Rejects #1 (Valentine's Day)

💌 a love letter to bad cartoons

Dear love-themed cartoons that I never sold or posted,

Happy Valentine’s Day! I know, I know: You’ve lost all sense of time and space sitting in the “shit pile” folder on my Google Drive. It’s cold and dark in there, not much to celebrate. No chocolate-covered strawberries or glasses of champagne to keep you going. I truly am sorry for leaving you there for this long. Just know, without a shadow of a doubt, it’s not you. It’s me. It’s always been my fault you never made anyone quietly chuckle to themselves the way one ought to when enjoying a good cartoon.

But, I have good news: it’s finally February 14th. Which means you’re somewhat topical.

I’ve learned a lot in the last year about what doesn’t work. I’ve pushed myself, figured out more about digital pens and brushes, and made plenty of mistakes along the way. I’m always learning. And now, I’ve decided to set you free from the shit pile. Batch by batch, I’ll dust off and share a couple of you from the last year with friends and family on substack every week(ish) with a theme.

You, love-themed badies, are lucky #1. So, no matter how bad you make my followers cringe or make me feel about my ability to make a joke, remember one thing: I ain’t gonna never stop lovin’ you.

❤️ Polly

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I just played Connections for the first time last week and hated it, but it made me think of something really stupid (cupid):

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This one sPEEks for itself:

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This last one was a riff off of a much better 4-panel by Henry Gerbault that I stumbled upon last summer. Please enjoy his (below) before scrolling down to my disappointing and dog-centric redraw.

“Gage D’amour” roughly translates to “Object of Affection.” It’s mostly a way to describe something as a labor of love.

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Alright, that’s it for today! Thanks for getting through that with me, and happy Hallmark ooey gooey chocolate day. I hope, after that, you get to enjoy a nice treat. Maybe kiss your dog on the head an extra time for me. And hold everyone you love close.

See you next week. I have to go eat my weight in strawberries now. 🍓