Friday, April 15, 2011

Hijole, It's Tax Day!

April 15, 2011

Tax day. Scrambling to get ours in.

Also working hard to finish the next installment of Graphic Cinema, and correct all of the proofs for the June issue.

Grabbed this muy malo bandito scene out of my U file (unfinished) and tweaked it to express surprise.


This panel will run right after El Kid pulls his gat out of his hat. Even though he is holding a gun on the Kid, the bandito says, "Uh oh," only in Spanish. I originally thought of using the expression, "Ay carrumba!" but I called my son Tomas, and he suggested "Hijole", pronounced "Ee-hole-ay." Which is a common Mexican expression, loosely translated as, "Son of a. . ."

Meanwhile, I also grabbed another study out of my U file and tweaked it as well.



This is called "Navajo Hogan In Dust Storm," and was inspired by a plein air painting trip Ed Mell and I took a year ago to Utah. As we came back through Monument Valley a huge dust storm blew through. I combined that scene with my memory of a similar scene I saw as a young kid coming through there with my family. I remember this tiny hogan parked at the foot of a giant volcanic neck—Agatha Peak?—and I wondered what that would be like to come out every day, look around and see this huge monolith towering over your back yard. Ha. Of course, there are mighty few hogans on the res today. Mostly these days, all you see are abandoned double-wides, which is a sad sight to see.

"One's prime is elusive. You must be on alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must live it to the full."
—Muriel Spark

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