I was cleaning again in the garage this morning (it's recycling pickup day on Wednesday) and found a drawing that got me in a little trouble. In the mid-eighties when I worked for New Times, the publisher, Jim Larkin, asked me to illustrate a series of promos that paid off the title "We Settle The Arguments". This was to promote their annual Best of Phoenix issue, a cash cow to this day. I had the usual cowboy and Indians going at it, but to poke fun at local politics I did a drawing of Phoenix mayoral candidates Terry Goddard and Margaret Hance trying to choke each other.
When the billboards went up a local feminist group Women Take Back The Night took issue with the drawing, claiming Terry had a "superior choke hold" on Margaret and therefore the illustration was sexist and promoted violence against women. The Women then proceeded to kidnap truckloads of New Times papers by following the delivery trucks and absconding with the stacks of papers as soon as the delivery drivers left. The Women then called New Times and threatened to destroy the papers unless I was fired. New Times did eventually fire me but not for this.
Another pen and ink I found in the garage was this little gem: "Barricade Wolf." This was originally for a sequence in a Honkytonk Sue story, "The Man Canyon" but I'm thinking of repurposing it for The 66 Kid.
"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."
—Le Corbusler
