The Cartoonist as Care Bear
August 3, 2008 ~ 7 Comments
My coloring is always awful, but I still think this is pretty funny. I really was very excited to be drawn as a Care Bear.
In addition to drawing people as Care Bears, Seanan McGuire is a filker whose upcoming album, Red Roses and Dead Things, will feature a Narbonic song, “Oh, Helen.”
The Hamtaro t-shirt is one I got at work at some point. I used to wear that red cardigan all the time, too.
I think my favorite part is that it has glasses.
Okay, bonus Sunday stuff! James Rice, owner of well-travelled gerbil Speedy, sent me a little Narbonic story by Jeffrey Wells. James explains:
A few weeks ago, I talked Jeffery Wells into autographing my latest Narbonic book, (the one with him in it), and then bribed him with Skin Horse bookends to add something extra to the book. I just got the book back a few days ago and found the following written inside. I thought you might enjoy his.
Because I can’t sketch anything at all well, you get a bonus, bonus story! Think of it as a work sketch.
Jeff
* * *
“It’s my most brilliant creation ever!!!” cried Helen B. Narbon. “An unearthly horror the world has never seen!”
“For an unearthly horror, it’s kind of tiny,” remarked Dave Davenport, her erstwhile lab-tech guy and recent paramour.
“Hush, you,” said Helen. “I have brought both brilliance and evil into the world by ill-advisedly splicing together two normal animals and combining them into one godless monstrosity. The first is the African cheetah, the fastest animal on land!”
“What’s the other?” asked Dave.
The two managed to hold the silence for five whole seconds.
“Oh Dave,” giggled Helen in an unbalanced fashion, “you’re unexpectedly funny today.” With a flourish, she whipped a white cover off an object that had been sitting on the lab bench. “I keep him here in this little cage,” she said, opening the tine wee adorable latch. Inside was a gerbil, indistinguishable from the other roughly one thousand seven hundred gerbils Helen kept around the lab at all times.
“His name is SPD3392705,” said Helen. “Naturally, I call him ‘Speedy.'”
“Naturally,” said Dave.
“He is the fastest known gerbil,” Helen continued. “Additionally, I have spliced in a keen sense of wanderlust, because I felt like it.” She ushered the tiny creature out onto the lab bench, where it sniffed disinterestedly at an alfalfa pellet.
“Um,” said Dave. “Aren’t you worried that with incredible speed, and the desire to roam, he’s going to escape or something?”
“Nonsense,” said Helen. “I always keep him locked up in his little cage.”
“‘Always’ except for just now?”
“Exactly,” said Helen, going from sure to unsure in one word.
The two stared down at the lab bench for a moment, currently down one gerbil.
“Oh well,” said Helen, latching the empty cage. “You want to go out for evil nachos?”
THUS WAS A LEGEND BORN!!!
***
James was so inspired by this that he drew fanart of the fanfic based on his plush gerbil. At this point, things were getting a little weird.
Thanks, James and Jeffrey!
Sorry Channing. She made me do it. *grin*
All ya wanna do is ride around, Speedy!
Ride, Speedy, ride …
So the fan fic establishes that Speedy is part Cheetah, and the fan art clearly established that Speedy also has at least minimum human intelligence and the ability to speak…
if we accept this as cannon…Speedy could guest in Skin-Horse!
I’m sorry I have this thing for ill-advised crossovers… Star Trek/X-Men ring a bell? Archie/Punisher?
So we now have a fan art of a fan fiction, detailing the origins of a fan concepted photo spree, related to a webcomic.
Oh, and the fan art and the photo spree are by the same person.
God DAMN do I love Narbonic.
Is this the same Seanan McGuire that writes the October Daye stories?
Almost certainly (unless there’s another filker with the same name, which I very much doubt). She is *everywhere*. And she writes ten books in the time it takes mere mortals to write one. She’s just as productive under pseudonyms, too.
Oh, glorious. *Glorious.* I really do love this bit.