Judging from the response I’m receiving comments-wise, nobody really gives a good rat’s ass about this particular brand of navel-gazing on my part, but since I started down this road, I’m damn well sure I’m going to finish the journey and bring it home. So steel yourself for even more cards and yes … there is a part 4 coming on Christmas Eve!
As always, click on the images to see them larger on your screen and, you know, actually read them.
1993 • CARD #17
I was definitely influenced by David Letterman for this year’s card … and yes, I acknowledge that this is not exactly “woke” material when viewed through the lens of 2021.
1994 • CARD #18
Hookay. This one was definitely influenced by my job as a graphic designer in television news. All that death and destruction gets to you after a while, I guess. Also, not exactly PC-perfect. This one also became a page in my first issue of Innocent Bystander, my self-published comic book series, in 1995 (as did the 1994 card, albeit in black and white).
1995 • CARD #19
This is one of my favorite cards and if memory serves me right, I created it on a Quantel Paintbox, a high-end graphics tablet designed for TV news graphics. It also became the back cover for issue #2 of Innocent Bystander, which premiered in June of 1996. (Click here to read more about that issue.)
1996 • CARD #20
My cats, Stan and Ollie, increasingly took center-stage on both my cards and in my comics (eventually taking over a full issue of Innocent Bystander, #4). This was designed as a three-fold sheet of 8.5×11″ paper and done on a computer (although god only knows what computer I was using in 1997).
1997 • CARD #21
This was a piece of art that was designed to be a print (with different text) in a “Collector’s Pack” of Innocent Bystander comics I distributed through Diamond Comics. I believe it contained the first four issues of IB. It did double-duty as my Christmas card because I am, at times, a lazy slug.
1998 • CARD #22
In December 1998, I moved to San Diego. Sadly, Stan (the cat on the left) didn’t make the trip, having been diagnosed with too many problems to travel cross country. This was my first acknowledgement of my move.
1999 • CARD #23
Ollie took center-stage in this card, which—if I was doing today—would have included the line: “However, he does enjoy playing with the mouse.” I think I printed these out on my home printer, three to a page, and cut them out since I was pretty broke by then. I got two new jobs in summer 1999, working for local TV station KUSI (I HATED that place) and doing freelance for San Diego Comic-Con, which was the writing on the wall for my future for the next two decades.
2000 • CARD #24
My favorite of all the cat cards I drew. Ollie was still with me at this point (he passed away in 2002, after four years as a solitary cat). In reality, though, he never wore scarves, let alone ones of Doctor Who dimensions.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
I no longer live at either 121 Academy Avenue in Pittsburgh or 808 Fourth Ave. in San Diego and haven’t done so in years.
We return next Friday with our final installment of Christmas cards I’ve created over the years, and how it all changed circa 2009 with the introduction of my annual photo books.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
innocent bystander 
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