I’ve always been interested in the movie ‘Waking Life’, and wanted to do illustrations in that style. I could never do it well in color, but then I started playing around with it in black and white, and got somewhat decent at it. I drew several Commesso heads (why???), and did a top banner for the site titled ‘The Search for the Feed Zone’ (you can still see it if you refresh enough times). I suggested to Schmalz that we do a comic strip in that style, and he responded with the first 3 Toto’s right away. I guess he had years of pent up dumbass just waiting to get out.

This one was done on 8/4/06, and it refers to Floyd Landis’ initial contention that the beer and shots he did caused his positive for elevated testosterone.

Toto’s love of ham and lack of sleeves are the leitmotifs, if you will, of As the Toto Turns.

Linus Gerdemann resembling Hilary Swank will be a recurring theme until Schmalz breathes his last spiteful breath.

Christophe Moreau once took a swing at Carlos Sastre for having the nerve to ride on Armstrong’s wheel. Carlos was apparently unaware that Moreau, as top Frenchman, was ordained by God himself to ride in that position. Ever since then Moreau’s been fair game for me. That’s him in the corner.

Hair’s the hardest part of these heads to draw. Gerdemann’s hair is pretty lousy, but Moreau’s is actually not bad. These heads were hand drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. Rotoscoping is the fancy word for it, the simple word would be ‘tracing’.

schmalz comment

It was Andy’s idea to do a comic strip, without his insomnia, enthusiasm and drawing skills – there would be no Toto. I find it particularly fulfilling that I was able to draw Andy into my dumbass view of the cycling world. He was so un-spite filled and normal before, now look at him. This first Toto almost doesn’t make sense – a theme that will re-occur. Why we decided to plant Moreau in there is beyond me. We probably did it just to stick to him.