"Coming Soon" ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince")
Even though he's a home town boy, I didn't want to use a joke involving Prince. It's not because I've never been a fan of his work. It's not because I don't understand what women find so appealing about a man who wears more mascara than they do and squeels every fifth note. Sure, he was the reason the Vikings lost the 2009 playoffs when he decided to cash in and write the worst football song ever composed (don't blame yourself, Favre.) But that's not why I was hesitant to use him either. And no, it's not even because since 1984 I've been trying to figure just what the hell is 'purple rain'?
I didn't want to use him because, well, it's Prince. Who would want to draw Prince? The man who thinks the most macho piece of automotive monstrosity is a "little red convette". I mean... it's Prince!! However, when you're dealing with a movie that has "half-blood Prince" in the title, it's almost an unspoken rule there's only one path you can take. And while it's true I didn't draw the real Prince but a very ugly version of Professor Snape (oops, spoilers), it was still closer to the danger zone than I wanted to be.
Anyhow, once I swallowed my pride the ideas came easy. In fact, there was so many ideas I figured instead of focusing on one, I'd take this opportunity to try something different and conjure up a mock movie trailer. That surprised me at first because I could have sworn sometime during the last nine years either Tony or myself had tried our hand at it. But whether we had left it on the planning table or removed it and I just don't recall, it was an idea that had yet to show up. Of course, until now.
Do I think it was a smashing success? Actually, no. I think the biggest problem I did was use a scattering of jokes taken from the Harry Potter movies, the novels, song lyrics to Prince tunes, and Prince music videos. It was a hodgepodge and because of it, it felt really uneven with little to no order. Maybe if I had focused on one of the properties more than the others, it might have flowed better. And note to self: this idea requires more than one page or 8 panels.
But with all its flaws, I still attempted something a little different. In the end, that's all I can hope for. - Jake