’s otherwise bookish countenance.

Do you have any plans to offer your new Rocky illustration as a print? I would honestly buy one in a heartbeat.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:40:57 -0500

It’s available here in two sizes.

Thanks for your interest!

Have you gotten offers for this to be made into a show? Would you want it to be made into a show?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:39:53 -0500

It has been optioned before, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot unless all of the right pieces happen to fall into all the right places all at the right moment…or you have an IP that’s just so wildly, phenomenally successful that producers with the right connections are clamoring over it.
I don’t know if I would want it to be a show. That would depend on a lot of things, like how much creative control I’d be able to maintain…which would probably be little to none, and I care too much about the whole thing to relinquish it to someone else. Anyway, dwelling on it isn’t warranted. It’s not threatening to happen.

Is Zib angry with Rocky over the pig-farmers incident? He seemed rather traumatized by the whole thing. If it were me, I'd be pretty ticked off!

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:26:20 -0500

It’d be fair to say he’s a little angry at everyone about everything.

A graphic for the back cover of the (eventual) volume 2 book.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:05:46 -0500

A graphic for the back cover of the (eventual) volume 2 book.

Tumbl'n with Kt: Advice To A Young Cartoonist

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:25:58 -0500

Tumbl'n with Kt: Advice To A Young Cartoonist:

ktshy:

(nabbed from James Sturm’s article on www.cartoonstudies.org)

Chuck Forsman and Melissa Mendes were kind enough to return to WRJ last week as visiting artists. They talked about their comics, Oily Comics, and life after CCS. During the Q&A a student asked what advice they wish they had…

coffeeandcockatiels: I understand Rocky a little more now after...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:40:50 -0500

coffeeandcockatiels:

I understand Rocky a little more now after the new art update. :3

Always love how you draw him.

Reblogging to also note that Coffeeandcockatiels is taking commissions, asking altogether too reasonable prices for top notch character art.

lackadaisychatterbox: Welcome to the world of Lackadaisy. Based...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 21:35:54 -0500

lackadaisychatterbox:

Welcome to the world of Lackadaisy. Based in the late 1920’s, some crazy cats have some wild adventures!

Lackadaisy is a work of fiction by Tracy J. Butler.

Read it here!

Voices:

Narrator and all Pig Farmers: Zakton

Rocky Rickaby: Tyler Carson

Captain Kehoe: Omzy Nomzy

Sound Designer: X-Trav

Video Mastery: DeftFunk

Haha. Wow - great voices, guys. It was a lot of fun to listen to. Thank you so much for making and sharing this!

Rocky as a human looks so familiar and reminds of an actor, but I can't pinpoint which one- (If I tried he reminds me of a cross between frankie muniz and leonardo dicaprio -both younger with really thick eyebrows). Was there anyone in particular that inspired his design?

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:58:00 -0500

No. I didn’t reference any faces for the artwork, and definitely didn’t want him to look like any specific person, celebrity or otherwise. I’ve received messages telling me he looks like Chris Pine, Zac Efron, Emile Hirsch, Robert Sheehan, Robert Pattinson, young Val Kilmer, Alexander Rybak, Justin Bieber, Peter Pan, Dmitri from Anastasia, Tom Sawyer, several “a guy I know”s, and some I’m forgetting, though. I can’t fathom in what way he resembles some of those but, eyebrows aside, he does have a sort of generi-face. I can understand how that might register as any number of young men to an onlooker. Oh well..

Why does Rocky have a brick on a rope?

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:39:46 -0500

What are the reasons a barefoot hellion child wouldn’t have a brick on a rope?

Speaking of awkward drawings, here’s a pile of Rocky.

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:06:37 -0500

Speaking of awkward drawings, here’s a pile of Rocky.

Hello!! I hope you're having a lovely day. I was wondering, when you create a new character, how many times do you find you have to draw him/her before you are happy with their design/comfortable with drawing them? Were some characters easier to refine than others? (if this question has been answered, do ignore it. I'll take the hint and look for it in the archive :P)

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:00:29 -0500

Sometimes it happens immediately, sometimes it requires pages and pages of awkward drawings and conceptualizing and writing before their personality and design seem to move into alignment where everything sort of clicks. Once that happens, though, it begins to feel more natural to draw them, and to do so in ways that reflect who they are. (Rocky’s face is built around the arches of his brows and smile, tapering off into little devil horn points. Freckle has the repeating round shapes of guileless youth, cue ball head and saucer eyes. Zib’s, sleek, but with a lot of prickly anxiety underneath, is all acute angles and narrow triangles.)
They never really seem to stop ‘evolving’ though - a not altogether unwanted side effect of time, I suppose.

Does rocky have a high school diploma?

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:32:05 -0500

No…but he does have a cactus friend.

For clothing, what era do you use to design them for your characters, since your comic starts in 1927? Do you use a mix of 20's and 30's since it your comic starts in the late 20's?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:33:06 -0600

I use the mid to late 20’s, generally. It’s a fashion era that’s pretty easy to distinguish from the early 20’s and early 30’s.
The early 20’s maintained a lot of Belle Epoque / Art Nouveau sensibilities - softer looking in form and employing a lot of gauzy layering and lush, organic patterns (top image).
The latter half of the 20’s was distinctly modern and almost assertive looking by contrast, where Art Deco had become the prevalent mode. (middle image)
In the early 30’s, the overall shape of clothing underwent more noticeable changes. It was a conservative time compared to the hedonistic 20’s. Dresses got a bit longer and waistlines returned to their usual location as the more traditional female shape became fashionable again. (bottom image)