New Website Goes Live!

Welcome to the Official Dogtown Comic Strip Website!

  December 9, 2011

Happy Holidays!

    I've just posted the strips for Christmas 2011 so I think I'm going to take a break for the holidays and start making new posts when the book is ready. In the meantime I'll be putting up some special "strips of the week" from my archives that I've been rounding up recently so there will be some new stuff that hasn't been posted on the site before.

Merry Christmas! - Jp

  October 20, 2011

What's ahead for Dogtown?

    The strip must go on! Keep checking back for the Strip of the Week, Dogtown isn't going anywhere if you were wondering. Also I'm organizing strips and writing for Dogtown's first book. More plans include a free email/facebook subscription through this website that alerts readers when the next strip is up. Stay tuned and I'll have more info as things are ready.

  October 11, 2011

A Letter to My Wonderful Publishers at Blount Today:

    I'm not sure where else to begin but to say thank you. This week I've learned that I'm not invulnerable to not knowing what I have until it's gone. Being published in Blount Today was never a job, it was an opportunity to live out a childhood dream of being a cartoonist. As I drew the Dog's ever-wagging tail and Stan's cow-lick for the last time they were to be published in your wonderful hometown newspaper, I knew something would not be the same in my life after Thursday.
    I couldn't resist drawing strip after strip tonight because it felt like I had to cram it all in one last time; the joy of watching that black runny inda ink bring my rough pencil marks into focus or seeing how the whole thing doesn't quite seem to breath life until Stan's shoes are painted red. While I'm certainly going to continue drawing Dogtown, I couldn't bear the thought that maybe somebody wanted more than the sudden shock of only two more frames in the newspaper. After reading your announcement of Blount Today's closing, I immediately began writing strips and I ended up drawing three comics.
    The ideas I came up with represent the flood of confusion and emotions that struck me after hearing the news, something further detached but I'm sure would be in tune with the emotions yourself and the wonderful staff of Blount Today have likely experienced today and those feelings stirred up in your devoted readers who are both concerned for the security of thier beloved publishing team as well as the loss of the publication itself.
    So all of this confusion, sadness, apprehension of the future, determination and perseverance to look ahead, and pride for the accomplishments we've left in the wake of our journey tossed me into the dilemma of determining what message I really wanted to leave off with. I know that it's best to overall express love and to express appreciation for the losses and gains of that journey we've taken, to grant the reader some sort of closure and acceptance that "all is well that ends well", but I also didn't think it right that simply because we near the end of a chapter that our characters break down for fear that they disappear when the words cut away at the end of the page.
    It was with this visual in mind that I decided that the dog must harass Stan just once more so that we know Stan will love his little friend but never cease to benefit from having to consider what is lost and what is gained when you get paw prints on your fresh pressed pant legs. And likewise, the Hotdog Vendor certainly wouldn't allow such a commercially exploitable event as the approaching final frames of his comic strip to pass by without seizing upon an opportunity to sell Stan the same old hotdog for the same old price! And though I felt it best to end with a classy goodbye, I had to explore these options to prove that these characters live on whether printed or not, or published in any other form. And so even if just for me (and hopefully for those of you at Blount Today who may be ready for a little bitter-sweet laugh at life's lemons - what are you gonna do, right?) I wanted to draw these comics as a parting gift (parting, that is, of our current business relationship) to fellow creative spirits and a publisher and team (and Brad for introducing me) that made a newspaper possible that captured the essence of a community and also made possible the existence of another community once only realized in the dreams of a wanna-be cartoonist.

Thank you, sincerely,
Josh Pritchard

P.S. You better not bump me! ;)

  November 3, 2008

    Well, Stan voted and agree with him or not you need to vote too! Don't pass on the chance to exercise your right to vote tomorrow!

  May 5, 2008

    Click on this week's strip! From now on those tiny comics enlarge for your reading pleasure! I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, but enjoy! =)


  Click here to enlarge the strip!

  April 22, 2008

    It's Earth Day! Learn simple ways you can help stop global warming!
I think Joe sure would appreciate it.

  Click here to enlarge the strip!

  March 06, 2008

    There are new coloring pages available!

  May 31, 2007

    I've been learning more about my local no kill shelters lately and think this is a cause our dog would stand behind. Here is the link to my hometown humane society http://www.blountcountyhumanesociety.org. I'd love to do some comics for thier cause.

  May 19, 2007

    My groom's cake topper complements of my lovely wife Sybil. :)

  Click here to enlarge

  May 14, 2007

    Congratulations to our graduates! I drew this new comic for my local Alma mater, Maryville High School. The character Joe in Dogtown is loosely a much younger version of Joe Rebel, a character I drew in my school days for our paper the Red & Black.

  Click here to read the full strip!

  January 12, 2007

    Welcome friends! This is something I’ve been working on for several months. It’s a great reward and great relief to see it finally up. I’ve wanted to post the strip online for a while and this a great time to go live with Dogtown in its second year in Blount Today. I will be adding to the site as often as I can.

If you have any suggestions for the site or want to shoot me a line about the strip, email me at jpritchard@dogtowncomic.com. I can't wait to hear from you!