Back to School
There was a week or two before SPX when all I did was complain about how busy I was. My apologies for those around me who had to listen to my whining. I had taken on way too much work between illustration gigs, reprinting comics, and starting my second year at the Center for Cartoon Studies, not to mention spending time with visiting family members.
It was worth it though! Sure I may not have finished the weird little comic I wanted to sell at SPX, but I did get to do a lot of work for Prairie Dog and Planet S and their big Back to School special.
The premise of the issue was that college students could earn Scout-inspired merit badges for various requisite activities. Like participating in student elections, and having tons of sex. Read: not anything like my college experience.
Because it’s always creepy whenever adults dress like kids (like, for example, scout leaders), the editors decided they wanted drawings of cute little kids on the cover. Drawing cute cartoon children? Sign me up!
Below are the merit badges that were used in the issue. Each one was accompanied by an short article discussing the subject. Mouse-over to see the name of the category:
While I drew the covers with brush and a G-nib, I did the badges digitally to save time. Even at that, it still took way too damn long. I wanted them to have more of a hatchy, embroidered look, but such luxuries are for insomniacs. That said, it was a lot of fun trying to come up with simple images to represent each category for the article. Obviously, my favourite was the tattoo one.
If I could do it all again, I’d probably do it with less complaining.