The Los Angeles Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society is having its annual holiday shindig tomorrow night. This year they are doing it at a restaurant that serves British cuisine. It was my duty to make the invitations once again, so with the venue for the party being what it is, it seemed natural to base the art on the most British Christmas tale that comes to mind, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Playing the role of Bob Cratchit is NCS LA’s own mascot, Cornelius the Bear with Tiny Tim being played by Krazy Kat cartoonist George Herriman. In the NCS LA theme song, we herald the bravery and generosity of Cornelius who, back in the day, saved LA based Herriman from a runaway toboggan while up in the mountains. Since Corny is no longer with us, and since he is from Los Angeles after all, we depict him as an angel bear.
Just in case you are curious, I inked this traditionally using a brush and a watered down sepia ink to give the ink line an uneven quality, and it allows for the brown color to show better. Then I scanned it into Photoshop where the colors and plaid fabric were applied. I tried to give it a bit of a nostalgic look in the method of drawing, but also in the color choices. For color inspiration, I looked to the work of my pal and fellow NCS LA member Dan Piraro who has such a great old timey look to his color choices in his comic strip Bizarro, yet at the same time his work looks edgy and modern.
And there you have it. God bless us, EVERY ONE!