When I cartoon, I cartoon for me. Which is to say, I’ve found in the past that I’m not much of a team player when it comes to taking instruction… unless I ask for it.

There was a time when some Powers That Be at The San Diego Union-Tribune considered running Cool Jerk each week. Negotiations broke down fast when I was told, “We can have your characters go to some of the area bars and clubs and talk about how the bands are!” Yeah… no thanks. Armpit and Puppy are not going to shill for Canes, Brick by Brick or The Casbah.

Now when I did Cool Jerk for the Reno Gazette-Journal, I didn’t get any marching orders from editorial. When I started Cool Jerk, I tried to tie it in with the center-package (lead) story on the teen page. And after a while, Cool Jerk marched to its own drumbeat, and here we are 18 years later.

But when I cartooned for The Daily Sparks Tribune, it was an open team-up with the editor, Randy Frisch. In fact, he’d come up with the target (usually a political figure) and an outline of an idea, and let me run with it. That worked for me, as I didn’t (and don’t) really follow politics.

Another exception to the rule is a project I did with comics writer/blogger/luminary Kevin Church. It’s as close to a professional collaboration as I’ve had, as Kevin supplied an actual screenplay for me to work from (a much different animal from “Let’s do a gag on water rationing” — no disrespect, Randy). It’s called “Copy Protection,” and we got it up and running just in time for Halloween. I’m pretty proud of it. I’m no Neal Adams, but that’s kind of the point, Kevin told me. He liked my style of Cool Jerk and Doc Splatter and thought it’d be a good fit for his story. And it’s a good story at that. I actually started feeling remorse for a couple characters by the end of the third reel.

So go check it out — it’s a quick read. WARNING: unlike Cool Jerk or Doc Splatter, it’s Rated PG-13 or R, and probably NSFW.

I’m pitching in as artist-for-hire on The Rack, an engaging and funny webcomic about a comic-book shop and its quirky staff (think “Clerks” but with word balloons). I finally met its writer, the charming and delightful Kevin Church, at San Diego Comic-Con in July (I say “finally” because I’d been reading “The Rack” and Kevin’s blogs for many months prior to Comic-Con, and we’re pals in various Web 2.0 associations like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr). Over a dinner of fish tacos and Horchata he somehow coerced me* to be artist du jour during Halloween week, giving the regular artist Benjamin Birdie a few days off. So go check it out today and through the rest of the week!

For more Kevin Church, go here!
For more Benjamin Birdie, go here!
For much more of The Rack, go here!

*I think it was Cool Jerk-related flattery, but maybe he slipped me a roofie.