Bob Lilly's Comics and Stories

The Snipe Daily Format November 1, 2011

2011-11-01T17:10:00.000-04:00

Here's what I think. I looked at a website where the performance of mutual funds, stocks, and bonds are tracked and have concluded that everybody that is investing money is losing money. That is for the last five years or so.

Rich people, the super-rich are keeping their money in their mattresses. Why should they invest their money in anything? Hence the economy is spiraling down.

On a happier note, Happy birthday to my best half, Becky.

Happy birthday to Steve Ditko. If you don't know who he is, google him.

NOTE:

Not that I am a snob, but please don't add me to your Facebook yearbook. This thing takes me to a page where I agree to let them have rights to my stuff. I want to be in your yearbook. I really do. I want to retain my rights. I really do love each and every person that I have known for a long time and will still speak to me.

See ya soon!

Bob Lilly's George Carlin Story

2011-10-30T15:36:00.000-04:00

It's called Bob Lilly's Comics and Stories. This is one of the storie and it occurred in the fall of 1971 almost forty years ago on the mark. I was on the student newspaper at Concord College in southern West Virginia and it was homecoming week. I knew the George Carlin was going to perform at our school on a Tuesday night and coincidently at the exact time he was supposed to guest star on the Flip Wilson TV show. I wasn't sophisticated to know that the TV show had been tape recorder a couple of weeks earlier.

The student body president, Nick (I don't remember his last name) was going to greet Carlin as he parked his car and he made good on his promise to me to ask George if I could interview him for the Concordian.

A room had been set aside for Carlin and in that room was John Valleau, Photographer Joe (Oxley, I think), and me with a borrowed cassette tape recorder. George was cool with all that we asked of him.

The whole group asked him questions for about fifteen minutes before the floor began to shake with BOOM BOOM BOOM. George jumped up and said it was the audience and they were ready for the show.

We were outside the auditorium and George asked us if we could get him a glass of water. Someone found a largish, reaatively clean looking paper cup on top of something and George said that would do. He rinsed it in the drinking fountain and filled it up.

As George entered the stage door, the rest of us squeezed our way into the audience. George began with walking around in front and making incredibly funny goofy faces at the croud and had us laughing without saying a word. He did pretty much all of the material you can still hear on his records from 1972.

At the halfway point, George asked, " Did you ever notice that a swallow has two parts?" He put the microphone to his throat and picked up the questionable paper cup of water and let us hear what a swallow of water sounds like.

After George performed for an hour or so, he left and so did I. For another forty five minutes I interviewed him while a rock group was performing. I really don't remember which group it was.

Esquire magazine has just published an exerpt of Albert Goldman's book about Lennie Bruce. George told me that he had not only read the entire yet to be published book, but that he had talked to Lennie's Mother and widow about the book.

He told me that he really didn't know for sure what he was going to do before he started a performance but he would have a couple of prepared bits to fall back on when he began to draw a blank. That is what the drink of water was.

He described his bits as a box of paints that he would recombine to make an entirely new painting each show.

George told me that he used to hitchhike a lot in his younger days and he still remembered some amusing town names in West Virginia. Fry, and Man and Pie (which is a piece down the road).

I don't seem to have a copy of the Concordian which ran my interview with George Carlin. He wrote down his home address in Vienna California (with a ball point pen that wrote in purple ink) and asked me to mail him a copy of the paper. Maybe I sent him my copy.

I stilll have only the photo which was taken and developed by Joe (the back of the print has "photo by JWO" written on it. I remember he was from New Jersey byt I am not 100% that his name was Oxley.

I am wer=aring a pair of Harness boots that I bought for around twenty bucks and a Mountaineer Boys State shirt. Boys State was an annual week long camp that had one boy from every high school in West Virginia. It was considered an honor, by some, to go there.

George Carlin is wearing blue denim with embroidery on the bell bottoms. This was the frist time I ever saw him with a beard and never again did I see him without one.

I am sure he would not have performed at a small college in West Virginia unless he needed the money. In his book "FINAL WORDS", I read that he was having a career setback at that time because he grew his hair and beard, etc. Plus drugs and different comedy material than before. This evolution from Al Sleet, the hippy dippy weather man into George Carlin, observational humorist probably enabled his career to continue for a long time.

I treasure the memory of this encounter with George Carlin forty years ago.

Don't Tell Grandma October 15, 2011

2011-10-15T16:44:00.001-04:00

Okay, so it has been a few since I last posted. Here is another scene from DTG: Cardboard Wars for your enjoyment.

Happy Birthday to Alexandra.

