Les Cakewalks Infernal

L.C.I. #30: A Thicker Line Than Might Be Assumed

2011-07-25T15:49:00.001-07:00

Like a stoned teenager, Sweeny can seem super deep in the moment but it bright light of reality, he's revealed a goddamn moron.

This comic wraps up the "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" Saga. You can read the whole thing from the beginning Here. It's got a three act structure and everything. I'm seriously super proud.

Now all that's left to do is do a cover and print it up as LCI issue #2. I'll also make a post about the first printed issue here soon.

L.C.I. #29: The Shit-Show Showdown

2011-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

I took off all this week and all I got done was the last two Les Cakewalks Strips in this arc. To hell with it. I had a ball this week and they both turned out okay. Also this may be my favorite title for any Les Cakewalks strip I've ever done.

There's going to be a second issue printed soon so look out for it.

L.C.I. #28: Obligation To Be Cordial

2011-05-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate these situations. Someone you really really don't want to make small talk with but you're professionally/socially/ethically required required to uphold a conversation with. Even worse when they want you to do something. Best thing to do is just pretend you've got you're own talk show. Eventually their time will be up and you'll be able to leave.

Weirdly I realized after drawing this that The Devil takes the Lord's name in vain like three times in this strip. I guess it's a sin or something.

L.C.I. #27: The Master of Deception

2011-04-03T15:15:00.001-07:00

The terrible return of everyone's least favorite verbose villain- Quing Qube!

We've turned the corner into the 3rd act here kids. Only three more comics and this story arc's gonna be in the can. Of course that means I've got to get to drawing the last couple which I've barely started on. So much easier to keep pumping out gags.

I'll be at the MOCCA festival in New York this weekend. Come out and see me if you're in town.

L.C.I. #26: Grace Gets Lunch

2011-03-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Okay so maybe there's no deco nightclubs in this one but this strip includes two things I will never tire of drawing. Pay-phones and Satan working in an office. It's not even like a cool old time mob boss office or a cutting edge Manhattan trying to impress clients office. It's a shit brown, shag carpeted 1970s style back office. The kind that shady insurance companies and unprofitable plastics distributors still operate out of to this very day.

Absolutely no one wants to see a Madmen type show that's set in this dump but guess what? Mr. Scratch is there every day at 7:00 AM trying to get a leg up on the competition. He may not come off as flashy as the other guys but the overhead's low and nothing is a substitute for the dedication and elbow grease he puts in. Shit, he'll come in on Saturday just to make sure the janitors aren't stealing company toilet paper.

Grace on the other hand is just counting the years until retirement.

L.C.I. # 25: Uptight

2011-02-20T15:04:00.000-08:00

After so many strips of nothing but baby filled desert the Deco nightclub in the Buddhist spirit world was a blast to draw. Also entertaining was the monk/bouncer hybrid. For the record, you can make anyone look like a douche bag by adding a soul patch.

L.C.I. #24: He Spits and He Cusses

2011-01-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

I saved this GIF a little differently than I normally do because some of the color was using a weird and ugly halftone. I really like the effect on the penultimate panel which I originally had used as a straight fade. Gives a better "oh shit" effect.

Here's to things working out well because they don't the way you want them to.

L.C.I. #23: Why You Shouldn't Try To Help People

2011-01-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

This comic guest stars Tim Krieder's "Mr. Tehn" (used with permission). Hell, I'm using so many guest stars in this arc I might as well call it the goddamn Love Boat.

L.C.I. # 22 - Five Card Peek-A-Boo

2010-12-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Two Les Cakewalk strips in one month!

I made up the name "Five Card Peek-a-Boo" for this strip but afterwards I thought it could be a cool rules mechanic you could tack onto a normal game of poker. After any player folds, a player who is still in could re-ante (or blind) etc... to "peek" at their cards. The whole table would get a look at what he folded on before the cards were flipped over again and hidden for the rest of the hand. The next player who wished to "peek" at a folded hand would have to pay double ante, the third, quadruple, etc...

I dunno. Could be cool

L.C.I. #21: Quing Qube

2010-12-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

So I guess the point that Quing Qube started to diverge from Pat's King of Cubes in my mind was after attempting to play a game of the poorly thought out scrabble spin off "Quip Qubes".

A friend found it in her attic or at a yard sale or something and being the enthusiastic board game nerds we are we decided to give it a shot. Instead of forming words with letter tiles you roll word dice and make a sentence with the ensuing gibberish over a scrabble type board. Since you can make a meaningless yet structurally correct sentence with virtually any combination of words you'd use all the dice on your first roll every time. The sentences thus formed were inevitably so long and nonsensical they weren't even interesting in a offbeat Exquisite Corpse style. They were just dull.

Take that Dada theory.

So that's where the name and the obnoxiousness came in. I've based characters around worse premises.

L.C.I. #20: The Devil You Don't

2010-11-21T07:46:00.001-08:00

This is the first comic to feature Quing Qube, the ruler of limbo. Quing is based on Pat Aulisio's King of Cubes (thanks Pat!). Originally I was just going to use swipe the King wholesale from Pat's work, with permission of course, but in the process of writing this arc he slowly developed into the monumentally obnoxious Quing Qube that appears here. You'll be seeing a lot more of this guy in the next dozen strips or so.

Updated later in the month than I normally like to but you've got to give me a break. I was getting my Philadelphia City Paper comics issue entries ready. Again, wish me luck.

L.C.I. #19: The Devil You Know

2010-10-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

The boys finally make it out of Hell! What strange adventures lie on the other side of the portal?

