From the get go I’ve always envisioned this site as an outlet for experimental creativity and to share the results of such with whomever was interested.

This site’s focus was never meant to be excluded to just a blog, but due to my interests in creative writing it just remained. Like Anton, I’ve been ready for quite some time to move away from just being a blog and realign (not that kind of realignment) my interests and the intentions of this site.

For historical preservation, I’ve decided to select the best articles from the archives and compile them into a book because I’d hate to see those disappear. Besides, I’d like to do some self-publishing and Lulu has me more than intrigued.

A Fresh Restart

What this means is that I’ll be transitioning the blog, or what you’re reading now, into a small, but important portion of the site. If you can think of it as the conversation that takes place after you’ve consumed a three-course meal, then you’ll understand what its purpose will be.

The main course of the meal will be the illustration and design, wrapped together in a fresh and fun layout that’ll hopefully immerse you in what I’ll have to offer. (Speaking of which, have you seen the new Squidfingers design?)

As corny as this might sound, I do appreciate each and every one of you who continues to subscribe to, read and interact with kartooner. There are plenty of you who should be proud of your design prowess and measure of intellect. Without you, I’d just be a guy with one of them-there blog thingies here in New York. In other words, channeling the mantra of Chris J. Davis, “You rawk!”.

Catching up with Goals

Part of the reason I’m so adamant about changing some things is because I need to finally meet my goal of finishing my comic. Yes, that comic, the one I’ve been talking about for a little over 2 years! After mixing it up with my friends at SXSW this year and absorbing the enthusiasm, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to not just pursue, but chase after and tackle my goals.

I could just keep making excuses or continue playing trash basketball to bide the time, but that wasn’t why I chose this career in the first place. This is a journey of exploration and fascination that we’re all on, and I’m moving up a couple seats to see the full view.

Process and Innovation

On my panel at SXSWi this year I mentioned doing conceptual sketches for Sideville, using the movie Pirates of the Carribean as one of my source materials. I foresee using the blog to post my work in progress, kind of like Carson System’s Bare Naked App but without the app and the bare nakedness. It seems like people are interested in the process and craft of developing a project and appreciate that mistakes are made along the way.

As perfect as the end result might be, success needs to be constantly fine-tuned and recognizing trail and error is part of that process. Every brilliant and successful business or idea has to be built from the ground up and the visionary at the forefront of things needs to keep innovating and moving forward.

Sure, a lot of what success can be might seem serendipitous, but it’s the crucial element of keeping one’s eye on their goals that makes it both challenging and rewarding.

To sum it all up, I’ve got an idea and it’s time to take that from concept to reality. Join me. 

It became something of an inside joke; “What will Erik have this trip? Will he succumb to the same kinds of food or will he try something different to mix things up a little?”. Never one to disappoint I’d rarely break the pattern of not ordering the same thing at meal time but on occassion I’d try something different. That was then, this is now, but I’ve found that childhood quirks stay with you, no matter how much time passes.

Even to this day I’ve noticed patterns in what I’ll order at restaurants and most of the time it’s just food I’ve become comfortable eating, like Clam Chowder for instance. Nothing adds to a meal — at least in my opinion — like the soothing warmth and taste of thick chowder topped with soup crackers and a dash of salt and pepper. Eventually I might grow tired of ordering clam chowder with every meal but most likely it’ll be replaced with a different phase.

Do you have any food phases? 

The other day we ordered three drinks and filled our plates with at least three trip’s worth of Chinese food. Afterwards we gobbled down ice cream to cool our palettes and then came time to pay the bill. The owner, dubbed “Samurai Jack”, asks for the bill and slowly scans each item as if he’s concentrating on a really difficult crossword puzzle. He looks up, then down, and finally asks if I will be paying with cash or credit. I pull out my wallet and slide my credit card across the counter and he pauses, “I see two drinks on bill. Did you have a soda?” I nodded and in Chinese he barks some commands at the waitress who in turn barked commands at the busboy. At this point the owner explains that even though it’s not on the bill I will still be charged for the drink. I shrug and tell him, “Fine.”, then at the top of his lungs he says, “$7.84! You pay the same as all the rest. $7.84!”

I sign the receipt and walk out the door, laughing to myself and thinking that this man, “Samurai Jack” should have his own sitcom. I envision it as a cross between Belushi’s The Samurai Butcher and Sanford and Son. 

As I’m driving down the road a thought comes to mind, “Wow, I haven’t been to Palermo’s Sub Shop in a few months. Wonder how my Sub making buddies are doing.” I pull up in the parking lot and enter the sub place and order the usual; a meatball sub with sliced mozzerella on top. After ordering I casually walk over and get a drink from the soda fountain and wait patiently while the “Sub Artist” does his thing.

Eventually the guy comes over with two sandwiches? I was in a panic, it was as if all the air in my lungs had been sucked out of me. Why, why, two sandwiches? That’s when I realized, he split the two halves. This is where this sub story gets weird.

The guy takes my credit card, slips it through what I call the “credit crack” and it takes about 15 years to authorize the transaction. In the mean time we chat about life and eventually he realizes the receipt machine has no power. I let out a laugh that exudes a mixture of “how funny” and “Dude, what is your problem?” and finally it works.

He hands me the receipt to sign and in an awkward moment says, “Well, it’s been great hanging out with you man.” Like I said, awkward to say the least and yet at one point I think I wanted to give him a hug, thank him for making my sub and tip him for the service. In the end I decided not to, thinking it might have been going against the Sub Makers union.

