Desert Peach, Usagi Yojimbo, Fighting Forestry Fools

AFTERDEAD, U. Yojimbo, Times cartoon.

Thanks to Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy for helping me ink. So let's take on three things at once. At least it will give the ink time to dry between pages.

Getting another AFTERDEAD page done, or at least the inks, on the left.

The forestry cartoon (right) is after this foolishness in Time Magazine. I've realized there's a dysfunction in the minds of the people who raise our food, and I'm getting them next. I'll post a better shot after I scan all this stuff.

If you're thinking, "My, that is a sparse and not-fancy art station," it gives me the chance to use this quote (of which I'm kinda proud, so there):

Monday, October 14, 2013, from Chris Ariel Grant's book, "Bohica Blues."

"I realized you don't to be magic or rich, or even completely wired down tight (in fact, it helps to be a bit off kilter to do this stuff), just be willing to actually do it. 

"But one huge influence that paid off later was Donna Barr's "The Desert Peach". While a lot of artists I knew fussed about having the "right" tools, pens, brushes, a certain shade of ink, exact-weight paper harvested from the trees on the shore of a mystical lake in the Tibetan mountains, and other resources, I'd watch Donna Barr grab, literally, a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper and churn out her next comic chapter in a couple hours. Years later, in the Iraq desert, I remembered that ability to work with any resource and not to let excuses come between me and getting a project done. While I admit I prefer certain tools and resources, all I truly need is pen, paper, and lots of coffee."

Which always makes me happy, to know I've helped the next person sit down and start drawing and writing. 

For Sharon

Stan Sakai's wife Sharon is under cancer treatment, and you know how artists raise money - we all chip in something pretty for an art auction. As Dan says, "You might as well be printing your own money." 

Well, we don't have money, but we have art, so I did this little cartoon of a misunderstanding over what Usagi Y. had actually buried. I don't think Stan has any alligator characters (?), but gators are notoriously willing to take on any chance at a good thing. Here's the rough, and the final inks.

Don't touch!

As you can see, I don't ink in roughs very neatly. I kind of get the generals down - in this case, after researching Stan's characters on the 'net - and then I light-table the inks quickly.

I've put the "WTF is going on here??" text in, upside down. I'm sure Stan will get it right away, but if not, this will make it a puzzle, and it's traditional to put in the answers on the same page, and upside-down. You'll note my little technique of getting the whole comics page into one gag by sorta telling the story with background sound effects. I think Don Martin did that too? I dunno; I'm sure I didn't invent it. They probably had it in Egyptian tomb painting.

And here's the pretty final, all painted up.