feedsIf I remember right, the commute was about an hour, so by the time I finally got to my apartment I was starving. Lucky for me, I didn’t know how to cook, so I always had a healthy supply of store-bought pre-made food...
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Aug 16 I can’t wait to burn outPosted by mzalen | 08/16/08
Ten years ago I was working in a nice, artificially lit office in Washington D.C. It was a small company, with not more than two dozen employees, and it was located in an upscale part of town. I’d get in around 8:00 a.m., sit at my desk, pound away at the keyboard until noon, go downstairs to the food court, bring my food back to my computer, and then continue working until leaving for home at around 7:00 p.m.
If I remember right, the commute was about an hour, so by the time I finally got to my apartment I was starving. Lucky for me, I didn’t know how to cook, so I always had a healthy supply of store-bought pre-made food... CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: funny, matt zalen, back 2 basics, comic, blog Aug 01 Only your problems are funnyPosted by mzalen | 08/01/08
This blog was written on July 26, 2007
Last night, at around 9:00 p.m., I was almost certain that a beetle had crawled into my pants. Now just to be clear, I was sitting on a sidewalk which was full of beetles at the time, so it wasn’t the most absurd possibility. At any rate, I could’ve sworn that I felt something move in my pocket. I jumped up, startling the person standing across from me, who watched in curiosity, and then amusement as I shook my leg (I thought I felt the beetle slip down from the pocket), then furiously untie my boot (I was certain that it had fallen into the boot from the pants). As I struggled with the last loop, he came over and asked me if everything was alright. I said no, and that a beetle got into my pants... CATEGORY: General Society
Jul 16 Even cartoons aren’t immune to terrorPosted by mzalen | 07/16/08
They say a punch line is all about timing – that even the slightest pause, a wrong word, or a strange look could kill the whole joke.
While I have always known this to be true, never was it demonstrated for me so clearly – and unfortunately – as it was two weeks ago. For those of you who follow the international news, you may remember a certain incident taking place in Jerusalem, Israel at the beginning of this month... CATEGORY: General Society
Jul 03 The dark side of cartooningPosted by mzalen | 07/03/08
Last week George Carlin died.
I was never really much of a Carlin fan. To be honest, I can’t even remember one stand-up routine he did, probably because any time I saw him on television I changed the channel. Yes, I know a lot of people out there think he was hilarious, but I just never connected with his work. Maybe it was his style, or his humor, or both – I really can’t say. And yet recently I was mesmerized when I saw him on the history channel. …yes, I watch the history channel. And if you want to be a lazy smart person, you would, too. Moving on… The topic of the show was “the history of humor,” and it featured a number of different comedians talking about their craft... CATEGORY: General Society
Jun 18 Only crazy people are perfectPosted by mzalen | 06/18/08
The term “perfectionist” is applied way too loosely nowadays. For me, I started using it when I first began thinking about professional cartooning. And to an extent, I was justified.
Back then, a little over ten years ago, I would fill spiral notebooks with ideas, jotting down dialogue and matching certain words or lines with quick sketches of facial expressions which I felt captured the moment perfectly. I would sit on the ideas awhile – sometimes a few days, other times weeks or months – then I would go back, rework the words, smooth things out, and then draw a rough draft. The draft I would show to a small group of friends and family whose humor I trusted to be a good barometer for the general population, and I would gauge their reactions... 
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Matt Zalen, Back 2 Basics, comic, cartoon, strip, funny Jun 05 Cartoons aren't always realPosted by mzalen | 06/05/08
Okay, let me just make something clear: My father never got kicked out of any retirement home, my wife likes him, and she has never thrown me or him out of the house and forced us to sleep in a tent.
Now for those of you who read the Back 2 Basics comic which appeared in this week’s Spotlight, you’ll know what I’m talking about. For those of you who haven’t, what I just said will make no sense. So go read the comic, then come back and finish this blog. Good, now that we’re all on the same page, you’re probably wondering why I felt the need to clarify these points. After all, we’re talking about a comic which is obviously fictional, right? Wrong... 
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: funny, matt zalen, back 2 basics, comics May 21 Evolution DOES existPosted by mzalen | 05/21/08
Evolution DOES exist. In the cartooning world, at least.
Back in the good ol’ days, cartoonists were hired by newspapers to draw comic strips specifically for that paper. The newspaper would give the cartoonist lots of room to play with – say, an entire page – and the artist would be granted almost complete creative liberties (subject to the censorship of the editor, of course). Now if any of you are wondering when exactly “the good ol’ days” refers to, it’s the beginning of the twentieth century. Yes, I know that things weren’t exactly sanitary back then, and that crime and corruption was way up, and that the television didn’t exist, and by consequence there wasn’t much to do, but those were still good days... 
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: comic, funny, Back 2 Basics, cartoons 
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B2B ExposedMatt Zalen is the creator of "Back 2 Basics," a self-syndicated cartoon about an eccentric family living in a world which is even crazier than ours. Since first being published in November 2007, the strip has been picked up by 16 papers, making it one of the most popular self-syndicated features of the year.SubscribeEmail Archives |