This past Saturday, I felt inspired to work on something completely new. You see, it occurred to me that Pearl is the kind of character who can be drawn and written to do just about anything. And so I pushed that idea to the limits and began drawing Pearl as a film noir star detective in the old traditional role from decades ago. She actually quite enjoyed the drawings and the stories that they inspired. The big difference is that she brings her own sense of devastatingly gorgeous style to a traditionally male role.
These were set up in a comic book format and included narrative by Pearl herself, much the way that there was a narrator in the old film noir classics of the past. (This is also a nod to the genius dialogue created by David Perlmutter for his own female characters who are powerful and never needing the assistance of a male character.)
Since last weekend, these The Night of the Pillbox Detective drawings have taken up the majority of my time, and especially with how best to work these into a print book. The mixture of regular chapter-style blocks of test with in-illustration text is interesting to me and may hold even greater opportunities. Even if never published, I have learned a great deal from thinking through questions and problems like this.
I know that without a product to sell, this may seem like a waste of my time, especially if you listen to some of the “Make Money Writing” gurus. But that is not why I do this. I want to get better at my writing and drawing and help to make our world a better place for chickens like Pearl and for people too!
I also like to see what silly outfit Pearl is going to wear next! (Yes, she is a superhero with large breasts, but not what you’d typically see in a comic book oriented towards adolescents!)
Until Next Time…
We appreciate you very much! Thank you for reading, comments are welcome and appreciated! Hopefully we have not gone too far with the Dance Hall Diva costume, but you can see it stirred up quite an angry mob—or are they actually a hungry mob?
For next week: We will try to finish up Night of the Nuggets with a cartoon page so you can see how it all ends in one easy installment!
Thanks for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Pearl, Blanche, Emily, and Amelia
Sometimes it's nice to work on something without worrying about whether it will make money. I often struggle to allow myself time for such things, despite it being worthwhile.
I may want to use that quote for a book blurb someday.