This is one of the images I used in Scragamuffin, the chapbook I released as October’s exclusive Patreon reward. I thought it might be fun to release the pictures with the photos that inspired them.
When we lived in Bakersfield, our master bathroom had two sinks, which meant there was always an extra for a cat to flop in. It was probably summer when this picture was taken since Pete’s mane seems relatively short. I like the mad look in his eye.
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This cartoon was inspired by a Paul Krugman column that was published in August, “The Bad Economics of Fossil Fuel Defenders.” Krugman wrote:
…there is a remarkable inconsistency between conservatives’ expressed faith in the power of private initiative and their assertion that climate policies will paralyze the economy. Businesses, the right likes to tell us, are engines of innovation and adaptation, rising to meet any challenge. Yet somehow the same people who laud private-sector creativity insist that businesses will shrivel up and die if confronted with new regulations or emission fees.
In fact, a number of studies have shown that government projections of the effects of new environmental or safety regulations consistently overestimate their costs, precisely because businesses respond to new rules and incentives by innovating, finding ways to reduce compliance costs. And industry projections of the adverse effects of regulation are far worse, typically overstating the costs to a ludicrous degree.
I made a process illustration. I’ve done these a few times before, because I honestly love looking at other cartoonists’ process illustrations, so I figure some of you will be interested too.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, plus an additional tiny “kicker” panel under the bottom of the cartoon.
The cartoon shows two businessmen-types walking on a city street. One of them is wearing a red bow-tie and a sky-blue suit; the other is wearing an ordinary tie and a duller suit, with a desaturated green jacket and black pants. The bow-tie guy is totally bald – probably shaves his head – and has a van dyke beard and mustache. The regular-tie guy has blond hair and is cleanshaven, and is looking at his smart phone as he walks.
PANEL ONE
The two of them walk on the sidewalk, Blonde looking at his phone, Bowtie raising his arms enthusiastically as he talks, grinning. (Not important to the cartoon: In the background, across the street, a smiling businessman talks to a smiling man with red skin, horns, and a tail, who is holding up a clipboard. And a woman in a second story window leans out to smile at a largish bird which is hovering and looking back at her.)
BOWTIE: The most amazing thing about capitalism is the creative genius of entrepreneurs!
PANEL 2
A closeup on just Bowtie, who looks overjoyed. His eyes are drawn as stars, and the air around him is filled with stars and dollar signs.
BOWTIE: If there’s profit to be made, there’s nothing capitalism can’t do! Feed the world! Create the internet! Create modern medicine!
PANEL 3
A shot of the two of them walking. Bowtie keeps on grinning and talking, his fists pumped in front of him in a pleased sort of way. Blonde reads something from the cell phone he’s holding.
BOWTIE: There’s no problem that capitalism can’t innovate around!
BLONDE: Hey, look at this: some senators want new regulations to protect the climate.
PANEL 4
Bowtie jumps straight up into the air (cartoon code for “I am very surprised”), clutching his face in his hands, his mouth and eyes huge in an expression of enormous dismay. He is yelling. Blonde, surprised by Bowtie’s big reaction, is stumbling back from Bowtie a little.
BOWTIE: NOOOO! CAPITALISM IS DOOMED!
TINY KICKER PANEL UNDER THE BOTTOM OF THE STRIP
Bowtie is speaking directly to the readers, his face still showing distress.
BOWTIE: Even if capitalism miraculously survives, some rich people will be slightly less rich! I can’t imagine a greater tragedy!
Cat drawing! This is Ru, the cat of my friend and administrative assistant, A Humphrey Lanham who kindly allowed me to use the photo. Full-grown here with a fabulous mane.
This cartoon is by me and Kevin Moore.
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Kevin’s comments on drawing this strip:
The thing I got into was thinking about how purple people would actually look. I thought it might be funny to make them really “normal” — or “normie”, very suburban and conventional in hairstyle and clothing. You’ll notice that their clothes are not also purple, but just ordinary clothes, albeit cheery and colorful. And they’re really upbeat in demeanor, enthusiastically making a new friend with their neighbor. I could see an introvert taking a small exception to them, but they’re friendly good-hearted people. This makes their neighbor’s discomfort with his bigotry funny. You should cringe, dude.
I also made sure that their skin tones differed, much like any other skin color phenotype. And I tried to give their faces ethnic characteristics, but nothing that would be too stereotypical or too indicative of a real ethnic group. I wanted to leave that open to interpretation.
