"Grand Theft Mimicry"
(Pencils by Jake; Inks and Colors by Tony)
“Grand Theft Mimicry” is a sketch I whipped up at Tony’s house one day when I was watching him play “SOCOM: Navy Seals” for five hours straight (or at least, it SEEMED like five hours). He offered to let me have a turn, but I just didn’t have the heart to listen to a bunch of bratty 10-year olds from Alabama bragging how high up in rank they were that night. So noticing his sketchbook that was falling apart, I grabbed a dull pencil and decided to draw. I really didn’t spend much time with it because it was only meant to be a practice and also because it was difficult achieving a sense of proportion when I was drawing it with the sketchpad on my lap. Ten minutes later it was done and I just put the sketchpad away.
A week later Tony surprised me by not only inking and coloring the sketch, but modifying it for the better. While I miss the car keys dangling from his jeans, Tony made up for it by including seams and a back pocket. He also shaded the dent in Erik’s mask giving it a more fleshed out look and more detail on his wristwatch. Plus he showed that Erik had been hitting the gym lately with a pretty powerful forearm. As for Kari, he decided to skip the new trend of over-all skirts and just went the classic route; adding a really cool belt with the attire. But it’s the color job that really gets me. Tony nailed the tackiness of Erik’s shirt perfectly with just the right combination of colors. Ditto on Kari’s overalls. And when the dust cleared, we were left with a picture that is as close to 50/50 involement as we’ve ever reached. I really wish there was something we could do about Kari's arm, but like I said, it was just something that was whipped up fast.
Now as funny as the sketch is, the real joke is it’s based on my own personal experience. Get me started talking about “Grand Theft Auto 3” and I can guarantee you within a minute of the conversation, I will fall into my rant about Chunky Lee Chong. F**kin’ Chunky Lee Chong. Gamers will be familiar with Chong; he’s that little prick who runs the fish shop in Chinatown. They will also be familiar on what you’re suppose to do with him: try to kill him while he makes a break for it to the nearest car while dozens of his goons try taking shots at you. Every time I tried, Chong always escaped. I tried using a rifle, throwing grenades, launching missles – every possible thing I could imagine and nothing seemed to work. For ten weeks solid I held a burning rage against a fictional character until finally I came to the conclusion I’d do anything to take that little a-hole down – anything! So I put in the ‘tank code’ cheat and blew him up and damn if I didn’t feel ten feet tall after that!
Of course I’m sure some members of Congress against violence in videogames are warming up their printers right now to print out that last paragraph. - Jake