There are TV shows that you really don't want to publicly admit to watching. Some because they are stupid. Some because they are vulgar. And my favorite, stupid AND vulgar.

I have always thought that TWO and a HALF MEN was a pretty good show. I don't want you to know that I watch it but it was always witty and well done. Maybe you have heard that they changed the casting recently. They should have ended the show.

I remember that Ashton Kutcher played a dunce on THAT 70s SHOW. He is pretty much playing his new character on TWO and a HALF MEN as a dunce. Jake was the dunce character. Now Jake just walks through one scene per show because there isn't enough contrast between characters for the new dynamic to work.

The show just doesn't work. Charlie should have been replaced with another guy exactly like Charlie.

When Curly died, Moe and Larry didn't bring in another bullying bossy character. They brought in another zany guy and made it work with Shemp.

I wonder how the show will do in the ratings this year.

See Ya soon.

The Snipe Daily Format September 27, 2011

2011-09-27T13:53:00.000-04:00

This actually happened to me a long time ago. Question number one was either, "Will you shave off that beard?" or maybe "Will you get a haircut?"

That was back in 1973 and I still don't know what was question number two. I have worn short hair and have been beardless nearly my entire life. Oh well... The "Snipe" is not usually autobiographical.

See ya soon!

Don't Tell Grandma September 22, 2011

2011-09-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

Today is the second installment of Don't Tell Grandma: Cardboard Wars. Whaddya think?

This one is dedicated to Mom, who would have been 83 years old today.

The Snipe Daily Format September 19, 2011

2011-09-19T15:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to BLC&S Today, the "Snipe".
Did any of you break out your wallets and buy yet another version of Star Wars this week?

How many versions did I buy so far?

1. Saw all of them in the theater.
2. Bought the original trilogy on VHS
3. Bought the original trilogy on VHS WIDESCREEN
4. Bought the Special edition of the original trilogy in VHS with new scenes and Jabba on the first one
5. Bought all six movies on DVD
6. All six movies on Blu-ray

I should be ashamed of myself.

See ya soon as we continue "Cardboard Wars" in Don't Tell Grandma.

Don't Tell Grandma September 15, 2011

2011-09-15T08:25:00.000-04:00

This one is dedicated to several of you who have let me know that you notice when my comics are gone for a while. It looks like I'll be able to post these a little more often for a while. The weird part is that this web site still enjoys pretty good traffic even when the posting is scarce.

I actually have a number of "Snipe" comics that are complete and not posted. I like the new character"Sweetie" and the non posted comics have an earlier version of Sweetie that is off model. Maybe I can redo those gags using the duck or the rat in her place.

Grandad is going to his high school reunion pretty soon, so please visit this site and keep an eye out for that.

Much love to my cousins, my classmates, Becky, the kids and grandkids, and to most of my co-workers.

See ya soon!

Bob Lilly's Zappa Story

2011-09-01T21:48:00.001-04:00

Almost all of my posts are comics. Sometimes a story. Today I am ready to tell you my Frank Zappa story.

If you are a Frank Zappa fan, you may have looked at the websites that attempt to publish the schedule of dates and places where he and his band appeared. Some of these lists have him playing in Charleston, South Carolina on May 4th, 1975. He was actually in Charleston, West Virginia that Sunday. I know. I was there.

It was about an hour before you would think anybody would arrive at the Charleston Civic Center but there was quite a crowd milling about in the front of the building near the ticket office. Not yet forming a line. My date and I walked around the building to a side entrance which had a garage door. I assume this is where the equipment was usually carried inside.

Much to my surprise, a white limo drove around the building and out popped Frank Zappa. He actually walked a couple of steps in our direction (I assume) because I had several cameras hanging around my neck and he possibly was willing to interact with the local press. But I was not a reporter. I was only a fan who was stalking him that day. I said to him, "Welcome to Charleston, Frank. We're glad you're here. (speaking on behalf of many other people or using the "royal we". Take your pick).

He said, "OK, but it will have to be click click. I'm in kind of a hurry."

Since my date had a Poloroid camera, I turned and posed with Frank. As you can see, my date didn't compose the picture as Frank and Bob. It is more like Frank in the center with Bob trying desperately to be included in the shot.

As you can see, Frank is an average sized guy and I am a big guy. I love it that he posed with a cup of coffee. I was impressed that he was actually well tanned and healthy looking. He went to great pains to present a freaky image on his album covers and posters.

I was also amazed at how black his facial hair realy was. He was freshly shaved and yet his beard looked blue under his skin. He was wearing a string of beads and had a little american flag on his lapel.

