Local cartoon and a brand new toy

First the cartoon. My editor informed me earlier today that he was working on a story about an ongoing issue here at our area beaches. Seems people who ride their horses on the beach can't imagine why some folks don't like them using the parking lot, and the dunes, and the beach, and the water, and the showers as their own personal horse toilet. I was tickled when I got this idea, and sure enough, my editor loved it.

Now, about my new toy. It's the Intuos4 tablet from Wacom. And let me tell you, if you haven't tried one of these suckers out yet (or if you just can't afford a Cintiq like me), you should at least give the Intuos4 a test drive. I HIGHLY recommend upgrading to this tablet from your stodgy old Intuos3. It simply blows it away. The pen pressure sensitivity has been increased two-fold, and this tablet's buttons are so intuitive, it almost seems like they're reading your mind. The handy little stand is weighted better than those in the past, and it also holds/hides your extra pen nibs - a nifty feature. From the first pen stroke I was hooked. Try one out, you won't be disappointed. Hint: Extra Large is way too big. I got the large size and it fits perfectly on my desk (see photo). I put a quarter on it to give a sense of scale.