The “I don’t care if someone’s Black, white, yellow or purple” cliché is something I’ve been hearing since at least the 1980s. And it’s almost always said as a lead-in to saying something awful.
I was reminded of the cliché back in July, when Michael Harriot tweeted about it.
“I don’t care if you’re black, white, green or purple…” – People who never say stupid shit about white, green or purple people.
That made me think about the kind of person who’d say this actually meeting purple people, and that led to this cartoon.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels. All four panels show the same scene: A suburban-looking back yard, surrounded by a chest-high wooden fence. On one side of the fence is a dad-looking white man, wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt (blue with yellow stripes) and brown shorts.
On the other side of the fence are a woman and a man, both of whom have vividly purple skin. His skin is somewhat lighter in color, and he’s completely bald (I joked to Kevin, when I saw his sketches, that Mr. Purple probably shaves his head so people won’t know he’s going gray). He’s wearing an orange t-shirt. Mrs Purple has neatly styled neck-length purple-black hair, and is wearing a reddish orange t-shirt with a squared-off collar. Throughout this cartoon, Mr. and Mrs. Purple have big, cheerful smiles.
PANEL ONE
Polo Shirt Guy is talking on his cell phone, looking quite cheerful, as he flips a burger on his barbeque. We can see some toys and a sandbox on the ground nearby. Behind him, Mr and Mrs Purple have walked up to the fence and are talking to him, but he doesn’t see them yet.
POLO SHIRT: It’s like I always say… I don’t care if someone’s Black, white or even purple. Doesn’t matter to me!
THE PURPLES (speaking in unison): We’re so glad to hear you say that.
PANEL TWO
Polo Shirt Guy has turned his head and seen the Purples, and he’s taken aback. Both Mr and Mrs Purple are waving their hands at Polo Shirt.
POLO SHIRT: What? Who? What? I mean… What?
MR PURPLE: We’re Sally and Drew Purple. We just moved in next door!
PANEL THREE
Polo Shirt Guy has turned to face the Purples; he’s sweating and looks utterly distresed, even though he’s trying to be polite. He waves back at them, not noticing that he’s dropped his cell phone. Behind him in the background, we can see a tree with a tire swing, and a pink tricycle.
We’re looking at the scene from behind Mr and Mrs Purple, and can’t see Mrs Purple’s expression. Mr Purple is still smiling big and seems completely unaware of Polo Shirt’s distress.
POLO SHIRT: Oh. I see. Uh… Welcome to the neighborhood.
MR PURPLE: Hey, I see you have kids! Us too – we should schedule a playdate!
PANEL FOUR
Polo Shirt turns partly away from the Purples, his fists pressed against his chin and lower lip, his eyes huge, sweat flying. He looks even more distressed than in panel 3 as he babbles.
The Purples still give no sign of showing distress, although Mr Purple looks perhaps suspiciously amused. Mrs Purple grins as she talks.
POLO SHIRT: Oh! Uh, I don’t know… Scheduling and you know, um…
MRS PURPLE: Wouldn’t it be a hoot if our kids grew up and married each other?
In early dimness,
a quiet, unmoving sky
chills, waiting for dusk.
I’m still really excited about my upcoming novella, January Fifteenth. It’s coming out from Tor.com in just a few months.
I really like the cover:
I really like the cover! It reminds me of one of my favorite paintings,”Paris Street; Rainy Day” by Gustave Caillebot.
This is one of the images I used in Scragamuffin, the chapbook I released as October’s exclusive Patreon reward. I thought it might be fun to release the pictures with the photos that inspired them.
I didn’t think I would be able to draw this because of the weird positions of his paws. It’s the kind of thing I’d shy away from if I were sketching freehand, but because I’m using the photographs as direct templates, I gave it a shot. “Trust the photograph,” I told myself as I made lines that seemed intuitively weird. The paws still look weird, but I think that’s at least 80% because paws look kinda weird.
Light through naked trees.
My dreams were not peaceful and
I just want to sleep.
A simple poem about the moon.
I wrote this during a class on poetry that I was teaching for Cat Rambo’s excellent writing academy. (There’s a ton of classes available there–if it’s the kind of thing you do, you should check them out.)
I think the writing exercise was something like, “You can find poetry where you look for it.” The night before, the moon had been a heavy, looming harvest orange.
I’ve always liked traditional stories that depict the moon as a lonely woman. I wonder if that was in the back of my head.
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