Don't Mess With Disney

This week the New Horizons space probe made history when it sailed past the planet (?) Pluto, after a journey of over three billion miles. The probe came within 7,800 miles of the dwarf planet and gave us our closest look ever at the most distant planet in our solar system.

The probe is so far away that it takes signals over four hours to reach back to Earth.

Take a good look at that light patch near the bottom of the planet (?). That shape looks familiar somehow... I've seen it before, but I can't quite figure out where. 

Ah. Now I remember. Man, the Disney Marketing Machine already beat us there!

SILENCE!

What is it about all these space aliens anywa... [SILENCE!]

Seems like all they ever say to you is... [SILENCE!]

So why do they want it so quiet all the ti... [SILENCE!]

Is it their ears? Are their pointy ears more sensit... [SILENCE!]

Do their education bots not teach that it's rude to interru... [SILENCE!]

OK, OK, don't soil your robe. I'll "silence" myself. Just make sure you keep that probe where I can see it. You ain't gonna do that to me again!

Like most of my illustrations, this one started out as a simple notebook doodle of just the alien's head, and of course grew from there. I liked the drawing, but it just felt kind of meh. It looked a little too much like a high school yearbook portrait.

So I did a digital sketch showing a big more of his robe and his arm raised in a commanding gesture, which I thought had more visual interest.

His sparkly robe went through a wide array of colors, all of which I hated until I finally decided I could live with purple. The sparkles, meant to indicate it's some kind of shiny, sequiny fabric, were a last minute addition. The robe seemed to need something. Not sure if the sparkles are working though, or if I like them. The text at the bottom is hand lettered.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Angus The Prober

Angus secretly dreamed of being a haberdasher, but he went into the probing business to please nine of his fathers.

I think I need to rework his probe a bit. It's looking a little too much like a sword rather than a rounded rod. Maybe if I got rid of that hilt-looking part.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch of Angus. Obviously his probe was an afterthought.