Long John

Due to my general fear as an artist, I often worry myself into delay, which takes forever for non-comic stuff to get drawn. Because of that, we alternated our New Year’s card for years between one that I drew versus one that had photographs of us and our animals. I figured a two-year cycle would be enough lead time take the stress off and allow me to get something drawn. However, last year’s card was a hit, and I really enjoyed drawing it, so ideas for a new card intruded despite 2025 being a “photo montage” year.

Again, it was really fun to draw caricatures of my wife and I and our pets doing the things that we love to do: there’s me vibing and playing guitar, my wife camping, my dog staring at food, and the cats getting into situations caused by their curiosity. The entire image was inspired by the maniacal expression my wife often gets when immolating marshmallows for s’mores (especially while camping). While initial sketches really captured that pyromania, I feel the expression softened a bit during the drawing process, though there is no doubt she is loving watching that marshmallow suffer.

We’ll see if this trend of always drawing a New Year’s card continues, but with it being very fun two years in a row, I’m actually excited to see what I’ll come with for next year’s card.