caricature of a stranger

February 16, 2008

oldguy.jpg

ODE TO HAIR

“It’s really quite scary,
how terribly hairy,
I’ve gotten.” said dear uncle Ned.

“Hair sprouts from my nose,
from my ear grows and grows.
Too bad there is none on my head!”

A little ditty I wrote a while back, just seemed to fit.

……………………………………………

Our workday shackles were unlocked early today and instead of going straight home I decided to indulge in some geekery and headed over to B&N. The 12 year old boy inside me loves comics and graphic novels so I spent 2 hours devouring 4 or 5 of these treasures while fueling my caffeine addiction with some mediocre coffee.

I was pouring over “Black Hole” by Charles Burns, when I noticed the guy sitting next to me, (the one who could have flopped himself in one of the many empty seats that were not right on top of me,) was overtly staring at me. Well, not at me specifically, but at what I was reading … and me.

Being from the western hemisphere I tend to read from left to right. Concentrating on the left page, I hadn’t yet noticed the right page contained an image of a young man, fully and frontally nude, (emphasis on the good bits, if you know what I mean.) This thing took up a quarter of the dang page. So, I’m not sure what I found more unnerving, the fact that my new, unwanted friend would rather crane his neck to read my book than read his own or the fact that he seemed so fascinated with ME reading this book. It was all just a bit creepy.

No matter. One well placed, withering look and his nose got stuck right back in his own book. I’m territorial that way.

Now, what this has to do with the above image … is exactly nothing. However, after recovering from the indignation of having my “space” invaded, my attention was soon drawn to a poor, unsuspecting gentleman with the most wonderful, character-ridden face. Uh, yeah, that would be him up there and yes I sat there and drew him.

I guess I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me a withering look. What a good sport.

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By the way, I ended up buying “Batman Hush” by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams. The art is amazing! Also “The Last Man” by Brian K Vaugn, Pia Guerra and José Marzán, Jr., some great art and interesting story. I’ll get “Black Hole” later, it was so good, but didn’t want to spend my whole paycheck in one place, hee hee.

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