#31: Abandon, apart, and avoid

Hello well-wishers,

Let’s kick off this Thursday with some cartoons.

First, we have a Halloween special, followed by a monstrous medical task, and finishing with a family relationship made simple.

Movin’ and a’shakin’,
Chris

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Caption: “This house is abandoned. Some say say it's haunted, others say the owners raised the rent too high in what was clearly a renter's market.”

It’s Halloween this week! A time when kids threaten the locals in exchange for sweet treats.

And whether you’re a kid or a grown up, there are some houses you just don’t visit. Maybe the door is hanging off the hinges or maybe the owner is, but whatever reason, the place is just off limits. This cartoon wonders why.

Maybe you know one of these houses too?

A little artist’s note: Pwhoar! This one took some work. Everything from that picket fence to including enough of the house to make it look like a house. It’s all in there and it all took far more work than I expected it too. The house went through multiple iterations. From being something quite ornate and Addams family-like, to something with banisters, more like a suburban apartment building. In the end, I went from going from something quite complicated, to something relatively simple. The best part? The kids, hands down.

Caption: “Father, what is the medical history of this leg? And this arm? And the other arm? And...”

Ole Dr Frankenstein made his monster from all sorts of used parts. But he really didn’t think about the details.

I mean, how is his monster going to function in society without health insurance, and then, how is he going to write his medical history? The world is a complicated place when you’re a fictional, walking and talking monster.

Also, medical forms are a lot of work to fill out.

A little artist’s note: Of all the cartoons I expected to be difficult, this was not one of them. In fact, it came together so quickly and so cleanly, I worried that I had completely screwed something up. But, so far so good.

Interestingly, about the only roadblock to this one was in making sure that what you saw looked like Frankenstein’s monster. You see, the problem is, as my style has changed and evolved, it has certain hallmarks that make it mine. But, Frankenstein’s monster also has his own styles. He has his own hallmarks that need to be adhered to otherwise you, the reader, won’t believe that it’s him. Have I pulled it off? As usual, it’s a solid maybe.

But, for contrast, here is a previous Frankenstein cartoon of mine:

He looks different here, but he’s still Frankenstein’s monster too.

Ah, the challenges.

Caption: “You call it your father watching TV. I call it me successfully avoiding a conversation with my father-in-law.”

Gosh, we’ve all been there.

When I was much younger, my grandfather would come to visit for dinner. He was a nice man, but not a very talkative one. And so, before dinner, so both he and I could avoid conversations that we both knew wouldn’t be welcomed, we would rely on our friend the TV to help us out.

Can you relate?

A little artist’s note: This cartoon came from the idea of small talk. Some people like it, others don’t. And then it kind of spiraled into the issue of avoiding conversations completely. But a few things of note here.

First, the pose of the father-in-law. He’s leaning a little to the left, and you could either assume that he was trying to listen in, or that he was trying to reach the button on the recliner. But, whatever it is, the position is there to seem ever so slightly awkward.

Second, the people standing up. In earlier drafts, the people kind of looked like a son and a mother and it was making the joke harder to understand. I realised that part of the reason for this was that the hair on the woman looked of the same era as the person in the chair. That they could be together. They could be partners. So, subsequent drafts led to that hair dropping to a much younger look. Maybe?

Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!

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