Very smooth
There’s no greater pleasure than drawing the inside of a car and trying to arrange comic characters within it, from a series of angles. It’s easy and that’s why everybody does it all the time.
STEEPLE – A Scary Go Round Comic
by John Allison
Of course Penrose carries a hymnal with him at all times.
I’m imagining it with cutouts inside it for a pair of little tiny axes.
Or metal-reinforced, for use as a blunt instrument.
Where does he keep it, though?
In his quiff
Over his heart, just in case.
Up his sleevies
Hymnalspace.
I love keeping unreasonable hours, I get to be first to read these. My poor downstairs neighbours, suffering for art.
A small number of Americans keeping reasonable hours might get in ahead of you occasionally.
And at least one New Zealander.
I’m that American, but I went to see a movie and fireworks, so got here late.
Angry Billie in rearview makes it worth it, though!
There is something wrong with the rear view window image. Too many things are different and the angle doesn’t seem right.
Suddenly, the title of the next page makes sense.
For true drawing nirvana, you could have them overtake a pack of bicyclists.
And horse riders going the other direction.
And a strange assemblage of hands and feet with strangely realistic human lips
On another topic – is England full of rural roads that are penned in by tall hedges, or is it just Cornwall?
It’s a particular feature of Cornwall. Not particularly pleasant to drive on. A lot of single track back roads with passing places.
They do it on Devon too but they put the jam on top.
The traffic jam, you mean?
WV is very like this once you leave the expressways, but instead of hedges its rock outcroppings and or stream banks
Mmm. Well, the West Country generally. I was down in that part of the world back in 1995 for a family wedding, and I realised that, the next month, the area was going to be full of American pensioners, visiting for the 50th anniversary of D-Day and attempting to negotiate those roads for the first time since ’45. I had a bad feeling about that.
(Actually, the bocage of Normandy is not dissimilar. And that’s quite enough agricultural landscape geekery.)
well bugger. Should have read exactly one more comment down before making my “joke”
Giant hedgerows help stop German tanks from rampaging across the countryside
Cornish hedges far predate any English problems with Germany. Some of them predate Christianity. Kind of a cool topic for Steeple to explore in many ways.
Plenty of rural areas – I grew up in Buckinghamshire where there are plenty and Somerset (where I live now) has even more!
I’ve even seen some in greater London! Also, fun fact – these roads have a speed limit of 60 mph no matter how bendy they get.
It seems to be particularly common in the south-west but you can find them anywhere: Here’s an example I used to know well, not in Cornwall but the neighbouring county of Devon: https://goo.gl/maps/MEApDWp1tbnjhbRbA
Cornish hedges! They are quite famous, some are thousands of years old.
Not just England. Wales is teeming with them (if you’re going side to side: if you’re going up and down they’re over the tops of mountains instead).
I vaguely remember some roads like this in deep woods Central Florida.
I love how Billie’s secret guilty pleasure is singing hymns.
Guess she’s not really a fan of the brown note
Sometimes it almost look like Billie has some kind of nostalgic feelings about her past… Let’s hope she will never come back on her decision. By the way, a car without a radio? Impossible!
I am currently without one, though not by either design or choice. The speaker amplifier died and ’twill take One Thousand American Simoleons to make it right. Barring success at some form of gambling, that amount is not likely to be available until next year. Which would make it over a year of silence in my car. A year alone with my thoughts.
Alone…
With my thoughts….
Could always stick a bluetooth speaker in your car
Hmm. That would probably involve a) a way of securing the speaker in my car so it isn’t rolling about and b) figuring out my phone so that I could 1) use the GPS system while 2) having the radio stations I like to switch among set up so that I can switch among them and/or music services that I don’t belong to yet without 3) driving off the side of a bridge. This jury-rig still leaves me unable to play my CDs and my mix thumbdrive.
The bluetooth speaker might detect some other bluetooth device along the way and then woop! Never works right again…
I have a similar problem. I have a JBL speaker I stick in a cupholder. Connect to my phone and play Spotify. Works great. And yeah, I am pretty classy.
As a professional driver I have driven many MANY miles without music or other entertainments, alone with my thoughts. It’s not as bad as you think, particularly once you get used to the idea.
I even got so that I didn’t like music much because it’s just so endlessly the same all the time. That’s when I started listening to audio books a lot, but even that can become a drag.
What I used to do when driving and my radio/cd player was not working (which was often) was to sing road signs. You take any piece of text you can see like road signs, signs on the sides of lorries and vans, road side billboards and then you weave it all into a song. You can sing it in any style you like, make up the tune or use a tune you already know.
So my favourite song was called “If you can’t see my mirrors then I can’t see you” sung in Country and Western style or sometimes Bob Dylan style.
Yes. The lack of cd-player, ohone jack, etc. could be explained if it were an older car, but it would have to be a lot older than that to explain the lack of radio. I think it would have to predate the first Hyundai model, in fact.
So what did Billie end up doing with the string-back gloves? They aren’t on her hands.
She never put them on, it was, how can I put this, “a joke between friends”
No gloves, no love.
It IS a Hyundai!!!!!!
It’s very smooth, in the way that certain desserts are smooth
I am still having trouble accepting that as a compliment, instead of a slam :{
I can see why you might choose ‘Guide me O Thou Great Redeemer’ it’s a good tune and a sort of holy sat nav to boot.
Yes! Came here to say that GMOTGR is my voice shortcut to activate Google Maps.
Is it actually shorter to say that title?
I’ll readily admit it strains the definition of “shortcut.” But needs must.
Parodying from memory, so the resemblance to the actual hymn may be shaky….
Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer,
Driver through this Devon land.
I am wary, car is scary,
Angel guard or demon hand?
Hyundai model, smooth to handle,
But no digital display.
Here be music anyway.
Do you ever get family, friends, neighbours etc. to act as stand-ins for you so you can take pictures and draw from them? Or will their patience only last so long?
Alas, I rely solely on drawing a pose until it looks right. I’ve done quite a lot of life drawing, on and off, over the years. On occasion I might take a photo of one of my hands to get a tricky “hold” right.
Stringback gloves were apparently too tricky. 😉
I sincerely hope The Rev isn’t encouraging Billie to thumb through her hymnal whilst driving.
I’m sure Billie’s got several of those hymns memorized. She probably sings them in the shower sometimes. Very, very quietly.
CWM RHONDDA, very nice tune. Just one thing…it’s actually #368 in the New English Hymnal of 1986.
I just want to record that the Reverend is holding my old school pocket hymnbook. I couldn’t check what page Guide Me Oh thou Great Redeemer was on because like the rest of my possessions, it is currently in deep storage in Romford, Essex.
Given the numerous major differences between this universe and ours, I would find it MORE surprising if the page numbers were exactly the same.
Wait a minute. Is that an Amstrad hymnal?
Yes. The paper version is published by Amstrad, and the e-book version is published by Zambian
The Alpha and Omega of publication.
Amen.
Vaughan Williams, 1906, or GTFO.
how about Till All Are One, that’s a fave of mine…
John, your post-script under the comic made me laugh more than it probably should have.
Laugh? He had me completely convinced.