New Illustration:
"You look like a bank robber"
"You look like a bank robber"
Friday, February 10, 2023
In chapter one of Much Ado About Corona, Vince enters Stefanie's bakery for the first time and she greets him with a non-negotiable:
“No face, no service.”
“What?” he blurts, as the door swings closed behind him, jingling a bell. “You mean: No mask, no service—right?”
“No face, no service,” she repeats. “This is a bakery, not a bank.”
“A bank?” he replies. “What’re you talking about?”
Stefanie raises a hand mirror from the counter top and aims it at him, saying, “You look like a bank robber.”
That's one of the many new charcoal illustrations artist Jordan Henderson has rendered for the forthcoming multi-media preview video of Much Ado About Corona (coming out this Sunday at high noon).
The above sketch was take two. Here's how the first version looked (see if you can spot what changed)...
In the final drawing, Vince's hair is longer. This was important because of what is stated in chapter two (when he gets another glimpse in the mirror sans his facemask):
"In the mirror I saw my clean-shaven face. Irish genes from my mom’s side of the family dominated over my Indigenous chromosomes. While I did possess dark black hair like my father, it was of a rather unruly variety. Left to grow long, it would make me look not like a brave Ojibwe warrior; but rather a bushy-haired, grunting caveman in some National Geographic documentary. So I tried to keep it short, like Martin Sensmeier in The Magnificent Seven (sans the mohawk). Nonetheless, after four months of lockdown, it was bordering on the barbarian."
It's historically significant! I remember we were all sporting some crazy hairdos by the end of that first lockdown. A few people told me Canada's Prime Dictator Justin Trudeau and I were looking more and more alike. Well, since he apparently got elected for his hair, I guess I'll take it as a compliment.
Anyway, there are more illustrations coming this Sunday with the release of the Much Ado About Corona preview on YouTube, Bitchute and Rumble. If you can help it go viral by sharing it with friends, family and co-workers, that would be mighty kind of you.
Oh, and did you know that Jordan Henderson, in his past life, was the illustrator for Charles Dickens' novels? Don't believe me? Here's the proof.
Stay sane & don't be a bank robber,
John C. A. Manley
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/