I thanked him and he walked inside. About thirty seconds later, Captain Beefheart, George Duke, Bruce Fowler, and the rest of his band came walking around the building to where we were. Apparently their limo driver let them out up front at the ticket office, right in the middle of the crowd. That must be why nobody else approached the door we were at when Frank Zappa arrived.

About four years before this, a nutcase attacked FZ in England during a concert and pushed him from the stage into an orchestra pit. He usually had a security guard with him for a time afterwards. I am surprised he got out of the car outside of the building.

Around the same time as the Charleston concert, I believe FZ was involved in a huge lawsuit in England because they had cancelled his scheduled concerts, possibly at the Palladium. He had several legal and financial challenges so that may well explain him performing in West Virginia.

Remember the cameras I had around my neck? I was able to go inside early and crank off a few shots while Frank was setting up his guitar and adjusting the amps.

In the first shot, he is playing a quick guitar solo and the small group of us next to the stage are hooting and hollering and clapping our hands. It seemed to amuse Frank that we would react to what to him was mere practice and warm up.

I like this shot. The famous profile and if you look in the lower right, you will see his name painted on the side of some equipment.

He is making some adjustments on the amps. If you look at the neck of the guitar, you will see that he parked his cigarette under a guitar string between the pegs.

You may have observed that I didn't have a camera flash. Back in that era, I was always trying to find ways to get good photos using available light. Using a flash would sometimes get you kicked out of a place. I also developed these black and white prints myself, so don't blame Kodak. I probably used grainy as heck 400 speed film, which didn't need very much light.

The other camera around my neck had color slide film. If I ever find the slides I may post them as well.

Please respect that all of these images are copyright 2011 by R. Lilly

See ya soon

Ths "SNIPE" August 24, 2011

2011-08-24T19:15:00.000-04:00

Hello to ya and welcome to BLC&S.

I slowed down for a while on the posts to avoid just cranking out comics for the wrong reasons.

Pretty much there is only one right reason...
I feel like it.

I plan to feel like it again pretty soon so please come back.

There are lots of comics on this site so stay a while.

Ths "SNIPE" August 21, 2011

2011-08-21T18:19:00.000-04:00

Hello,
Thoght I would throw together a little color for the "Snipe" today. It's Sunday.

Ths "SNIPE" August 13, 2011

2011-08-13T08:59:00.000-04:00

I'm Baaaaaack.

Hello to all of my friends. What a busy and quick summer 2011 has been.

See ya soon!

Don't Tell Grandma Daily Format Comic June 16, 2011

2011-06-16T19:53:00.000-04:00

DOes Grandad have a good memory? Yes! He can remember everything he pays attention. Of course we know he never pays attention.

The internet and websites are a mystery to this old cartoonist. A couple of weeks ago, the traffic to this site took off. It increased by tenfold. The audience was there all the time. Then suddenly, today, the traffic slowed way down to a trickle.

I wonder why it increased and decreased....

See Ya soon!

The Snipe Daily Format June 15, 2011

2011-06-15T20:06:00.000-04:00

You keep reading them and I'll keep drawing them.

I have toyed with the page layout and addes some pictures of my comic characters on the top of the page. With the great response I am getting to my comics site, I am encouraged to learn how to improve it.

See Ya soon.

The Snipe Daily Format June 14, 2011

2011-06-14T19:47:00.000-04:00

The "Snipe" is about freedom. Don't mess with the "Snipe".

At great risk, I thought I would list some of my favorite living and active cartoonists. This list is not necessarily in order. Here goes... Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Steve Ditko, Jeff Smith, Bobby London, Tom Richmond, Jim Borgman, Garry Trudeau, Seth, Joe Kubert, Stan Sakai, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Mort Walker, Eiichiro Oda, Jim Steranko, Dave Sim, Patrick McDonnel, Steven Pastis, Charles Barsotti, Mike Mignola, and Al Jaffee. If you happen to see one of these cartoonists, tell them I said hello.

See Ya soon!

The "Snipe" Cast Picture Comic

2011-06-13T19:54:00.000-04:00

The "Snipe" with the whole gang. Learn the names of the characters today.

Thanks for your friendship. It is wasted on the "Snipe", but I really appreciate it.

See Ya Soon!

Don't Tell Grandma Sunday June 12, 2011 (81)

2011-06-12T18:53:00.000-04:00

Howdy!

Today is the "Snipe"'s day off. Grandma has rules that try to keep Grandad from blowing up the house. She has to be pretty carefull about she says things because Grandad has a very concrete mentality. That fact is based on me.

