"Childhood Realities" ("The Dukes of Hazzard")
Pencil Marks: Given our breakneck pace during the summer of 2005 it was only a matter of time before Jake or I reached our snapping point. And the day I sat down to pencil this monstrosity, I realized that I had reached mine. No ideas were flowing, all the art that was being created wasn't worth the price of the paper it was on, and I just didn't have it in me to keep going. It got so bad that halfway through this pic I just started laughing hysterically because I realized that it was horrendous and there was nothing Jake nor I could do about it.
Sure, I could've just said "screw it" and put the picture off for another day, but we were already a week late and Jake wasn't exactly able to travel across city more than once a week. So I bit the bullet and said: "Jake, you've got a crappy picture this year, and now so do I".
As you may be able to tell, I am really unsatisfied with this one. I may just have to revisit the title sometime in the future as a deleted scene or something, just so I can be happy with it. But for now, I am not. - Tony
Ink Smudges: Given the limited amount of things I could do to this picture, I managed to tweak by. Oh, it's still a weak effort on both of our parts but trust me - I thought of every possible thing I could do to save it. Of course when you're dealing with a illustration where a character's head takes up 3/4th of it, well, there's just not a lot of options.
I do think it's got a nice little theme though. Everyone at some point of their lives has fond memories of something in their childhood. Only when you grow older and revisit it, that thing you believed was the coolest thing in the world loses it's magic to the point where you stop and wonder what it was that you found so interesting about it in the first place. For me I can easily think of a time when I thought "Doom" for the Super Nintendo was state of the art or "Buckaroo Bonzai" was cinematic genius. But now I cringe every time I see them. Some things in life just aren't what you thought they were.
I know, it's an ironic message to use on a picture based on a television show that still kicks ass. And then some. :) - Jake