Connoisseurus Rex

Specialization

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Passive Aggressives Anonymous

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Roly-Poly Fish Heads

Health Plans

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Emily Amberson in Play Therapy

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Comedia dell'arte

The First Narwhal and The Last Unicorn

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Grandmother Amberson

The Tears of a Clown

Aspirations...

Forecast Cloudy

Take A Ride On The Peace Train...

Penelope Amberson Married for Money...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like an Energy Crisis Christmas

Credit to my sister, Sarah, for coming up with this brilliant idea...

Fiddling Towards Ecstasy

Zombie Boyfriend

Looks Like We've Got A Jumper

Ibex(es)

click to enlarge Happy Birthday! Today, Paper Pills is one year old. That's 51 posts in 52 weeks...just shy of my one-new-cartoon-a-week goal, but still not too shabby. Here's hoping I can keep this site going for another year...

Pickled Fetuses

A Return Visit to The Ambersons

The Ambersons were introduced last year (see "Un-Happy Thanksgiving") and I've decided the return to their hopelessly dysfunctional home. Today, Dr. Amberson is trying to teach his daughter a little something about emergency medicine. When she grows up, she wants to be a veterinarian. Below we see Penelope Anderson and her friend, Fay:

Lame Comic Book Villains, Part Two

Lame Comic Book Villains, Part One

Along with his faithful ward, Ball Boy!

Victor Frankenstein's Freshman Year

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Rusting, Burning, and Other Chemical Changes Featured in Baum's Fiction

If the BTK serial killer taught us anything, it's that we shouldn't screw with people from Kansas.

Snausages

click to enlarge It's been more than a month, but finally Paper Pills is back on course. I have officially finished school, and I have a lot more time to draw. Hooray!

How to Succeed in Business

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Death of a Snowman: Deuxième Partie

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Death of A Snowman: Première Partie

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The Vulcan Cheese Meld

click to enlarge Kudos to Aatish, who came up with the idea for this one. Thanks, Aatish! Live long and prosper...

Shopping for Happiness

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Cezanne's Still Life With Squid and Onions (1894)

I've been looking for new art prints and saw a nice one of Cezanne's Still Life with Onions. Few people know, however, that Cezanne had quite the penchant for capturing the mollusk at rest.

Le-go-Maniac!

click to enlarge Well, I finally had the free time and the drive to sit down and put out a couple of new panels. Let's see if I can get back to the once/week thing...

Have You Seen Milk?

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Like a Rhinestone Cowboy...

click to elarge I saw Bill O'Reilly on the Today show the other day, putting down "Brokeback Mountain" and saying that Hollywood keeps "pushing its gay agenda on America." Lol, I've been wondering about that gay agenda. "Things to do today: buy milk, pay electric bill, indoctrinate the heteros, wash car..." Sigh...

Downsizing

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Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars!

click to enlarge That's right, things are lookin' up this year for Buddy and Tina, champions of their trailer park! Buddy's got a job doing the insulation for the new juvenile correctional facility outside of town, and Tina's been promoted to assistant manager at Tasty Freeze. Buddy wants to do something nice for her. Maybe he'll take her to Waco for a nice dinner. Somewhere where you sit down to eat and don't have to shout your order into a plastic Clown mouth. Or maybe he'll put new siding on the trailer. The possibilities are endless.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner...Cretans!

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The Bipolar Bear

This is a picture of a Christmas card that I gave to my supervisor. I liked the expression on his face, so I thought I should throw it up on the site. Merry Christmas to all the little bears out there with mood disorders!

Coming to Terms with Failure

click to enlarge I truly believe that the ability to tolerate and survive failure is one of the most important skills of life. Sooner or later, you are going to fail at something, so it's important to know how to get through it without jumping off a bridge. It isn't easy, however. Fear of failure keeps us from fulfilling our dreams, and after a lifetime of fear, we are left with a big pile of broken dreams and some serious disappointment. And demons. With pointy forks. What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? --Langston Hughes

God-Father Christmas

click to enlarge And in one horrific moment, Santa Claus realized that he should never go against the Family.

Mrs. Heisenberg Is Uncertain...

click to enlarge Poor Mrs. Heisenberg...it's hard to be the wife of a nobel prize winning physicist. This is for all the scientists' wives out there who have ever felt that they play second fiddle to quantum electrodynamics.

(un)Happy Thanksgiving!

click to enlarge I had a very nice Thanksgiving this year. It was the most fun and lowest stress Thanksgiving I've had in quite a long time; good food, wonderful company, and lots of lying around staying warm and being happy. Holidays can be a very stressful time for many people. Next week I'll go into my office and listen to my clients recount the pains of the dreaded day. If you're in a bad frame of mind, Thanksgiving brings back the memories of every bad thing that ever happened on Thanksgiving. You feel like you're right back there, stuck in a cycle you can't seem to fight. The weather, bitter and unyielding, does not help matters at all. I totally understand why people get depressed this time of year. If you're feeling down, look on the bright side: at least your family isn't dysfunctional and noncommunicative like the family in today's panel (I hope).

My Cartoons Are Getting Too Depressing...Time for Some Sheep!

click to enlarge I have decided, looking over my work lately, that my cartoons are getting a little bit depressing. So this week, I'm going in a lighter direction. For some reason, I believe that if I create things that are morbid or pessimistic, that it will somehow prevent me from feeling sad (kind o like exorcising demons or what have you). Well, that's not true...studies show that depressed mood is often made worse by stuff like depressing journal entries and depressing macramé or whatever. So THIS week, I have gone with sheep. Sheep make me laugh, no matter WHAT they're doing. I hope you feel the same way.

It Never Meant to Be, for He Was A Love Triangle and She Was, and Always Would Be, A Vicious Circle...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH!!!

Happy Halloween!

click to enlarge Happy Halloween, ya'll! Today is crazy-busy, and I had only a few minutes in between drying my hair and drying my halloween costume (don't ask) to draw and post tonight's comic. Halloween isn't just about having fun, it's about taking responsibility. So to all the Pumpkin-babies' Daddies out there: do the right thing. Do you want your kid to end up on the street? Or in a pie?

Halloween Post Soon to Come...But in the Meanwhile...

click to enlarge Here's a classic that I've had kicking around in my sketchpad for a while...hope it's not too dark and hopeless for ya'll.

Schrödinger's Son

Schrödinger's son never left the house again, and resigned himself to a life of infinite possiblities... Finally! A new post! Sorry, it's been a week since my last piece...things have been a little distracted as of late. I think I'm back on track now however...

The Death of Marat

click to enlarge Marat actually spent most of his time in the bath, as he had a very hideous skin disease that he contracted in the sewers of Paris while hiding from various bloodthirsty Girondins. Fascinating, no? I missed out on my sleep last night...I lay in bed from 4 to 8 with nothing to do but watch the sky go from black to gray to a slightly lighter shade of gray. Strangely, however, I feel fantastic! Today will be a good day! I'm off to take a bath in my turbin.