Age of Aquarius

Age of Aquarius

or: A Seahorse of No Particular Color

Stumbled on this the other day and thought I'd share. It starts with a fan sketch by Ramona Fradon and her signature character, Aquaman. I believe I found the sketch online and, after downloading, printed out in non-photo blue. The drawing is Ramona, the inks are mine.

All of this reminded me of a story that, once I started typing it up, filled me with a sense of deja vu. A quick search later reveals I'd already written about it here so, through the magic of copy and paste, the great Inkapaloozathon...

I only met Ramona once during the Great International SDCC Ramona Fradon Inkapallozathon somewhere in the mid-late 90s.

Word had gone round that weeks worth of Brenda Starr strips had gone missing. Ramon had stayed up all night drawing new strips and now we were going to grab all hands on deck and ink them en masse on the floor of the con. On my way to the party I spotted Mark Schultz. He was in conversation with a fan whom I so rudely interrupted. I claimed 911, we gotta go, now! Trouble in River City, Emergency with a capital E and dragged him away.

Mark had a moment of panic as I explained the situation. He didn't have his own tools, his drawing board, he wasn't used to inking others... I said he didn't have to ink a whole strip, just ink a picture frame in the background, drop a shadow under a chin, just something to say you were there.

I took the strip that was handed me and was halfway through the first panel when I noticed the strips date. It was just a few days off of my birthday so I asked the crowd if any one had a strip dated 9/4. Scott Shaw raised his hand. I asked if we could swap and he said no because 9/4 was his birthday. Scott and I are mortal enemies now :) Can't blame him for being faster and more observant than me. I finished off the panel and handed the strip off to others as volunteers were stacking up and I wanted everyone to get a chance to play

Al Gordon was not terribly impressed with the #0 brush I lent him, all my other brushes were in use. "What am I supposed to do with this thing?" To be fair a #0 is a tiny brush best suited for tiny touch-ups but it was I had left. Al gave a little grumble under his breath, took the brush and went to work while there were still available strips to work on.

All in all a wonderful time was had as we inked the whole batch in an hour or so. A magical moment were we could be heroes, if just for one day.

Happy Trails

Smitty