#12: A few good journeys

Hello brave captains,

This week’s cartoons are all about journeys. Sometimes those journeys are to far off lands, sometimes to far off parts of the house, and sometimes those journeys are simply to the inner walls of the heart.

Whatever their location, the important part is the journey.

Get those engines going,
Chris

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Caption: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, but wait until you hear my story."

We all know this person. And we’ve likely all been this person.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have a really good story to tell, and someone tries to one-up you, often with a significantly lesser tale? I know I’ve been on both sides of this equation. I think, as humans, we probably can’t help ourselves. Or, at the very least, I think as humans we probably need to train ourselves out of doing it.

Or, maybe both.

A little artist’s note: So, as it turns out, drawing someone with an arm missing, a sword in their hands, and a very war wearly body, is actually pretty fun. It also seemed to come together far quicker than what I had expected, especially since I had never drawn anything like this before. The challenge, perhaps, came from drawing the portal that the person walks through. It has that air of Rick and Morty, but it also has to fit with my own style. The result, actually, came together pretty well.

Caption: "Son, out here, we go where the dirt is."

So apparently, this is a thing.

Cats, rightly or wrongly, kind of enjoy riding on Roombas, the automated vacuum cleaners. And this cartoon imagines: what if those Roombas were kind of like horses, only these horses could only go where the dirt is. And if all of that doesn’t get you, don’t forget that one of the cats is wearing a cool western hat.

A little artist’s note: This is another one of those cartoons that has gone through quite a few revisions. The idea has always been there, but the first draft was a little different. First, in terms of animals: originally it was meant to be mice riding the Roombas. Second, in terms of quality: the mice did not look much like mice, but also my style wasn’t quite where it is today.

Here is the original in all it's, uh, glory:

As you can see, so much and so little has changed between these versions. The composition is largely the same, but the old style is all over the place. And don’t even get me started on the drawing of the so-called mice. Some things are best left unseen.

Caption: "So it turns out you really do have a hole in your heart that only wine can fill."

I never want to meet this doctor.

But I think we’ve all been there. It’s the end of the week, you feel like the thing you need is a nice refreshing beverage, and wine feels like it could be that beverage. While this is kind of a booze dependency thing, I guess, it’s also kind of fun when taken to this extreme.

Although if I ever have a doctor who does this, I’ll be heading straight for the door.

A little artist’s note: I’m not sure whether it’s because of some sort of deep fascination, but there are quite a lot of reference photos of chest x-rays. So much so that, when I needed to work out what the x-ray would look like, there were more than a few options. The combination of medical journals and people oversharing meant that finding a full-on rib cage was actually pretty easy to do. It’s the little things, I guess.

Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!

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