I'm a Real Boy!

October's BYOB column was first a frustrating, then liberating experience.  Drew's given us a very technical, info-driven article about "real ale," meaning ale that has been naturally carbonated in a metal cask—traditionally a European practice—without injecting carbon dioxide.  It's interesting stuff, but with little illustrative language to work with how can one translate text into image?

At the eleventh hour, with no ideas and a deadline looming, I looked at the article again.  I picked out details that I'd overlooked the first time: the phrase "damn the torpedoes," a bit about Americans "eschewing tradition," and I let my wheels turn over the concept of "real ale."  And I cracked my brain open and let whatever ridiculousness dribble onto the page, producing these truly horrible thumbnails:

I say "truly horrible," because they're drawn so sloppily that they needed explanation to my poor art director.
 1. Going from "Damn the torpedoes," Rear Adm. David Farragut captains a Civil War-era Naval crew aboard a metal cask.
2. A parody of John Trumbull's Signing of the Declaration of Independence painting in which Jefferson presents a metal cask and the founding fathers puzzle over it.
3. A handful of marionettes drinking beer out of a wooden cask watch Pinocchio strut by with a metal cask of real ale under his arm--he's transformed into a real boy.

 She chose #3 (my favorite as well) and off I went.  In the end, I was sort of proud of my out-of-the-box concepts (there were even more that truly made no sense whatsoever) and though they came out of panic I'm hoping to channel that frantic creativity into future articles.  Let's get weird, y'all.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
Nobodies Vol. 2 is very nearly funded! I just got a pdf proof of the book and it's truly amazing, I'm so proud to have work among so many talented artists. You can check out a preview of my story, "Nobody Gets Hurt," here. Even if you have no interest in contributing, please check out the project and show some love for the cartoonists who made it happen!

You want to go to there.