It struck me last night as an 18-wheeler tried to mash me into a Excursion that, if I were so mashed, the last piece of artwork I would have created was about cotton swabs. Add that to that thought the fact that this little strip took hours to create and finish and you have a cocktail of the most sobering variety.
While Q-Tips (I do not, as a rule, actually say “cotton swabs”) may not be the best paintbrushes (the cotton can unravel and make a mess; plus the tips are, you know, absorbent) they’re not bad at smearing around watercolor pencil.
As I’ve gotten older and tried to emulate my artist heroes I realize exactly how difficult their lives might have been. At first glance it doesn’t seem that the quiet life of Charles Schulz sketching out his lil’ folks would be terrible. It seems, rather, wonderful: yet I still grapple with the blank page, tortured by the techno-gutter magnificence of Jack Kirby or the Sunday glory of Frank King. I can put the pictures into little boxes, but I can’t make them sing. I read an issue of Kamandi last night that made me want to cry over its sheer wonder. Kamandi was battling the Red Baron, a trained-human lackey of an intelligent killer whale that was hunting the future-dolphins allied with Kamandi, who was waterskiing behind two of the dolphins, attempting to gun down the Baron and: it was just crazy.
The waves were the most beautiful part.
Mix + Alec Eiffel dropped off a copy of Alligator by the National a little before Christmas and I finally got around to listening to it a couple months back and haven’t been able to stop. Sometimes I like the Tindersticksy parts and sometimes I like the yelling. The release of their new record, Boxer, is imminent, and you can go ahead and get hooked on “Fake Empire” with me.
How would you have felt, though, if you had been mashed without first warning the rest of us about the perils and shortcomings of the cotton swab? That Q-tip dragon really brings it home for me.
Fake Empire. Yum.
I believe Kafka didn’t think he could make his work sing either. He wrote several stories about Q-tips that, thank God, we have recovered.
I love the Q-tip art!
I love the knight.
and there’s always this …(well, I was going to have something about those Celestial ear vacuum burn tubettes, but then I found this
)
The Diplomat is right: that knight is bad-ass. I think my favorite part is the Q-tip border, though. And the stick.
And is there anything more fun than summarizing 70s-era Kirby comics? I think there may not be. (Though I picked up an especially disappointing issue of The Demon recently).
You acted like you were just drawing a Q-tip, like with your left hand, and then throwing dirt on top of it. This is beautiful! The drill alone is perfection. But you know how I feel about knights. Swoon.
Next up: Legally Blonde!
That drill was drawn with no reference! Uh, by the by, did somebody out there borrow my drill? And if so, can you return it?
Love this! Although I did once have a doctor yell at me for using q-tips and then proceed to pour bubbly stuff in my ear to clear an “impact.” I haven’t used them since, but I miss them.
Q-Perfection!
I like it and the drill is certainly the bee’s knees…but the knight….hmm…seems to resemble something I’ve seen before. Oh well, I can’t remember. As fate would have it, I’ve been missing Kirby comics lately. Also, be careful with them cotton swabs…wouldn’t want a visit with the doctor now would you? Just use warm water to rinse out your ears…or use your keys. I had a friend in college, Kent or Nelson (forgot his name) that would put big wings on the side of his head as a disguise and pretend to be someone else. His ears were always dirty.
There are exactly six people in America laffing at this, Wags, but I’m one of them. I kept waiting for somebody to call me out on it!!
His Q-Tip-Sword is awesome.