Ratcliff Ridge Is Coming Back And So Is Mickey Free

 December 29, 2021

   A little wet out this morning, but here comes another ree-donk-u-lous sunrise over Ratcliff Ridge.

   Growth is slowly coming back.

File this one under:

Deerhead Ambushers

   So, I came up with three adversaries ambushing and attacking Mickey Free on his big jack and paying dearly for it. That was the simple, opening sequence of a new graphic novel.

Daily Whip Out: "Deerhead Ambush"

   In movies, these three would all be from central casting, and all dressed the same way—Bandidos!—and all armed with the same weapons. Sorry. Too predictable and frankly, lazy. 

   In my scenario, one of the attackers is a renegade Yaqui, one is a flaky know-it-all cowboy from Rodeo, New Mexico and the third one is a Mexican Whiner with a capital W. You know, this guy:

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out: 

"El Quejica, The Whiner"

   The Yaqui renegade uses a deerhead disguise, which he copped from a Yaqui ritual.

Daily Whip Out: "Deerhead Yaqui Attacker"

   And the sad sack cowboy from Rodeo, New Mexico, is this guy:

Daily Whip Out:

"Fools Who Think They Know

What They're Doing."

And here is who they are up against.

Daily Whip Out:

"Mick On The Big, Bad Jack"

"I wake up every morning and paint. I'll be damned but I just can't stop."

—Wayne Thiebaud, (1920-2021)