Okay, so Life in Heck, has never been something I do for other people, it's something I do for me.
Don't get me wrong, if you're a non-friend or a non-family member who actually does visit this site, then thanks, You're cool, and you Rock. (Don't be afraid to use the paypal donate button before you leave)

No, Life in Heck exists because of my deep abiding love of Comics, Cartoons, cute cartoon characters, and practically anything drawn, animated or illustrated. seriously, I love Cartoons and Comics. Give me a cute Cartoon Character any day of the week, a double date with Jessica Rabbit and Betty Boop, Yee-hah!

But then, this week, Life in heck gets it's first ever E-mail.
Not really fan-mail (I guess I'd need real Fans for that to happen, you know, the kind that demand the capital F, and possibly a bold text) No, this was someone asking about advertising on my site.
Not like the finnicky google ad things either, of which I am not allowed to speak, and definitely not allowed to encourage you to click (seriously they're evil and they lead to hell) but in the same way that I currently advertise for a few select friends who have asked me to, usually for nothing more than the cost of a few free drinks (seriously, after a few beers, I really am anybodys). Just a quick succint E-mail asking me to put a dollar value on my advertising space.

Guess my page Rank must be rising slowly?

And then while over on facebook, I took some obscure quiz about logos, and got invited to the cartoon smackdown application, and it all becomes this big collection of cartoon character logos, funny cartoon brand mascots and a little bit of Wall-E (which is a fabulous movie).

And so today, after spending a little time luxuriating amongst Tim Sales beautiful cartoon character art (and being only a little jealous) and spending a bit of time illustrating my pending graphic novel, (and the afore mentioned quiz and stuff) I begin to update the site, just another cute little bubblehead character because they're very quick on the drawing board, and wondering if I should go back to my more traditional, 3-head tall cartoon characters with a little hint of Charlie brown, or perhaps the more angular, simplified look that will appear in "The attack of the Zombie Elvises" that I've been working on or maybe some other kind of Cartoony, comicish look altogether.

And so after all this I trot over to google, and search for cartoon characters, then cartoon mascots, then corporate cartoon characters, the original idea being to assemble a list of top 10 cartoon characters and mascots for todays post, Heck, Top 10 lists are easy, so why not, Except, you know what i find on the results page?

Well, nothing isn't the right word, but it's mostly an odd mish-mash of blog sites. For instance, take sporting mascots. To me, a Mascot is just a big fluffy Cartoon character in team colours.
Like, I'm a Hawthorn supporter, and as a kid, I had a beautiful little plush toy mascot. I loved that toy. It went with me everywhere, games and all.
Over the years I watched the team logo mascot evolve and grow. But do you think I could find a cute version of the cartoon logo version I remember on the web? NO! And this is the team that was this years premiers, that little cartoon guy has been in endless Newspapers, TV segments and all kinds of stuff this last month proudly displaying the premiership cup like the many mascot heads he has stolen over the years.
(I don't know who it was in the suit for so many years, but he was a fit little bastard who had no qualms about quite regularly stealing the opposing mascot's head before making a swift, athletic getaway. But again, do you think I can find pictures?)

And so this quickly reduced my options. I mean, it feels like I'm inundated with these cartoon logo images everytime I'm out and about, whether it's corporate logos such as KFC, The Thirsty Camel, The M&M characters on billboards, the afore-mentioned football mascots, and lordy knows how many bumper sticker cartoons I see about Baby on board or whatever.
But here? on the web? Where are they?

And then I remember my poor little plush toy mascot, back then, some many years ago, his chest emblem was a much more sedate realistic logo image, yet to become the more cartoony logo version. likewise, the KFC logo was a sombre colonel sanders, not the happy, bold brushwork cartoon logo I see on the corner of my block today.
I mean really, my television lights up with bright little cartoon characters at night, even that bizarre little Kool-aid Cartoon Character busting in occasionally, and yet, here on the web, tumbleweed?

Seriously, all of a sudden I'm getting links to things celebrating Katie Holmes. I'm just not seeing the link here, what does she possibly have to do with fabulous cartoon characters?

Well anyway, I've vented enough, so, I'm going to leave you with this (and believe me it took much searching) the only cool cartoon mascot worth counting, because he wears my team colours, and this, year, we beat everyone else, the Hawthorn football club's cartoon team mascot -->

And if you're looking for a good cartoon mascot of your own? try these guys, excellent freinds and even better graphic designers, they do fabulous cartoon characters