Earl Sleek's Top Ten: Single-Panel Tribute Cartoons

So I'm retiring from blogging at the end of the year, but before I go out, I thought it'd be fun cool easy to take a look back at some of my favorite posts and cartoons over the years. So I've put together a couple of top ten lists -- don't fret, though. There's only three lists, and the third one might not make it to ten items. :)

Today's list is all about single-panel tribute cartoons: Sleektoons in which I attempted to mimic the drawing style of somebody more famous than me. If this were a money-making site, this category could be considered a top ten of potential lawsuits, but I copy out of respect!

Anyways, here's my ten favorites -- feel free to share how you'd rank 'em in the comments.

#10. Ren and Stimpy

Ducks Gameday -- Howl About That!, 1/31/12

Overall, it's solid -- using Ren as a Coyote works out well, and the duck adaptation of Stimpy ain't bad, either. I was looking at source material as I drew, which always helps, but I did change gimmicks midway through sketching. Per recollection, the Duck was originally going to be drawing up a very stupid X's and O's play, but changing it into a sketched Coyote gimmick probably worked out better.

#9. Masters of the Universe

Glimmers of hope for the depressed Ducks fan, 4/14/09

Ah, back in the day -- this toon dates back to when the Sharks and Ducks met up in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. Both characters came out pretty solid, and I'm pretty happy at how the mouse ears on Duck-Skeletor's staff worked its way in there. In general, I don't utilize shadows enough underneath characters, but in those instances when I do, I think it's a nice touch.

#8. Calvin and Hobbes

Ducks Gameday -- Flame Mignon, 3/30/11

Well, not truly Calvin and Hobbes, but rather the Calvin-pisses-on-whatever bumper stickers. Plus the Flame is sort of an homage to Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle. Calvin's grin wasn't that easy to transfer to all three BoC characters, but it came through well enough. Haha, Flames.

#7. Red Dead Redemption

New Laptop + Old Scanner = Compatible!, 7/16/10

Okay, so this is technically multi-panel, but there's no true storyline connecting any of the four Sleektoons for this entry. Frankly, the drawings weren't the best in this post, but that's sort of because I was spending so much time actually playing Red Dead Redemption that I couldn't devote time to improving the toons. But the last two in particular are favorites of mine -- some fun BoC themes mixed in with a video game that I spent too much time playing that summer. A nice integration of what I was doing with what the Ducks were doing.

#6. Popeye

BoC Gameday—Ducks/Kings: Draw the Rivalry, 11/13/07

Ooh, now we're really old-school: a Blogspot cartoon! I think the overall toon gets a little more leeway for being that dated -- already I'm wondering why I never colored in Popeye's pipe. But I think it was pretty much the first time I put characters into actual team jerseys (now everybody can sue me!), and that came across decently. The Duck's jaw kind of makes him look like a pelican, but you can't shy away from that when Popeye's the inspiration! :)

#5. Jar Jar Binks

Ducks Gameday -- Another Finn to Winn in Minn., 2/18/11
Ducks Gameday -- The Trial of Jar Jar, 4/22/11

Ah, Jar Jar Ruutu. This cartoon was first drawn when the Ducks acquired Ruutu in February, but enthusiastically re-used when Jar Jar did get himself suspended on a hit in the Nashville series. I'm actually quite proud of that latter post -- a bit tough to write, but captured the Good Friday suspension pretty well. Jarkko Ruutu would spoil part of this cartoon -- when he joined Anaheim, he took #37 instead of #73, but whatever -- the toon works.

#4. Ziggy

Ziggy: The Remakes, 8/16/11

Another multi-panel, but again, each panel works independently. The Ziggy cartoons started a bit organically in the comments of another post, but they turned out cool enough that I colored them in and gave them some legible text. The key to Ziggy cartoons is really his dog with the question mark -- it's the second punchline to every panel. Anyways, two-and-a-half solid hockey jokes over three panels -- it's a winner.

#3. Where the Wild Things Are

Ducks Gameday -- Where The Wild Are, 10/27/11

Where would I be without the Minnesota Wild? So many of my best Sleektoon efforts involve that team's logo in some way, and this one could be my favorite of them all. The incorporation of the Wild logo into the Wild Thing worked out really well, and the whole storyline of the weakling Duck trying to scare his way into standings points fit well with last season's hockey storyline, too. A classic inspired by a classic.

#2. Sylvester and Tweety

Ducks Gameday -- A Kick in the Pant(her)s, 2/19/12

The Sylvester Panther turned out fantastic -- I was looking straight at a close-up picture of the source material, and when I copy things line-for-line, sometimes the results can be staggeringly good. The Tweety Duck with the webbed feet was also a solid draw, and the gimmick works on a couple of levels -- the Tweety text is pretty funny, too. Almost tough to believe this wasn't in the top spot, but...

#1. The Simpsons

BoC Gameday—Ducks/Kings: Draw the Rivalry, 11/13/07

Two entries from the same 2007 blog post?! Man, I once was productive! :)

Here's another where I studied a source photo and tried to draw it line-for-line, but even more than how I drew it -- my old job had a scanner that used to put white lines around my drawn lines. It didn't always help when I was drawing intricate detail, but in fairly simple drawings like this one, the extra border around colors turned out very cool -- I don't know how to replicate the effect with my current scanner.

At any rate, the adapted characters are great, the theme is a classic, and the result is pretty awesome.

* * *

So thanks for indulging me in this (and the next two) top ten lists -- a walk down memory lane isn't so bad in this stretch of lockout boredom, I guess.

Did I miss anything in this category? Did I fuck up the order? Let me know in the comments.

Go Cartoons.