Sunday, December 29, 2013

Happy New Year from The Green Monkeys

The Green Monkeys Comic Strip, December 29, 2013 on GoComics.com

While most people spent the holiday watching Pawn Stars, I was busy working on the daily strip: The Green Monkeys.

Here is today's with Baby and Lili.  The Green Monkeys

Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Green Monkeys Comic Strip, December 26, 2013 on GoComics.com

The Green Monkeys Comic Strip, December 26, 2013 on GoComics.com

It's another day for the monkeys. Happy Boxing Day. Looking forward to more and more Monkeys in 2014. The Green Monkeys started sometime in the mid 90s as two characters from a movie my mother and I pitched to Fox Feature Animation. In the story there were these two monkey bell hops named Spider and Flytrap.

Through a long series of development issues (and it is a long story) Betty and I decided to take these two characters out of the movie and move them into their own television series. Everyone loves monkeys.

The Green Monkeys was picked up by Disney Television Animation (another long story)... eventually we decided to write them up as a weekly comic strip for Dan's Papers in the Hamptons. The Green Monkeys has run in Dan's since 1999. My mother passed away in 2010 and I've continued the comic to this day on my own. We never really figured out who wrote what with this comic. Sometimes Betty wrote several weeks in a row and then left it to me to fill out a few weeks.

 It was a challenge to just do the weeklies and keep it fresh and funny. It certainly has changed over the years. The additions of Baby and Lili this year have added a different dimension to the story.

The Daily Green Monkeys started at www.gocomics.com. It's been on and off over time due to other work and children's book and animation development on several projects.

So for now I'm still doing the daily strip and will attempt to keep it going throughout 2014.
The Green Monkeys

Friday, December 20, 2013

Brand New Dan's Christmas Cover for 2013

Here it is... the one you have all been waiting for. My one millionth cover for Dan's Papers. I've been proud to work at this newspaper here in the Hamptons for the past 25 years. It's allowed me to explore cartooning in a way I would have have been able to on my own.

Drawing for Dan's stories has been a joy. Junior Kroll, written by my mom, ran for 10 years and we continued writing The Green Monkeys together until her passing in 2010. Now I write Monkeys on my own, missing her imput everyday, but forging ahead into new areas.

As stated here before, The Green Monkeys runs weekly in Dan's Papers and daily over at www.gocomics.com.

Merry Christmas to all from Spider, Flytrap, Baby, and Lady Lili.


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Cheap Show presents Jaws on the Cheap

It's time a little Christmas treat from a while back. It's our tribute to the best movie ever. Have fun.


It's time for some warm weather thoughts on this very chilly day.


It's always Summer somewhere. Stay warm and pick up a copy of my new book.

You can order one here: Taffy Saltwater



Monday, December 16, 2013

The Cheap Show One Minute Christmas Special!

Here is a one minute Christmas Special we shot last year...but it's still pretty funny. Enjoy.



On My Way to Bed Promo

Here is a little promo for our new book which came out this fall from Bloomsbury. It's written by Sarah Maizes and illustrated by me.



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving to all from Paraskevas Studios

Here is my Thanksgiving Christmas Holiday cover for the place I've worked at for 25 years. Countless cover for Dan's Paper. I've lost count. I think it must be over 70 by now. Have a wonderful holiday and shame on all the stores that will be open on Thanksgiving. 


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Don't forget to read The Green Monkeys Every Day of the YEAR!



Here it is... The Green Monkeys which is posted every day over here at gocomics.com.
You can sign up and have it emailed to you from those fine folks. Wouldn't you just love to have Monkeys in your email? I do.


Discovered deep in the jungle, two extremely rare but only slightly intelligent Green Monkeys were raised by Professor Flippenwigg, who taught them to speak and every night let them watch his old movie collection. Inspired by King Kong, Spider and Flytrap headed off for New York City. Barely surviving, they made their way from job to job, and along the way picked up Lili the dog, Jackass the cat, and a space monster named Old Blue Eyes. And Baby -- a baby -- whose parents dropped him off and apparently don’t plan on coming back. Spider and Flytrap know enough to know they don’t know much, but figure they can do any job for at least one day -- which is why they set up their own Temp Agency. Full, if eccentric and ever-changing, employment ensued.
The Green Monkeys began appearing in Dan’s Papers in The Hamptons in 2000.



