2021-13, 15, 17 – roof, helmet, collide

The Roof! The Roof! The Roof is…out by a mile.

Meet Brad Roof, veteran first baseman for the Aberdeen Gliders. He’s 32-ish (but an old 32-ish), a pretty good righty hitter, a bad fielder, and slow as molasses. He’s definitely reached the designated-hitter-against-lefties stage of his workmanlike career.

Brad Roof is also lucky that the words “helmet”–and particularly “collide”–were on the 2021 Inktober prompt list, because at the concept stage, this was going to be a picture of him grabbing his helmet in anguish after being called out on strikes. He goes out with a little more dignity here.

When I draw pictures of players from my tabletop baseball league (League), I usually “know” who everyone is. Atypically, I have no thoughts as to who the catcher here is or even where this game is taking place. I don’t think it’s in Aberdeen. The South Dakota one, by the way.

As so many are, this was a drawing that took me forever to sit down to, as I expected it would take a long time. It didn’t. So, yay, a rare Inktober threefer.

I expect this one will eventually show up again in the fledgling Nopps series.

2021-10-14 – tick

Grin and Borr(elia) it.

There was never any question where I wanted to take this prompt. The issue was that I’ve never been happy with how I draw trees and plants, which I knew I’d need a lot of here. Still, I’m satisfied with how this came out–not-to-scale arachnids notwithstanding.

I considered adding a “Welcome to Lyme, Connecticut” sign (and, briefly, a “Welcome to Lyme’s, Connecticut” sign, because people are idiots) in the background, but I couldn’t figure out how to orient it; for it to be readable, it would have to be facing the woods, which wouldn’t make sense.

2021-10-13 – stuck

“Small stakes
Will kill time
When you’re stuck
In back of the line”

Not going to say much about this effort. Any friends who happen upon this entry will probably get it.

I’m pleased with how this one–actually, these nine–came out. The decision to leave my bulletin board uninked was the right one. I’m glad it’s there (the pattern on the fabric is cool), but it would have overpowered the rest of the scene if I’d darkened it.

There was a fair amount of computer “postproduction” work needed to put this drawing together. The process was particularly fun, which was both gratifying and ironic.

2021-10-11 – sour

Wow, that’s sour!

I used to love sour candy; now it just hurts my mouth. Nevertheless, candy is (probably predictably) the first place this prompt took me. I’d just finished the “pick” drawing, and I liked how that one came out, so Booger Boy gets a curtain call. If you look closely, you can see that he didn’t have the time (or inclination) to clean up between “shoots.”

I actually have no idea what shape Warheads are–they may be individually wrapped. But this ain’t a courtroom, and rules of evidence are looser here.

2021-10-10 – pick

“Hey, Ma, what’s for dinner?”

More highbrow interpretation of the Inktober prompt.

This was the obvious direction to go, though I really tried to come up with something else. I wasn’t jazzed with the idea of the digging tool, and even though (or because) I’ve had cause for recent unscheduled visits to the dentist, the dental tool didn’t do anything for me, either.

2021-06, 07, 08 – spirit, fan, watch

Gotta support the team!

I’ve been eager to finish this one: my first ever three-fer. “Watch” is the weakest link here–probably should have thrown a wristwatch on fanboy–but I can live with it.

I briefly considered having the supported team be one my League teams, but that would have been too obscure.

Lots of unpaid business promotion here–and some familiar-ish faces–courtesy of Hot Pocket (story for another post).

2021-10-04 – knot

Marry place

I staggered the Inktober prompts to post this one today.

Can’t believe it was almost a quarter century ago that this all went down in Bow.

The actual event was rather more well attended than what is shown here. Mom and Sim! are looking on (and probably amazed that this day ever came). Debbie Steiner is also here (front-most guest on left). The other attendees shown here are just generic extras.

Representing the wedding party, left to right, are Debi, Bram, Eric, and Bill. It’s a terrible likeness of the latter, even by my standards. I’ve done better.

Oh, and here’s the debut of my suit. It was in better shape then.

In case the reference to the prompt word is too obscure: it’s “tying the knot.”

Of course, this one is dedicated to Lisa. Happy anniversary!

2021-10-05 – raven

Hello, birds!

This past weekend I visited my college pal Geoff, and at one point we got to talking about hobbies. I mentioned that cartooning was one of mine, and it led to me forcing him to check out this blog. As has been his unfailing wont for the entirety of our friendship, he was quite complimentary and encouraging: Ge-offy is as gracious as he is a liar.

Be that as it may, our conversation was just the shot in the arm I needed to rally some inspiration and break out the ol’ sketch pad. So here we go, picking up where I left off on the Inktober 2021 prompts. I have some catching up to do.

This prompt didn’t do anything for me. The only thing I could think of was Edgar Allan Poe–kind of obvious. I considered drawing my friend Bill, a park ranger who served at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, in front of the Poe House. And though that would have been in line with my goal of getting more of the people most important to me into my “cartoon canon,” I still wasn’t enthused about the Poe angle.

Not to worry, Bill. Your (comic) time is coming soon.

Anyway, I started just playing with the word “raven,” and it reminded me of that weird unpronounceable backpack company that Maia was so crazy for once upon a time. So here we are. As a bonus, I get to knock off another “collect ’em all” entry. I’m still gunning for a full series of 30.

Oh, Corvus is the raven genus. I needed a word on the patch and couldn’t think of anything else. Hey, I’m not on trial here.

2021-10-03 – vessel

Ahoy!

Nothing much to say here. For this one, I immediately realized I had the opportunity to go for the “threefer”–three aspects of the prompt.

The beer isn’t the right color for the hazy NEIPAs I tend towards, but there’s nothing wrong with a classic West Coast now and again.

2021-10-02 – suit

Suits (not) me!

The idea for this prompt came easily–the drawing less so, because of course it involved more than one person.

Last July Lisa and I attended Paige’s wedding. Paige is the daughter of two of our closest friends. Putting aside the horror of entering the “weddings of friends’ kids” stage, it was a beautiful wedding and a great time.

It was also the first time in forever that I’ve worn a suit. In fact, I wore the suit I wore at my OWN wedding, 22 years earlier. Normally I’d be all pleased that I could still fit into the suit, but I was just as much of a load in 1999 and I am today, so it’s a feat that doesn’t say much. What I definitely WASN’T pleased about was that the suit wound up having a ton of tiny holes in it. I didn’t register the extent of the problem until–of course–I was at the wedding.

Fortunately, it did not derail anything for Paige and Will.

I like this cartoon, though I feel bad that Lisa is looking away. Of the people I draw, she’s the hardest person to capture in cartoon form (Maia is probably next). This is probably as close to a decent Beth and Todd as I can get.

Though I’ve equipped myself with a great seat of Tombow markers, I’ve moved away from going full Sunday morning comics with the color. Still, this one seemed like it needed more. I wound up splitting the difference, scanning both a black and white and a color version.

I really thought about adding Andy and Jeanne, but that would have delayed this cartoon by another month at least. I am determined to start working more of the people in my life into these cartoons (prompts permitting), and they’re at the top of the list.