#19: Allergies, parkers, and mothers

Hello my fine-feathered friends,

It’s that time of the week. Time to delve into another set of cartoons.

Inside this week’s edition, you’ll find an excuse for a situation we’ve all been in, a parking situation with a novel solution, and a mother with a good heart focusing on all the wrong things.

Pulling into the station,
Chris

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Caption: "Oh, hey guys, yeah I've been keeping a low profile because of my allergies, and because I don't like people."

We’ve all been there. And some of us are there more than others.

I’m a big allergy sufferer. You name it, from flora to fauna to oranges, I’m allergic to it. And, often, it’s a genuine excuse to stay inside. But sometimes, when my introvert side hits hard, the last thing I want to do is see people.

This cartoon combines both of those things.

A little artist’s note: I really do like this visual. I wanted to keep it as simple as I could, simply so you could see the puzzled and annoyed looks on the faces. Of particular note, when I initially drew what was under the balding fella’s arm, it looked lot more ambiguous. My thought was: People will be able to just imagine what they think it is. But, then, I showed it to my partner who fairly clearly said that it looked like absolutely nothing. So, now it’s a basketball!

Caption: “In the blue car is Janice, who swears she saw the park first, and in the red car is Phil, who also swears he saw the park first.”

We’ve all been there. We spot the car park, we turn the wheel, we go to move, and then we see someone else has the exact same idea.

For some reason, ever since I started making cartoons, I’ve wanted to do one involving a boxing referree. There’s just something oddly authoritative about them and I feel like they would be at home in any situation.

Including car parking disputes.

A little artist’s note: I have lost track of the amount of times I have redrawn this cartoon. The joke has remained the same, but it has had many different perspectives and angles. It’s also the sort of cartoon that I feel like in a few years time, I’ll want to redraw again from another angle. For those playing along at home, here is an earlier version where the perspective is a little different.

As you can see, everything is quite similar, but everything is also quite small and distant. It feels very easy to get lost in, which is the last thing anyone wants with a cartoon.

Also, don’t ask me what make the cars are… I’m pretty sure that whatever they are, they don’t exist.

Caption: "Oh Victor, this stitching is all wrong - what were you thinking?"

Mothers. They’re full of good intentions.

One of the literary world’s most famous doctors, Doctor Frankenstein, battles the critiques not of the villagers with pitchforks, but those of his own mother. That she flags that her son’s stitching technique is wrong, but doesn’t really question the fact that he’s building a monster from spare parts, is perhaps what I love the most about this cartoon.

Also, how could anyone say no to that sweet Mother’s face?

A little artist’s note: I have sat on this one for a little while. I really love the visual, but it took me quite a while to really nail how the background would work. In previous versions, it has had everything from lab equipment, to a long hall to some pretty hairy equipment. I finally settled on stripping all of that back and adding the simple floorboards to give some context to the room. The other addition was the banner, which came late in the piece, but serves to both make it clear about who we see in the cartoon, and also work as a fun play on the old phrasing of ‘Dr Frankenstein’s Monster.’

Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!

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