I hope everyone finds this helpful in these uncertain times.This Almanac was from a year or more ago, so things've been distressing at the pump for a while. Like I have to tell you that. But I do wonder about the employee who changes the prices on the gas station sign. Does he do it late, under cover of darkness? It can't be a happy task and it's likely dangerous if done too publicly.
The enjoyable part of this cartoon is that I like drawing cars, or at least what pass for cars in the cartoons I draw. Editorial cartoonist Mike Lester, who can draw anything, passed along an insight into drawing cartoons from Arnold Roth; he draws not a car but his idea of a car, and so never has to go looking at reference photos or any of that nonsense. That's where the freedom of a cartoonist lies, in creating his or her anti-platonic ideal, and that's why I secretly pity those who draw realistically, because they're stuck with reality. I used to try that and it's too hard.
It's not just the guy changing the prices. We got a letter to the editor from a guy who runs the cash register and apparently customers seem to think he's raking it in, and are giving him grief accordingly. Yeah, working at the convenience store is the path to riches ...
ReplyDeleteIn recent months, I've seen the prices being changed at a couple of different stations. It's been a 2-person operation, with one person handling the numbers and the long stick (which is actually kinda cool) and a second person just standing by -- thanks to this cartoon, I now realize the second person's job is to face in the other direction and watch for enraged SUV drivers who might be approaching ramming speed.
ReplyDeleteI saw a Hummer when I was in Moab, Utah once. I was amazed it got there at all. Do they have to carry extra gallons strapped in like passengers, or is the tank just enormous?
ReplyDeleteI like your theory on drawing cars. I've always found it difficult, but now I realize my folly was in trying to make them look realistic. No more!
Any R.T. item with a motor vehicle — land, air, or sea — in it is automatically a successful work, in my book.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've always found that cars have all those curved lines and oblique angles and just defy every principle of basic perspective-drawing. So my characters just walk everywhere.
ReplyDeleteBut I like the Richard Thompson impressionist theory. It does make for some fine-looking cartoons.