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Hello! My name is Talmadge and I’m happy to share some of my cartoons with you. With a nod to Shintoism, Zanyee is a world where everything is alive and anything can happen. Zanyee is a single-panel cartoon that shows a snapshot of a moment in time. I feel the humor of my cartoons comes from putting a twist on a relatable situation and watching it come to life through the perspectives of different characters. I have always admired single-panel cartoons; one panel to hit, or miss, the joke. But either way it is quick… no dancing around. I love that a single piece of art can give you an entire story leading up to and beyond the snapshot of time you are viewing within a universe.
The Scholastic Book Fair was my introduction into comics. Heathcliff, Marmaduke, Garfield, Ziggy, Family Circus, B.C., Beetle Bailey, and Peanuts… those were my first influences. As I got older, I started to gravitate towards different comics like Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes. However, the cartoon that resonated with me the most was The Far Side by Gary Larson. His book, The Prehistory of The Far Side, taught me everything I know about creating cartoons.
I was lucky enough to create cartoons for my high school newspaper, as well as my college newspapers, but after graduation my cartoons were sidelined for a bit. Life took over and all my cartoons stayed in a suitcase under a bed for 20 years. Then, in 2016, I got myself an iPad and an Apple Pencil and sparks started to fly. I grabbed the old suitcase from under the bed and digitized my cartoons. I went from paper and Pigma pens to iPad and Pixelmator and I haven’t stopped creating cartoons ever since. I find myself constantly amazed by the options the digital format provides. There are endless creative possibilities, all in the hopes of sending some giggles out into the universe. I hope you enjoy Zanyee.
I was lucky enough to create cartoons for my high school newspaper, as well as my college newspapers, but after graduation my cartoons were sidelined for a bit. Life took over and all my cartoons stayed in a suitcase under a bed for 20 years. Then, in 2016, I got myself an iPad and an Apple Pencil and sparks started to fly. I grabbed the old suitcase from under the bed and digitized my cartoons. I went from paper and Pigma pens to iPad and Pixelmator and I haven’t stopped creating cartoons ever since. I find myself constantly amazed by the options the digital format provides. There are endless creative possibilities, all in the hopes of sending some giggles out into the universe. I hope you enjoy Zanyee.
Part of the fun in creating a single-panel cartoon is watching an idea go from a random thought to a finished product. I have never been very good at forcing an idea, I just let them happen. Most of my ideas for cartoons happen right before I fall asleep or when I let my mind wander a bit. That’s not to say the idea is fully formed, it tends to get refined as the cartoon does. Once I start drawing my ‘toons they go through multiple rough drafts and sometimes I feel like I’m sculpting rather than drawing. Trying to reshape and move objects around to fit in the panel, and after all that I never really feel a cartoon is done. I don’t know if I have ever felt any of my cartoons are truly finished, but with each one I reach a point where I feel it’s complete enough and it’s time to move on to creating the next one.
My cartoons tend to have a word play or a twist on a very mundane daily activity, but thrown into a completely different context. They highlight what we as humans do every day without even thinking about it. I enjoy the moment when a character has an epiphany in a situation, for better or for worse. That shock of realizing something has always made me chuckle, in any form of entertainment. Watching a character come to the realization of events unfolding around them is my favorite.
With Zanyee my hope is to always add a few giggles to the world. I feel laughter has become a bit underrated and it is easy to get overwhelmed with the negativity around us. To me, laughter has an energy that it puts off and affects us and those around us in such a positive way. I find it so satisfying when I see one of my ‘toons being shared among people. I used to cut out cartoons from newspapers that reminded me of a friend and send it to them, using humor and laughter as a way to connect with others. When I create, that is what I’m hoping to send out into the world.
