secret of the ooze

Awhile back I noticed a proclivity amongst the cartoonists of the APE,MOCCA,SPX,TCAF convention circuit to always be drawing gloppy slime monsters. these days I think it can be a little tiresome, I am conscious of it so I try and draw it less. In college I had a character I'd make mini comics about called Jelliot Plopson who was entirely made of slime. I think somewhere I have a 16 page of a story with him that I never bothered to print. I don't think cartoonists who draw slime are all doing it to be cool or bite down on some slop n' glop based trend. but I have to admit it just kind of happens. I'm not sure exactly why. when I pick up a pen or a brush and follow my natural impulses, I feel inclined to draw sloppy blob creatures. My only guess is it's generational. when I was a kid in the 80's, slime was a very popular toy and one my own personal favorites. You'd find that stuff everywhere. often in the entrances to grocery stores in those little eggs you get out of gumball machines. Also there was higher priced slime available too, officially licensed as part of the Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters/He-man toy lines. There is something satisfying about letting that stuff drip on your hands and glop onto your toys.
Slime was even the official mascot of Nickelodeon! There was however a sinister side to slime. the 1980's remake of the blob is one of only three movies ever to give me reoccurring nightmares. one of the other movies to have that effect on me was Creepshow 2, specifically it's own blob based lake monster segment. As a kid I was the type who, whenever possible, spent my time under water. It was an easy thing to do growing up in the lake ridden cities of Richfield and Minneapolis.
I remember late in the summers occasionally finding weird golf ball sized orbs of green translucent slime floating in the water. The consistency of it was about that of tapioca. I didn't and still don't know what they were. I think I had been told conflicting explanations that it was seeds from lake weeds but also that it was the shells of fish eggs.
one day when I a friend and I were swimming through Richfield lake after it had flooded, and we saw that stuff floating everywhere. as we swam though the lake it was like swimming though a giant bubble tea, the globs were everywhere and in various sizes, some as large as oranges.
we had to scrape it off our skin and comb it out of our hair when we got out of the water.