The Drawing Book's idle speculations
Comics about standby travel and... imaginary weddings?!
Hello, drawing book readers! I’m back this week with comics from my old sketchbook journal series. I wrote and drew these stories about twenty-five years ago, and it is fun to unearth them now and share them with you! We’ve been going through 2001, when I was a flight attendant based in Calgary. There was lots of travelling going on in my life - and in the lives of the people around me, too. We take up the story on this page. I was taking stock of a few comings and goings:
A few years before, I’d been an exchange student in Germany, and in the summer of 2001, a German student came to stay with my family. Because I was a flight attendant, it was easy to travel around, so the two of us decided to head north to Whitehorse for a few days. I’d already made a couple of trips to the Arctic (this one, for example), so I felt like I kind of knew what I was doing… but this was a very impromptu camping trip, with borrowed gear and not much planning ahead. Here’s my page about our trip:
Well, when you’re travelling on standby, you have to expect some long waits. But, we made it home eventually!
On the way home, an idle comment about my kerchief led to two whole comics page about my imaginary wedding. Needless to say, there was no real wedding plan in the works. I just had time to draw while waiting for our flight.
Those quotes are from songs by the Doors. The first one, from Queen of the Highway, was said to be Jim Morrison’s own take on relationships. The second one, from Love Street, was mine.
Freedom ha! indeed.
But, even though I wasn’t getting married, it seemed like the people around me kept doing so! This led to another page of wedding-related foolishness, featuring references to Flash Gordon, Moonstruck, The Mikado, and Dylan’s live version of When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky.
Spoiler alert: I did get married a long time after I drew those pictures. I didn’t wear the Afghanistan dress, which I’d bought for $80 on Bloor Street in 1997, although I still really love that dress. But I did sleep in late, and I did walk down the aisle to the sound of that Dylan tune! That opening guitar riff… there’s nothing like it.
Thanks for joining me in these stories of old travels and old speculations. Hope that your plans, real or imaginary, are inspiring you and maybe even making you giggle. I will look forward to sharing the drawing book with you next time… (“Hope it can continue a little while longer. Come on!”)