Please bookmark this site and come back often. Please visit all the sites I have linked on the right. They are all great.

See Ya soon!

The Snipe Daily Format June 12, 2011

2011-06-11T19:51:00.000-04:00

Hello and hello again. Thanks for visiting Bob Lilly's Comics and Stories. If you enjoy this comic strip website, please bookmark it and tell your friends. If you don't like it, please send the link to all of your enemies.

I have had difficulty adding comments to my site and to others today. My comments seem to loop back to my Google log in. I have visited several sites. I tried to answer lesdyxius who has a prety good comics site called Hungry Comix. There is a link to follow from this site.

I also greatly appreciate the Grantbridge Street comics site. Pay them a visit.

I really like Shane Glines Cartoon Retro. I wish Shane would post a link to my site. Still, go visit him. Great Site.

See Ya soon!

Sweetie got "Sniped" June 11, 2011

2011-06-10T19:46:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Bob Lilly's Comics and Stories.

Which cartoonists do you think I learned from as I developed this drawing style. Who am I imitating. Whose drawing or rendering licks have I stolen along the way. Please leave your opinion on this in the comments section and I'll respond to it.

See ya soon!

The Snipe Daily Format June 10, 2011

2011-06-09T20:49:00.000-04:00

Why did Frankenstein's Monster quit smoking? The old boy really enjoyed it in the hermit's shack when he learned to talk. The next movie he was wearing a fuzzy vest and didn't smoke. Was the sheepskin vest that flammable?

I think it would have been cool if he puffed on a cigarette while he duked it out with Wolfman.

You can't help but think of stuff like that if you are a cartoonist.

Bonus Don't Tell Grandma Comic

2011-06-08T18:22:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who clicks their mouse in my direction.

Lot's of people have visited my comics website today so I did a new Don't Tell Grandma comic with the energy you gave me.

BTW, if you look close you can tell Grandad is listening to Lady GAGA.

Here is dancing rear end Typography...

(_\_) (_|_) (_/_) (_|_) (_\_) (_|_)

See Ya Soon!

The "Snipe" (48) Wednesday, June 8, 2011

2011-06-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

Hello and welcome. Thanks for visiting. Hope your summer is off to a good start.

New character today in the "Snipe" comic. The "Snipe" doesn't like her but I do.

Don't Tell Grandma Sunday June 5, 2011 (81)

2011-06-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

I remember that in many of the newspaper comics that I read the story would pause for a day and Little Orphan Annie or Dick Tracy would wish the readers a Merry Christmas or whatever was appropriate. Now that I do comics I have come to realize that people are not going to access a comic during a holiday weekend.

That inspired my current bout of laziness.

DTG IN "DAILY" STRIP FORMAT

For a little while I will continue my Don't Tell Grandma experiment with a series of daily comic strip format posts. I wish to develop this aspect of the Grandma comic.

Happy Birthday to Jimmy Lemon, Addison Tharp, Katie Lagrange and Matt Lagrange.

THE NEW X-MEN MOVIE - MY VIEW

I really didn't expect to like the new X-Men - First Class but I generally like to see these superhero movies in the theater on a big screen. Despite my prejudice against Marvel Comics movies, I really thought that this story hit on all cylinders.

I have developed a dislike of superheroes in costume in movies. How the heck can someone act well and convince an audience of the emotional aspect of a scene with their face covered in a mask? OK in comic books...stupid in movies! This is why Batman or Spider-man generally get their mask torn in the last big scene so you can see the actor's face. The TV show Smallville showed us that the acrobat costumes are not needed either.

This X-Men movie didn't burdon itself with masks and costumes. It does tell a well motivated story with a sequence that causes the X-Men team to form. You don't need to be a comic book nerd to understand this one. Story comes first and subbordinates the special effects.

I must confess that I have always felt like an outsider and can really identify with the way the mutants are treated as outsiders in this movie.

I expect to like the Captain America movie. There was never a more action popping from the page comic book than Captain America as drawn by Jack Kirby. Period! I also like the way Cap's costume looks. I can actually imagine the army issuing the version of the uniform as seen in the previews. Looks good. I'll wait and see.

The movie preview that ran chills down my spine was Green Lantern. This looks to be the biggie for the summer. Either take someone or allow yourself to be taken to this one for father's day.

The "Snipe" (47) Wednesday, June 1, 2011

2011-06-01T08:02:00.000-04:00

Hello to all of you.

This "Snipe" comic may be considered to be cynical.

Blame Mad Magazine for pulling me a bit in that direction when I was 10.

