Drawing A Mostly Accurate Map

Before I drew this I went back to a Cul de Sac from April 18th 2004. Here's the first panel-

Which was also used in the first syndicated Sunday strip-

Then, because I wanted to research the roots of this image as an excuse to put off starting work on the thing, I looked at the Tower of Babel by Breugel-

Which is especially interesting because it's under construction and it's got little clouds around it. Then, in the interests of further procrastination, I looked up Mont St. Michel, which is the coolest place around-

There's also the city from that Creepy Classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari-

And Minas Tirith!-

By now several weeks had elapsed, so it was time to do a rough-

That's in brown Pitt marker. Then I had to do something larger and more detailed-

This is about 11 by 17 and it's where I sketched in most of the ideas, about half of which were left out because they weren't any good. But I like this in some ways more than the final. I like the ghosts of lines and stuff that's obscured and the way it shows the process. Then I did another, simpler rough that I won't show because it's boring. But here's a detail from the final-

And now, because I don't know what else to add, here's a drawing from an old Joel Achenbach column in the Post Magazine. It's my dream house if only because it's got a great porch-