Someday, when all of the sub shop artists are replaced by sub-making robots I’ll miss these kinds of moments. 

Navin (Martin) lives on Cup o’ Noodles throughout the extent of this hilarious madcap of a movie. It’s his favorite food and you really can’t blame him, he is an idiot. Yet, we as the audience love him for his simplicity and good nature.

If you’re in the mood for Top Ramen, I’d suggest picking up a copy of The Book of Ramen: Lowcost Gourmet Meals Using Instant Ramen Noodles by Ron Konzak. 

For the past twelve years, a research team located in Pillsbury, Minnesota has been searching for the answer to ketchup without tomato-based ingredients. Dr. David Motaja mentioned the idea originally while visiting a local restaurant after realizing his dislike for tomatoes and craving for ketchup.

“It essentially started as an idea of possibly creating ketchup without the need for tomatoes. Ever since I was a child my dislike for the red vegetable fruit has increased exceptionally. People who love ketchup but are disgusted by tomatoes have no choice. I felt it was a task to be completed by the year 2000″.

Dr. Motaja contacted his colleague Dr. Charles Groper and the two discussed a few possibilities. As Groper explains, “David came to me with a brilliant idea. Usually the case being that we research someone elses failed hypothesis. Here we were able to test something new, needless to say I was ecstatic. Give or take a few weeks, the project eventually started in December 1988. Our initial task was to recruit a team of scientists from different backgrounds. Usually a process like this can take months so we decided to just pick people off the streets and toss them in a lab.“

The preceding months, Dr. Motaja and Groper went on a scavenger hunt. Dr. Motaja recalls, “We could have easily picked from the cream of the crop, but our intent was to work with the common man. Charles [Groper] took one side of Pillsbury and I had the other. The process, which by all means was eventually successful, was needless to say a disaster at first. We installed a cardboard sign out in front of local supermarkets with “Scientists Wanted” written boldly on the front. Customers started tossing change left and right. There was even one person who gave me a can of tomato soup, which, if you think about it was very tongue in cheek to the project.”

Dr. Groper recalls his early experience, “While David received a warm response, I had a lot of people kicking down my sign. Enough to the point where I replaced the sign three or four times, so I suppose I drew the short straw. Eventually, we both received several interested applicants.” After the course of recruitment, the scientists decided to choose the most qualified individuals through a process of elimination.

“We took all of the sticky notes and literally tossed them into my son’s baseball cap. Give or take 20 or so minutes we hired our team, which we called the The SciGuys. They are in no particular order;

• Christopher Jenkins
• Tobias Mitchell
• Cynthia Lemur
• Jos
  hua Smith (not related to any other Smith, he’s his own Smith)
• Jim Carey (no, not really. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention)
• Raymond Adrika
• Nathan Poljockey

The team lead by Motaja and Groper were to spend the next 12 years researching the link to the Anti-Tomato ketchup. Tobias Mitchell reflects, “It was and still is no easy task. At the time we all thought we could simply substitute tomato paste with soy, considering there is a great demand for the product amongst vegetarians and dieticians. That attempt failed the first hour because the test substance just didn’t taste like ketchup, but more like radioactive chicken.” Tobias remembers the brainstorming sessions for the facility by which this research project would take place. “Frankly, David [Motaja] and Charles [Groper] thought the best place would be the least obvious. Push come to shove, unanimously we decided the vacant water treatment plant would work best.”

“The plant was located 10 miles from Pillsbury in the town of CrockerVille, just past the vacant dairy and the abandoned mining town. CrockerVille was the perfect place considering it’s location and the fact our project would be secret. Not that we had anything to hide but frankly this is an idea that could spawn criticism and controversy.”

Groper explains, “The project needed a codename. Many secret projects in the past have used numerical codes such as Area 51 or Plan 9 from Outer Space. The Anti-Tomato ketchup project needed something distinctive yet oddly creative. That’s when Raymond Adrika asked why and thus our project was born; Project Y.” 

On a more recent episode, Alton delved into the history of the common sweet potato. Maybe ignorance is bliss but I never knew a yam and a sweet potato were one in the same. I also learned on this particular episode that if you’re hunting for a good waffle maker avoid buying the plastic versions and instead go for a solid medal machine. In one particular scene in the show, Alton casually drags an extension cord into the home appliance section of what looked like Target or Walmart and proceeded to try out every machine. As he is doing this, the security guard is discussing with who appears to be the store manager about the disadvantages of a cheaper plastic waffle iron as opposed to the mightier and cost-effective medal varieties.

In just one episode I learned about the history of sweet potatos (and yams), in addition to the right choice for a waffle iron. If that’s not good television I don’t know what is. 

Some people will go down to the local bakery (such as the Little Bakery in my area) and approach the baker about what they would like on their cake. Usually this consists of pretty flowers and scrumptious filling, maybe a figurine or two attached on the top and creamy frosting.

Then, there are the other kind of people who opt for a custom cake, something with pizazz. If you or someone you know wants something different then Krispy Kreme has an alternate choice for you.

That’s right, the Krispy Kreme wedding cake is the new cake in town. According to Krispy Kreme Chief Executive Ron Rupocinski “This is still in it’s infancy … but it’s taking off.”

Thus proving that there is something for everyone. Just think, you could replace the candy-shelled peanuts with minature Krispy Kreme donuts and even have Donut-flavored drinks, how about the Krispy Kreme mascot roaming around entertaining your guests?

Wait, is there even a Krispy Kreme mascot?