Me, If I Were Flip From Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo In Slumberland"

My favorite comic strip of all time is Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo In Slumberland." If that guy could've lettered his word balloons a little better and actually written dialog, there would have been no stopping the Little Nemo train. As it is, readers will just have to settle for lush, mind-bending art done in a beautiful turn of the (last) century style with gorgeous, muted colors and beds that grow giant legs and tower over the Empire State Building.

Flip, one of the characters, is a beard muzzled, cigar-smoking, conniving jerk who somehow becomes Nemo's best friend. He's also supposed to be a kid, which is weird, given the muzzle and cigar. And his skin is green.

I can't find the original panel I used as reference for this picture of me as Flip, but here's one to give you an idea of what the guy looked like when drawn by McCay.

Me, If I Were Jack Skellington

My first attempt to draw me as Jack Skellington (from Tim Burton and Henry Selick's "Nightmare Before Christmas") failed miserably. I was using a still from the film as reference. I just couldn't get it to look right to save my life. Luckily, my life didn't depend on it and I drew it this way instead. I don't know who the original artist on this piece was... I found this picture on several websites. I think it's rather nifty.

I like the curlicue goatee, especially. I came up with that on my lonesome.

Me, If I Were The Giant From "Twin Peaks"

Remember "Twin Peaks"? If you're a lot younger than me, probably not... because I barely remember it. But I DO remember renting the first seven episodes with my ex-girlfriend, like, ten years ago. The mix of soap opera and surrealism really appealed to me... how many prime time dramas have backwards dancing cosmic dwarfs and girl-hunting demons named "Bob"? Not enough, I tell you what.

When Bob, the demon who (spoiler alert!) killed Laura Palmer strikes a second time in the town of Twin Peaks, Special Agent Dale Cooper sees this crazy big blue-white giant (in a red bow tie) telling him that it's happening again. It's one of my favorite scenes in a series absolutely cram packed with awesomeness.



So here's me as the giant... I was tempted to draw myself as the backwards dancing cosmic space dwarf, but, as the dwarf explains, they're both the same guy anyways.

Me, If I Were The Mad Hatter

"Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" is my absolute favorite book of all time. I'm totally obsessed with it. I collect copies of it. I have, like, a hundred and fifty or so. Seriously. I'm that weird. I love having different versions to see how various artists portray Lewis Carroll's surreal world. It's amazing how many different ways you can convey that a Hatter is, in fact, stark raving mad. When you include all of the filmed versions of it, the sheer variety of images is pretty darn staggering.

But in my head, the characters will ALWAYS appear the way Sir John Tenniel drew them in the first published edition. I'm sure a lot of people have the Disney versions as their mental "Alice" defaults (if, uh, they have any mental "Alice" defaults at all), but I think Tenniel's skritchy, detailed drawings capture the unbridled weirdness of Wonderland better than lush cell paintings ever could.

My favorite picture from the two "Alice" books is that of Alice holding the pig (that had once been a baby) after rescuing it from the Duchess' house. I, however, didn't want to draw myself as Alice, because, well, that'd be a little weird. So I drew myself as the Mad Hatter instead. Note the sneaky positioning of "Danger" onto his hat...

CHANGE PLACES!

Me, If I Were Harry Potter

My wife is a HUGE fan of the "Harry Potter" books. I like them well enough, but, as someone who grew up on "Dungeons & Dragons," I've read an awful lot of fantasy novels over the course of my life, so I don't believe J.K. Rowling is quite as creative as people think... she cribbed a lot of her ideas from other sources that are obscure to non-nerds. That said, she still made quite an impressive little world, and, admirably, had her characters progress and grow over the course of the series. She also taught a whole generation of kids that books can be pretty nifty. I only read up to the fourth book, "Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire," (upon which, of course, this picture is based) before deciding the movies were enough to keep me apprised of the magical doin's of the Hogwarts' kids. One thing I do love about Harry Potter is that it is not a flash-in-the-pan fad... it's the "Wizard of Oz" of our times, and I think it will show itself, in generations to come, to be one of those enduring classics, one of the rare breed that is remembered for decades, if not centuries. And that's pretty awesome.

So, here's me if I were Harry Potter. Like I said, the picture is based on Harry from "The Goblet of Fire," (the U.S. version) drawn by Mary GrandPré. It's my favorite of the U.S. covers, even if Harry looks a little ridiculously happy.