"Dipnetting on the Styx"

Usually I reserve the "process" label for a post hat's a bit more detailed, but I thought that the examples of evolution from initial doodle to thumbnailed rough (ie ballpoint pen in sketchbook) to printed version is a great illustration in the gradual refinement of a panel. This as opposed to what many others in the field do - have the finished cartoon magically appear out the other end of the pen, springing full-formed in an Athenian style of inspiration. Myself however, muddle along with multiple manifestations, revisions, tentative penciling followed by even more tweaking and editing. Still, it's one of the best of the year, and a fitting closure in contrast to the holiday cheer of last week.

Continuing the fraudulent posturing in this charade, I depict myself in the scenario, when in all actuality I have never fished while residing in Alaska. I was an avid fisherman growing up in New York, but mostly lowly carp and bullheads, along with panfishing (and some brief adventures with muskies in Canada at an Auntie's campground). But I have yet to indulge in any of the requisite residential subsistence activities like hunting (aside from forays into foraging) or fishing. I also don't particularly care for the taste of salmon, which is a disqualifying sacrilege. No wonder I suffer from imposter syndrome.

And finally, to make things even worse with this particular panel, once again I fell victim to misremembering and mixing up the mythological reference. Technically Charon is more typically associated with the river Acheron, and I additionally mashed him up with common portrayals of the Grim Reaper, not to mention a lake of fire more associated with a Judeo-Christian vision of Hell. Speaking of which, laboring with excessive amounts of scumbling is somewhat of a sentence, at least in Limbo.

On a final note, as I was inking in this panel at the office, with a soundtrack sampler playing in the background, an un-equalized/auto-volume controlled Darth Vader’s Imperial March theme (specifically from my favorite Rogue One) swelled up from the speakers REALLY REALLY LOUD, and in a brief, rare moment of self-awareness it briefly occurred to me to act my age, or at least maybe turn it down, but then when I looked at what I was drawing, I had a good laugh at myself.