2020 Thrown “Under The Bus”

When March 13th hit, and the world closed down for business, I thought that was it. My car crapped out about a week later. My truck called it a decade as I was dealing with transmission problems. I became one of those who really went into quarantine “seriously” more out of incidental reasons than any sort of thoughts on the matter.

I think I interacted with people a total of two or three times during the two and a half months of staying home, and that was Crepes with the family on Easter, and talking to the guy that towed my truck.

I would venture out even less, making me a prime candidate of immunity deficiency due to a deficit in Vitamin D as well as “artificial environment stagnation.” Not sure if such a thing is real, but it sounds real, doesn’t it?

It wasn’t healthy.

When I sat and talked with people, my cadence and speech sounded almost manic. It was all sped up and jangled. If someone asked me how I was doing, I had a multitude of thoughts stacked up in a holding pattern waiting to collapse like ignited Jenga™ blocks. A couple weeks later at a karaoke party I got all misty eyed when someone got in my way. It was a glorious nuisance to be bothered by someone blocking my path. I’m a single guy, so my experience is unusual. I was like Will Smith in the beginning of “I Am Legend” but without the dog. I ordered delivery. Others of you have dealt with challenges of working from home, of having children or spouses in close proximity without many breaks or relief. I had the opposite problem of simply cutting myself off.

But there was a part of me that reveled in it.

In addition to drawing, I spent some time reading, and watching videos. Did you know that the Coronavirus was all a front of the off an offshoot of the Free Masons to do a corporate takeover of all the port-o-potties, merging all of the mobile excretion manufacturing facilities into one monolithic entity bent on domination of portable waste management artificial environments in public areas?Nevermind.

I’ve been working on a Book project the last few months. That is the opportunity that 2020 has offered me. The book is called “Under The Bus: The Funny Side of History” and its content is like the Far Side meets the History Channel. The book deals subjects such as ancient civilizations and mythology in an irreverent manner. You can find an example of some of the comics of the upcoming book project at:

http://www.utbcartoons.com

The book is 60+ cartoon illustrations for which I’ve done over half. I’ve been in collusion with 4 different authors in the creation of these cartoons and I’ve been doing it also in tandem with one other illustrator, Andrea Pescosolido. Andrea’s work is great, and I am amazed at the way he captured the spirit of the assignments and knocked them out of the park. A link to his site can be found at the above website.

Remy has been my lifeline to this pool of ideas, and she has been both a patient guide, and a collaborator over the last months. The process was a joyful albeit challenging conversation that at times became rife with confusion and misunderstanding, and then followed by Eureka moments and a sense that something more important than the sum of the parts was coming together.It is my hope that the book will strike a note of recognition to those who seek to find more than facts, events, and dates, in the tapestry of history.

How did you spend your time in Quarantine?