The Green Monkeys

Sunday, October 27, 2013

My exhibit at Farmingdale College here on Long Island.

This exhibit of mine ran from October 7th to November 1, 2013. I gave a lecture which is sometime I haven't done in a long time. It was terrific to get to talk to students and see their reaction to about 30 years of work.

UPDATE: The exhibit has been extended (I hope by popular demand) until November 11, 2013.

I don't think anyone taped the talked and if they did please send it to me.


Here is what the gallery looked like. I want to thank Phil and George for making this all possible.
















Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Cheap Show


So here is one of our favorite episodes of The Cheap Show. Enjoy. This show was a labor of love and produced for an incredible budget of 5 bucks. Yes... that's the cost of used socks.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

New Friends


I haven't named them yet but will soon. Just some morning doodles.

Friday, August 30, 2013

On My Way to Bed

The brand new book, written by my friend Sarah Maizes, is finally coming out in September, published by a terrific publisher, Walker Books. It's called: On My Way to Bed.

 It's the second in the series and we're hard at work to finish the third one. The next one coming out in a year is called.... On my Way to School.

You'll have to wait for that one... in the mean time please... GO to BED.



Here is the first book in case you missed it.


Monday, August 12, 2013

I wanna See Wayne Newton

This is still funny to all of us here at Paraskevas Studios. Have a good one and don't forget to see all The Cheap Show episodes at www.thecheapshow.com.

There are also a ton of them on youtube....





and this one.... Make sure you catch up on them all.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Authors' Night in East Hampton


I got got rub shoulders with some great authors in East Hampton tonight. I had a wonderful time talking to everyone who showed up to get a copy of my newest book, Taffy Saltwater.

I met Chris Martin and talked to him about getting to the next concert to draw and add to my every growing collection of sketchbooks. I showed him some of the drawings from the Wall tour, and Radiohead from last year.

Even my agent flew all the way out from LA to see me. John's the best. I wish my mother was still around to see all of this. She loved the publishing business and enjoyed signing books and talking to everyone that loved Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.

The wonderful Bruno's came with me. We all had a blast. Maria was hard at work on the Lili blog, Lisanne was taking pictures, and Priscilla, their mom, was chatting with Kitty Kelly.









Yes... that's me talking to Chris Martin. He was incredibly polite and a very nice guy.



And please don't forget to read The Green Monkeys over here at GoComics.com. It's a wonderful world of Green Monkeys, Baby, Lili, Leo "Spats" Ratcatcher, and Old Blue Eye the Space Monster. Have a great day.


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

It's another Green Monkey with BABY.

Baby was, in the beginning, a sock puppet. And during those wonderful episodes Baby was a girl. I switched it to a boy since I had already put Lili into the strip and the dog is a she. I thought the interaction between them would be better with a boy and a girl.

Here is a link to The Cheap Show. It's still very funny and I'm thinking of writing a new Christmas episode for this coming December. That's my mother, Betty, as Baby, one character that I can't begin to figure out how to voice. She was a one of a kind.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

One of my Favorite Green Monkeys.



Here is one of my favorite Green Monkeys even if it doesn't include Spider and Flytrap. Baby is a character that is based on a sock puppet from The Cheap Show that my mother, Betty, and I created a while back.

Most everyone who viewed the show, and you can see it here at www.thecheapshow.com loved Baby. So it was time to bring him back in another medium.

Lili needs no introduction since she has her own blog here. She showed up one day in the comic and hasn't left. She likes Flytrap's banana cream pie.

Lili's blog is here at www.scoopitwithlili.com and it's a mix of movie reviews, gossip, Hampton Happenings, and all thinks Lili. She's a little self centered but thank the stars she allows me to include her in The Green Monkeys.

The Green Monkeys

The Green Monkeys

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Some of my favorite street art from my walks in LA.

These photos require little explanation other than I love taking pictures of these things. On my many walks in LA I found these. More later.
















Followers