Anchorage Press cover: Dumpster Diver

Recent illustration (last week's issue) for the cover of the Anchorage Press featuring a headline article by Scott Christiansen on a simmering turf battle between the Anchorage Regional Landfill and a local Alaska Native corporation, Eklutna, Inc. At issue is electricity being generated by the methane gas from the garbage and who gets a share of the proceeds - such territorial pissings are quite commonplace at any transfer station between scavenging species.

I was tasked by the editor to come up with something including the suggestion of dumpsters filled with cash, and juggled amidst the XXV Overflow show + classes I came up with a few roughs. The first was pretty basic, the second the same but for the inclusion of a dumpster diver, and lastly - my personal favorite - was "Methane Moose."

Needless to say an amalgamation was approved sans any pipeline of flatulence, and I dropped in the logo for the Municipality of Anchorage plus an iconic skyline of the Chugach Mountains.

A few additional tweaks were in order for the final print version: one, that the piles of trash-cash didn't really look like money (hence the addition of Gov. Parnell's handsome visage), and two, the color scheme was shifted so as to provide green relief, and lastly a humorous debate on the extent of the butt crack's visibility. It being the front cover some small measure of decorum was expedient, and as one can see between the two versions a judicious edit scaled back the Crack of Doom. Only after it went to press did I catch the errant dollar sign beneath the knee - damn those random pastes.