We’ve made it! Day 31 of our month-long online Jack Kirby tribute, in honor of his birthday this month (back on the 28th). The brainchild of Howard Simpson, you can find the work of participants on your favorite social media platforms via the hashtag #KirbyArtTributes.
The prompt for this last day reads, “Draw your own original character. The King would want you to create characters you own.” So I present: the Jolly Jaunter!
The reason I went with him is that he was a character I originally came up with back when I was 14 or 15, when I was heavily into a phase of trying to draw like Kirby. Kind of a silly, satirical British superhero. I’m not sure where he came from exactly, as at that point, it wasn’t as if I had seen much of jack’s humor work (like Fighting American) yet. Wherever it came from, the idea struck my funnybone, and I had to draw it. Buried deep in my files, I still had the drawing!
It was a little odd, revisiting a drawing and a character I had done when I was that young. How often do you do that? Obviously 14/15-year-old me hadn’t bothered to dig up reference for how a Union Jack flag really works, or really thought through how the color would work. What can I say? The idea amused me at the time. But there you go! For what it’s worth, the Jolly Jaunter is ™ & © Mark Lewis.
Thanks for looking, and for following all my Kirby Tributes this month!
Great and a wonderful personalized ending. You even got the alliteration going. I am curious as to the reason you chose to set Ben to the time you did. And the change in hats? I do like the bowler. Sherlock pipe is the topper. Did you ever write a story or two to go along with the art? Thanks for a month of work. Congratulations. You made it and apparently had a great deal of fun.
Glad you enjoyed all this, Joe. And you’re right; I did have a lot of fun doing these. Going back and looking at a lot of Kirby work again kind of inspired and re-energized me.
No particular reason for the time on Big Ben, other than I thought the hands looked good spread out like that. I guess we’re looking at something like 2:30 in the afternoon (or half past 2, as they might say there). And if there’s a change in the hat, it’s only because I have a better understanding now of what bowler/derby hats look like. It’s what I was trying to draw back then.
I never tried to write a story with this character. It was mostly just this silly image that came to mind, and I had to draw it. Stuff like that still happens to me: getting an image or idea in mind, and then being compelled to have to draw it in order to get it out of my head. A number of things I’ve posted here have started out that way.