I like you guys. You are thinkers.

Don't Tell Grandma Sunday May 29, 2011 (80)

2011-05-29T06:17:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Bob Lilly's Comics and Stories. Today we have a new full-color Don't Tell Grandma comic.

There is also a story. This is my Vaughan Bode story...

I became a fan of Vaughan Bode when I saw "The Masked Lizard" published in a paperback book called "Wonder Warthog, Captain
Crud and Other Super Stuff" somewhere around 1967 or 68. I began seeing his stuff in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine and

really fell for the comic "Sunpot". I once had a softcover book of "Deadbone" that was a collection of the pencil toned comics Vaughan did for Cavalier. This book had a self portrait of Vaughan, circa 1971. This self portrait eventually allowed me to identify him when we met.

My friends Dave Ferrari and Greg Wallace and I went to Phil Seuling's 1972 New York Comic Convention during the first week in July. Toward the evening, Wally and I were in the hallway heading for our suite when we saw a man sitting on the floor drawing a picture in a sketchbook. If my memory is still OK, he was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and purple bell bottom jeans. He had a leather bag that he wore around his waist, like a belt. But we kept walking. When we got to the room I told Wally that the man sure looked like the drawing of Vaughan Bode in the Deadbone book.

About an hour later, we headed downstairs toward the all-night movies and the man was still there. I snuck a peek at the drawing and confirmed this was indeed Vaughan Bode. I grew roots. We began talking about nearly everything you can imagine. For the next three and a half hours, we were literally best friends. Vaughan told me about buying an orange Opal that he had no idea how he was going to pay for, then he received several checks for Junkwaffel comics. He seemed to be in a spiritual mood and talked about God being a process. He told me about a fifteen year old guru that was then in New York City. I was doing a comic strip in college newspapers called "Sydney of the Sewers" a superhero farce.

While we were there in the hall, a fellow introduced himslf as Denis Kitchen, who was beginning to publish undergrounds under the Krupp Comix imprint. Denis asked if he was Vaughan Bo-day. I think Vaughan gave Denis his contact information and Denis left. Vaughan advised me to always draw comics but to avoid drawing for work for hire companies. He may have been, in a polite way encouraging me to keep this as a hobby. He instilled in me the avoidance of pandering.

Before we parted, Vaughan wrote out his address and phone number. He shook my hand and looked me in the eye while doing so. He finished the handshake by saying, "I WILL see you again". Sadly, that reunion never happened. The next month Vaughan's toons in Cavalier had his orange Opal and the following month there was a character swimming out of a toilet, saying I see the truth...and light. I always thought that one was directed at me (Sydney of the Sewers).

Back in those days news didn't travel very fast. I was in a record store in Charleston, West Virginia and the store owner had just got his subscription copy of a comics newsletter and broke the news to me that Vaughan had recently died. I was pretty low for quite a while.

In 1976, out of the blue, I got a phone call from Charles Law, Vaughan's publisher who ran Northern Comfort Communications in Vancouver, B.C. Turns out that he was from West Virginia and was visiting. He came to my house and we had an enjoyable chat. He told me that I should get to know a fellow Bode fan named David Rains. David an I exchanged letters and he sent me some photos and some xerox copies of stuff from when he visited Barbara and a very young Mark Bode in california, He sent photos of clay figures Vaughan had made of some lizards and a lot of sketchbook stuff in the Junkwaffel vein.

If only he had enjoyed a longer career, Vaughan Bode would day be a very mainstream figure. To my knowledge, only Winsor McKay and Vaughan Bode were successful in transforming comics into a performance art. Bode's Cartoon Concert was well regarded. His cartoon art was perfect of projecting on a screen because the balloons were outside of the panels. Vaughan was one of the few artists to work in full color without touching a brush.

He worked on three-ply bristol board using a fine point Flair brand felt tip pen and the color was from AD Markers. I think he drew preliminary drawings in Flair and traced these onto the bristol board. It is kind of hard to work in full color on paper that you have erased the surface.

It looks like he sometimes used a bit of chalk on the drawings.

Let's just say that Vaughan Bode was a completely original comics creator who cannot be imitated. Believe me... I've tried.

The "Snipe" (46) Wednesday, May 25, 2011

2011-05-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

Howdy, Thanks for visiting BLC&S.

Glad to see old friends again and also glad to meet new friends.

I tend to be more focussed on old time comics but we do live in the present day. I am curious about your opinion.

What is the best thing going on in comics today? Please comment on this blog or on facebook and let me know.

Thanks.