This comic was drawn by my most frequent collaborator, Becky Hawkins. Becky writes:
I’ve been a bike-commuter for twelve years and in that time I’ve noticed the average vehicle size getting bigger. There’s something unnerving about waiting at a red light and realizing your head barely reaches above the hood of the truck behind you.
I’m in a bit of a media-bubble and assume that everyone regularly hears about the dangers of taller, flat-fronted vehicles. Apparently that’s not the case, so I was happy to draw a comic about the “personal vehicle arms race” in the US! I even drew Bill as a really friendly guy in the last panel, because good-hearted, kind people regularly reach the conclusion that it’s best for themselves and their loved ones to drive the biggest thing on the road.
I follow an Instagram account called Mobility For Who that includes lots of POV footage of biking around Santa Monica. I watched several videos, looking for driver-shenanigans that could be condensed into one comic panel. (Be warned, sometimes these videos are fun and sometimes they’ll raise your blood pressure.)
Video: Did an entitled cyclist run a red light and block traffic?
The videos are full of interesting apartment buildings that I’m slightly too lazy and time-crunched to draw. I was, however, inspired to give the buildings in the cartoon a southern California flavor.
I sketched several versions of panel 3, and Barry chose my initial sketch: an SUV driver cutting off a car, implying that the SUV ran a stop sign. I tried to trace the screenshot below as a way to quickly draw a street corner in perspective. (I flipped the image so that the sidewalk would be on the left where I wanted the characters to be.) In the end, instead of tracing, I fudged the perspective, as I did to some degree in each of these panels. It just needs to be close enough.
Off the subject, I love the color on this mini-truck! It reminds me of a car in an amusement park ride.
The other vehicles in the cartoon came from photo reference. I stopped to take pictures in between running errands.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows two characters walking together on city sidewalks, with parked cars and traffic visible in every panel. The main character, a blonde man with neat hair, a blue polo shirt, and peach shorts, is the speaker. His friend is a brown-haired woman wearing a pink sleeveless shirt and leggings. Both carry ice cream cones.
PANEL 1
The man points to a sleek little blue car parked nearby.
MAN: I used to drive a small car like that, but my husband Bill wanted me in something big to be safe from other drivers.
PANEL 2
The man clasps his hands excitedly as he thinks of a mini-truck, stars in his eyes. The background is his thought bubble, and in the bubble is an image of him driving in a cute green mini-truck. Captions surrounding the mini-truck say “less expensive” and “better gas mileage” and “easy to park.”
MAN: Then I wanted a Japanese mini-truck. But Bill said U.S. laws make it almost impossible to import a new one.
PANEL 3
The two pedestrians pause at a street corner as they chat. At the same intersection, a red SUV runs a stop sign, and a smaller SUV is cut off and has to suddenly brake.
MAN: Anyway, Bill said I need something really big! Roads nowadays are dog eat dog! To be safe I’ve gotta be the biggest dog!
PANEL 4
The two pedestrians have come to a stop. The man is smiling and waves hi at the driver of a truck which has parked there. The friend, looking up at the truck, is so startled she drops her ice cream.
The truck is enormous – probably three times the height of an adult man, and straddling at least three parking spaces. Even the headlights are above the man’s head.
In the driver’s seat, Bill, a happy looking guy with an orange beard, waves back.
MAN: And here’s Bill now!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
Chicken fat is an old cartoonists’ expression for unimportant details that might amuse.
In panel one, a car has a license plate which says “TINY print.”
In panel two, the stuff piled in the back of the mini-truck include a dressmaker’s dummy and a rubber ducky.
In panel four, a big truck says “Stronk Boys Moving Co” on the side.
In panel three, a car has a license plate that says “DONT read me.” And the FURIOUS expression of the driver whose car was cut off is priceless.
I switched from minivans to economy-sized sedans once the kids had graduated from H.S. and I realized I was using vehicle that got 16 mpg as a daily driver for one person. The last one I bought was a 2012 Toyota Prius Hybrid. Great car. Our second car, a 2008 Mazda 3, finally degraded to the point that it was time to get a new car. The new Priuses (Prii?) have been built 2″ lower to the ground and at 6′ 2″ and 280+ lbs. it’s just too damn hard to get in and out of the vehicle.
We got a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. 41 mpg (and it’s really achieving that). It’s essentially a small SUV. But I got it because the mileage is good and I can get in and out of the thing without pulling a muscle in my back. Don’t discount people buying larger cars because smaller ones can be a personal hassle.
A good friend of mine owns a Chevrolet Silverado 3500 truck. 6.2 L Diesel engine, Allison transmission, club cab AND a full size bed. You need to climb up a step to get into it, or stand on something to look under the hood. Huge grille. It could quite comfortably handle mounting a Ma Deuce in the back. Very intimidating vehicle. But he does overhead crane repair and concrete additive mixing for a living, which means he regularly hauls steel and welding equipment or a trailer with tanks of 100’s of gallons of liquid 100’s of miles for work. Not everyone who owns a massive truck does so because they’re compensating ….
Panel 3: That’s an SUV? Until I read the notes I thought it was a minivan.
The artist’s girlfriend says it’s obviously a Jeep Cherokee, which would be an SUV, and I’ll go along with that.
To tell you the truth, in real life I often can’t tell minivans and SUVs apart. I think it’s one of those things like guns or superhero artists; aficionados and experts can tell them apart, but for a lot of people they all look kind of the same.