For the longest time I wanted to do a comic about my #1 favourite movie and Bob’s tweet gave me that idea. In a nutshell, I parody snippets from the movie above (well, more like tribute). I’m not too thrilled with the way the “running scene” came out. And yes, that’s supposed to be Ferris-Spud in front of Jeannie-Willomina’s car at the top right and those are supposed to be the Sears Tower in Chicago and Wrigley’s Stadium ;) Then again, I draw all this on a Moleskine notebook. The Pac-Man one to be exact.

And yes, that’s a bit of a tribute to the comic, Family Circus during the running scene. I used to hate that comic years ago but since being exposed to little kids in recent years, it makes sense to me.

Speaking of the running scene, I recently realized how much it resembles a typical Charlie Chaplin movie!

I still need to work on inking. In particular with separation of the background and drawing the eye to where I need it to be lead. It’s funny how much I think about user experience as I draw and layout my comics.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this parody as much as I did drawing it. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of those movies I can watch over and over and from any point in the movie.

Read more clearly in PDF (1.7 MB). Mental Health Warning: you may be informed that you have to update your Acrobat Reader. Download and print the PDF to use as your calendar for September!

Man, how the auto-update feature for Acrobat irritates me so. I turn on my computer or wake it from sleep and I’m interrupted by the notification that if I don’t update, my reader won’t work optimally. While it’s a really simple process of pressing the OK button, from the Ux point of view, it’s just too much work. But if Adobe (or any other software company) doesn’t offer automatic updates, will users be diligent in keeping updated? I doubt it.

Why can’t I immediately stop what I set out to do, search for an unknown amount of time for Acrobat’s preferences and assume there’s a feature to turn it off? Do I really want to turn it off? What, pray tell, are they updating? Is it a few security holes? If I turn off the auto-update, do I put my computer at risk? After all, these updates comes quite frequently. Too frequently. While I applaud Adobe for being quick with updates, is there such a thing as too frequent?

Come on, it’s only Acrobat Reader. How many times can such a simple (yet possibly complex?) piece of software need to be constantly updated?

In the words of my friend, Bob Goyetche, who tweeted the inspiring words for this comic, “Again with an Adobe update – what the hell do you guys do, write 1 line of code at a time?“.

Thanks also to Robert Lee for bringing Bob’s tweet to my attention. I almost missed it!

I recently spoke with a grade 4 class in Calgary. Over Skype. My how times have changed since I was in grade 4! The students asked me questions about cartooning and also shared with me their artistic aspirations. I was then asked if I would mind to create a comic which I replied that it would be my pleasure. In fact, I was given four possible plot scenarios:

1. Spud, a Rock, Penguin. In a ghost town. Why is it a ghost town.

2. Spud, Alien, Zebra. Rocket ship in space. Ship breaks down.

3. Spud, black cat and big dog. Time machine takes them back to pre-European entry on the prairies to land with the plains people. The machine breaks.

4. Spud, Giant octopus, King of Atlantis. Ocean. Can’t find Atlantis.

A few years ago, I used the power of social media to draw and post a number of improv comics (and plan to resurrect that project soon) so this was a fun exercise to get my creative juices flowing. I have to admit, the students stumped me! So I decided to combine all four suggestions into one story. I used a few elements that elementary school kids enjoy: repetition, magic, and weird sudden plot turns. Or at least I enjoyed those when I was in grade 4 ;)

In the spirit of education, I left whatever of my pencil marks (and scan shadows) in the drawings above. It’s my little way to show the students how I build the comics.