That's what happens when you've got nothing to say about the actual drawing of the comic. You have to made up weirdly enthusiastic ad copy,

L.C.I. #18 - Global Domination

2010-09-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

This comic is actually a near transcription of a comic I did in 2002 for the first Baltimore City Paper Comic Contest. While the art is so awful that I will never post it here I always liked the premise and it fit perfectly for this part of the story. I dusted off the dialogue, inserted Sweeny, Chester and Scratch in their military costumes and there you go.

L.C.I. #17: The Devil Went Down

2010-08-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

The second panel here may be my favorite thing I've drawn in years.

L.C.I. #16: Why They Call Him Scratch

2010-07-04T21:58:00.001-07:00

I kinda feel like bitching and wheedling about it being such a long time since I've knuckled down to color a new LCI but you know what? Fuck that shit. I really appreciate all of you who follow my stuff but it's not exactly like anyone's clamoring for more M. Jacob funnies or nothing.

It's summer damn it. I may be incapable of not feeling guilty for spending time unchained from the drawing board but I can choose not to listen to that voice.

Peace out true believers.

L.C.I. #15: Never Bet the Devil Your Head

2010-06-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

New Les Cakewalks Infernal story arc starts today!

This one's going to be 16 pages when its done and the good news is I've already got eight drawn. The bad news is I forgot how long it takes me to color these damn things!

L.C.I. #14b: Well The Sheriff Was a Hellhound - Part Two

2010-05-08T13:34:00.001-07:00

Well It certainly fuckin' Took me long enough! Sorry Kids. Going back to work means that even if I can find time to draw comics scanning, cleaning and coloring 'em is sometimes a bit too much for me.

Gonna keep drawing but unless I get laid off again weekly updates are a thing of the past. Working on a really cool "serious" six pager that I'll share with you in a couple months. Until then enjoy the second half of "The Sheriff Was a Hellhound"

-Jake

L.C.I. #14a: Well The Sheriff Was a Hellhound - Part One

2010-04-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

Another two parter but I'm splittin' it up over two weeks to get more milage out of it. I've only got so many more comics left in the bank!

The two unsavory characters who rough up Sweeny and Chester at the start of this strip are Fuckers (Roach) and Rowdy (Cat). My friends Benn and Rachelle asked me to make up characters with those names, I think to be based on them but it was a while ago so I don't remember. I hope not because when I decided this strip needed some real bad seeds, seeing as Sweeny and Chester are just good natured petty criminals and Satan is only a jerk because he's starved for attention the names immediately popped into my head.

These two jerks on the, they deserve to be down there. They'd slit their mama's throat for a nickel which they'd immediately gamble away. Thankfully they're no smarter than our boys. Dunno how I'll wind up using them but I think their existence lends the strip some color. Sorry Benn & Rachelle!

L.C.I. #13: The Five Dollar Gigolo

2010-03-28T06:10:00.001-07:00

The first two panels of this strip sum up all of Les Cakewalks. Sweeny and Chester loafing around in a bar then the devil pops out of nowhere to stir up trouble. Course That's the way I imagine it 13 strips in. God knows where things could go in a decade when I've got like a hundred of these, if I make it that far that is.

L.C.I. #12: Not Going To Make It

2010-01-31T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well, Here it is, the whole Shabazz. The first completed Les Cakewalks story arc. I hope you liked reading it as much as I like making it. Pages took flippin' forever to draw and color but I'm really proud of how it turned out.

I've actually got 7 more strips drawn (a one shot and the start of a new arc) but I'm dragging my ass on coloring them. I also want to exhaust all the HypnoSpiral #1 strips before posting new LCI. Don't worry though, I'm still drawing so Sweeny n' Chester aren't going anywhere. Or are they...

L.C.I. #11: Stunt Suits

2010-01-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Gotta love that Evel Knievel sheik. The conclusion of this story arc next week!

L.C.I. #10: Following A Strange Man to a Second Location

2010-01-17T16:10:00.001-08:00

I'm breakin' the four update streak of pee joke comics. I may not want to but I think it's the right thing to do.

L.C.I. #9: Up Jumped The Devil

2010-01-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Introducing the man that needs no introduction! The king of catastrophe. The loser of the heaven weight championship belt. Thee great, thee irate... Satan!

L.C.I. #8: A Moment of Existential Reflection

2009-12-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

The payoff, if you want to call it that...

L.C.I. #7: Shittin' In The High Cotton

2009-12-06T09:18:00.001-08:00

I could draw shitty cars careening through various real estate forever. Or at least for one more week.

L.C.I. #6: The Moron Bros.

2009-11-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Fun fact. I based Sweeny and Chester's human look on Bulk and Skull from the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.

L.C.I. #5: Hell Money

2009-11-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hell Money is real! I found a half burned hell bank note fluttering around the street a few years ago and I had to find out what it was. When I thought up Les Cakewalks there was no question what the official currency of the inferno would be.

L.C.I. #4: It's Not That Great...

2009-11-05T07:22:00.001-08:00

Edda 4...

L.C.I. #3: Saturday Night In The City of The Dead

2009-10-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Two's a party but then again...

L.C.I. #2: Sharp Dressed Men

2009-10-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't put to much faith in this kids. Not only are all these comics already drawn but I'm unemployed and I still missed posting this week. C'est la vive. You're going to get 12 LCI strips eventually but I wouldn't count on it being regular. Maybe I need more fiber.,,

Les Cakewalks Infernal #1: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

2009-10-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've tried to run a Web Comic. Well you need some type of online presence nowadays so I guess I'll give it another shot. Luckily I've already got a dozen pages of Les Cakewalks so I don't have to worry about missing deadline for a while.

Enjoy!