Introducing Clocky

Despite the fact that I am a dismal doodler, I often find myself not only doodling, but showing off my doodles. Once I even printed one of these "cartoons" in my college newspaper as art with an opinion piece about blogging. After some teasing, I had to make a personal rule not to publish any more of my "artwork."

Nevertheless, I'm letting my doodles back out today.

About eight months ago I created a new mascot for the newspaper where I work named Clocky. He is loosely based off of the clock clip art that sits on the header of each of our front pages, as seen below:



Although our online news may never stop, the news in our weekly papers so obviously does stop (every day but Saturday) that I've always found the tag line and clock ironic.

And so, when we were thinking of ways to market our papers in parades Clocky was born:


Since, I've been doodling him here and there, giving him thought and word bubbles when appropriate and even naming my fantasy football team "Tick-Tock Clocky."

He has quickly become one of my best-loved doodles.

But I hadn't thought about Clocky much recently until I saw Mr. Goodcents beaming from the side of a Mr. Goodcents sub shop in Mankato on Friday. It was as if, finally, someone else appreciated my concept of placing goofy arms, legs and eyes on an inanimate object to create a nearly nonsensical mascot.

Here he is in all his glory:


I was so impressed with the mascot that we stopped to get a sandwich there. The sandwich was okay, but the endless mascot branding all over the packaging and napkins was what made the meal. He looks like Clocky's long-lost penny-shaped cousin.