Here we go, with issue 3, one of those which didn’t have an actual title, but that I called “A Day At The Beach.” This has to be the last chance for the series to be completely silly before it took off down the darker paths.
This has always been a difficult book to reproduce, because of the ink washes. The webcomic format allows detailed view of a good grayscale scan.
I wish I could find the photo once sent to me of Rommel and a very tall, slender, modest-looking aide. It’s almost as perfcct as the photo that was sent me of a short WWII German soldier, serving in Russia, who is a perfect match for Udo.
I was also sent a letter describing a modern Bundeswehr soldier who looked just like him.
I have all the original pages for this issue, except the first one, which I swear I didn’t sell. Now I’m trying to figure out what happened to it. At a certain point, art gets hard to keep track of! Especially when you’ve got boxes of the pages.
Yeah, I know, I should be drawing on my screen, but us crotchety, rickety old folks likes our oldy-fashiondy technicals, by cracky.
I’ve always liked this next to best of the drawing styles used through the Peach run. Favorite is the meticulous arabesques that characterized the Phoenix and Udo’s Wedding storylines.
Heh, checking today’s page reminded me of this. Yesterday, on the bus home from work, I saw a fellow who would have been a very cleaned up version of Udo as I picture him in real life. He was even short (okay, honestly, short to me is anyone under about 5′10″ or so, since I’m about that height myself). I guessed his height to be about 5′6″.
I actually did a double take. It was weird sing a favourite comic character right before your eyes…sorta. Like I said, a really cleaned up version of Udo. :P
Well, Udo’s face is based on Timothy B. Wagner, my partner on writing the Desert Peach musical — and Udo in so many Peach Pitts convention skits. Actually, our best Udo was Mike Kazaleh, the artist for the Ren and Stimpy comics. Looks just like him — and got the attitude perfectly!
Actually, anybody who put on the costumes became the character. A slob frat-boy turned into the Peach the moment he saw his made-up face in the mirror, and a pretty little blonde girl who usually plaid ethereal fairies in hall costume became the slobbiest, tobacco-(gum)-chewing, eye-liner-drawn bearded Udo you ever saw.
I should also mention that the winner of a Norwescon Desert Peach look-alike contest was a small, short black woman. Everyone in the audience (we voted by applause) agreed she won — because “the Peach is a state of mind.”
I googled Mike Kazelach, and yes, I can see it.
I’m endlessly amused by how much Pfirsich looks like a feminized Joachim Schepke. They’re like opposite sides of the coin, as long as you look at Joachim either in profile or with his hat on. He had jug ears, with the left noticeably larger then the right– although he was good-looking enough to make ‘em look like a fashion statement.
The Peach looks just like the straight guy who played him in the Peach Pitts skits. The funny thing is that, in the book, the gay guy is played by a straight guy, and a lot of the straight guys are played by gay guys or women.