Cute but a Little Too Wooden?

Over the past year I've been addicted to Bill Willingham's Fables, a truly epic comic series that puts a modern spin on dozens of familiar fairy-tale characters like Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf. I'm thinking that the story arc involving Pinocchio played a big role in this week's illustration for the Loaf. Yeah, probably.

Blotter: A man said he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint one morning – and they were forced to get in a blue van and held in Piedmont Park until almost 11 p.m. ...

Run Through the Jungle

This week's illustration for Creative Loafing's crime report ended up feeling like a page from a children's book. Granted, a pretty twisted children's book, one where shoplifting trannies run half-naked through the zoo.

Blotter: A 24-year-old man wearing a dress allegedly shoplifted from a drugstore on Boulevard. ...

Paper Cuts

This month's drawing for AirTran's Go Magazine goes with a column on cutting paper usage in the office. Kind of a vague concept, I thought, so I attempted to come up with an image that put a human face on, um, paper reduction.

Hillary? Hell.

I had some fun coming up with this week's illustration for the CL crime report, which featured a shout-out to our current Secretary of State. Here's the Blotter item:

"An officer was patrolling Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard when he noticed a woman near a vacant house. She wore a black hoodie, jeans and white sneakers. “As I passed the house, [the woman] started heading toward the rear of the vacant property,” the officer wrote. “I stopped the woman, who stated her name was Hilarey Clinton, with a date of birth of 03-14-1965."

Holmes, We Hardly Knew Ye

I've been reading some Sherlock Holmes short stories — which no doubt inspired this recent illustration for AirTran's Go magazine. The tech column for May offered tips for inspecting new software packages. The guy with the magnifying glass started out as more of a Sherlock caricature, but later evolved into more of a regular dude.
Meanwhile, I've been shocked by some of the revelations of the short stories. Dirty stuff! Maybe this is old news to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fans, but I never realized Holmes was a coke head. Here's a bit from "A Scandal in Bohema":

"...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and fierce energy of his own keen nature."

Yikes. So maybe we'll see Robert Downey Jr. blowing rails in the new Sherlock Holmes flick?

Adios, Gato: Now a T-shirt!

"Why don't you ever make any TRAYB T-shirts?" many folks have asked me over the years. (OK, mainly just my mother, but who's counting?) 

Well, the long wait is finally over.
Today I posted what I hope will be the first of many TRAYB designs over at MySoti.com, a very cool site for buying quirky shirts and prints. Get yours today!  
(If nothing else, go to the site and give my gato a positive vote. He could use the moral support.)  

Meanwhile, I'm weighing options for the next T-shirt design. Any requests?

Breast Wishes

I know next to nothing about tattoo art, but I spent a lot of time scouring the internets to find the perfect specimen of a tattoo to reference for this week's crime report drawing. I wanted a rose that had a classic jailhouse sort of feel, not some tribal B.S. or anything too abstract. Ditto with the font. I'm pleased with how it all turned out.

The item: A 25-year-old man said he was walking in Buckhead around 1:30 a.m. when a blond woman — with a tattoo possibly of a rose on her left breast — pulled up. He said the woman seemed distraught — she said she was lost and needed directions. The woman said she was staying at a hotel downtown and asked him if he could get into her car and help her find the Rio Bravo restaurant on Roswell Road ...

The Lightning Round

Cranking out a weekly drawing for Creative Loafing's crime report is such a strange and occasionally tense assignment. I never know what material I'm going to get. The Blotter Diva, Lauren, sends me the text on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have until Friday to whip up a doodle. Sometimes the Gods of Crime are feeling generous and I'll receive maybe five or six items to choose from. I love those weeks.
Lately, though, I've been getting just one. Which is like the Blotter Lightning Round, especially when the item is as distasteful as this week's:

A 73-year-old woman said a man grabbed her right buttock while she was walking on University Avenue. Then, the man reportedly stuck out his tongue at her, grabbed his crotch and shook it.

Um, wow. Classy!
(As a side note, I was happy to see that Blotter got top billing on the Loaf's site today. Love it when that happens.)