It Takes All Kinds

Presented here for our consideration, is the only appearance to date of the comic strip '42 Plain Street' - published in anything other than the Japanese format.

The Vancouver Sun newspaper ran a sample episode and included a few short words (also in English) about the local 'home-grown' artist (that's ME!) behind the scribbles during a period (late 90s) when I was using my original title: "It Takes All Kinds". However, had I known that they would print the 4 cartoon panels at the microscopic size that they did, leaving the poor reader little chance to follow the script, I might have said 'thanks, but no thanks' and remained undiscovered and untranslated.

A less compressed edition of the same episode is included below (click to enlarge).

The SUN had requested a dozen or so examples of the strip to choose from, and if I'd been allowed the opportunity, I probably would have picked one of the other gags instead of this one. But again, only if they weren't going to shrink everything down to the size of a speck of dirt.

After this short feature was published in The Sun, I did enjoy hearing from a few people that had managed to spot it, despite its shrunken state; people I'd not been in contact with for a while.

It acted somewhat like a free advert in the paper, encouraging any former acquaintences of mine to come out of the woodwork and say hello. Or at least to ask me what the joke was about because they couldn't read it.

In Japan, the same gag was published in proper Japanese format (top-to-bottom) as shown here below. (I've removed the first two frames.) But now for some reason, Wanda was mentioning the number "3" in her final speech balloon. Was this an editor's decision; to change the script without consulting me? Did they shorten the period of time I'd offered up for the care & clothing of the young boy character from the flippant term of 'forever'... down to just '3 short years'? Why would 3 years be considered a funnier length of time in Japan?

Actually, now that I stop to seriously consider it, the number 3 in the final frame might be referring to the amount of members in the family. As in this possible final statement: "We better get used to the fact that it'll be the 3 of us here for a long, long time." Hmmm... maybe.

I think my original punchline was better, but, heck; as long as they still sent full payment, I wasn't going to hoot and holler about it.

Caricature Flaws

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of knowing the 'Dougie' featured on the cover of this homemade birthday card (presented above) would have to agree with me, that - for maybe the first and only time in my drawing life - I have somehow managed to capture here, in cartoon form, the exact facial likeness of our dear old friend from the block, circa 1980s.

Of course, more than 25 years later, Dougie looks more like he does in this recent picture (below) but that's not the point.

Success in the fine art of 'caricature' is almost impossible. At least for me. Over the years, I've been asked a number of times to supply cartoons for someone's retirement card or an upcoming wedding or a going-away party, but I've always turned them down. Because I knew it would require that my drawing must resemble the person being saluted, at least a little bit. Nope; I know my limitations. My efforts to bring real people into the cartoon world have always been less than satisfying. As was certainly the case back in 1978 when I attempted to transfer the very pleasant face of Sandy L. (posing against the backdrop of Gunn Lake) onto the pages of my sketchbook - while at the same time her dear mother waited nearby to survey the final results. That setup had failure written all over it from the start.

Here's another poor attempt at caricature drawing (below). My postal softball team from the mid-80s, without a single character resembling their real life counterpart in any way. Except for maybe the dog. And okay, maybe the poor guy in shadow, half hidden behind the chubby girl waving at us.

It's not just OTHER people's faces that I have this difficulty with. No sir. I can't even draw MYSELF in cartoon form. And I get to study my face nearly every other day!

This is a drawing done many years ago. That's ME out in the snow delivering all the bleedin' xmas cards. But if I didn't just go and TELL you that it was me out in the snow delivering all the bleedin' xmas cards, you'd have never known. Admit it.

Fifty Dollars!