{"id":27522,"date":"2024-11-30T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T21:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=27522"},"modified":"2024-11-30T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T21:10:10","slug":"cartoon-personal-vehicle-arms-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=27522","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: Personal Vehicle Arms Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This comic was drawn by my most frequent collaborator, <\/em>Becky Hawkins<\/a>.\u00a0Becky writes:<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

I follow an Instagram account called Mobility For Who<\/a>\u00a0that 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.)<\/p>\n

Video: Did an entitled cyclist run a red light and block traffic?<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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Off the subject, I love the color on this mini-truck! It reminds me of a car in an amusement park ride.<\/p>\n

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The other vehicles in the cartoon came from photo reference. I stopped to take pictures in between running errands.<\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The man points to a sleek little blue car parked nearby.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

MAN: Then I wanted a Japanese mini-truck. But Bill said U.S. laws make it almost impossible to import a new one.<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In the driver’s seat, Bill, a happy looking guy with an orange beard, waves back.<\/p>\n

MAN: And here’s Bill now!<\/p>\n

CHICKEN FAT WATCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicken fat is an old cartoonists’ expression for unimportant details that might amuse.<\/p>\n

In panel one, a car has a license plate which says “TINY print.”<\/p>\n

In panel two, the stuff piled in the back of the mini-truck include a dressmaker’s dummy and a rubber ducky.<\/p>\n

In panel four, a big truck says “Stronk Boys Moving Co” on the side.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Personal Vehicle Arms Race | Patreon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This comic was drawn by my most frequent collaborator, Becky Hawkins.\u00a0Becky 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,171,172,175,173,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-interviews","category-mandolin","category-my-publications","category-patreon","category-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27525,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27522\/revisions\/27525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}