Can Christmas be saved?

I finally wrapped up the pencils on this back cover for the next issue of Comicopia, just in time for Christmas. I had so much F-U-N doing this, start to finish. I must say that I drew this at 100%, beginning with an amazingly loose and free at-size gesture rough while at a Sketch Charlotte meetup. From there it was working on it in the odd minutes and hours through the mornings, except for today. I saved this wonderful Sunday with our new, scruffy dog Olive at my side, as well as my trusty kitty Miss Maizie Cat, while watching the Carolina Panthers get their asses kicked yet one more time (even though I cheered loudly at the few rays of sunshine our team had, notably a great touchdown pass and catch and an amazing kickoff return). Our sad team and this fantastic character, Captain Marvel, actually were wonderful metaphors while I drew this. In “real life” lots of sad, frustrating and horrible things happen (that would be this year’s Panthers team). But you must always keep dreaming, hold onto innocence, hope, love, laughter, magic and fun (and yes, that would be Captain Marvel).

Also, looking over various “Whiz Comics” covers, I realized that the more absurd the better. I did my best here, though I will likely return to Captain Marvel for other cover projects in the future. I feel like this is a well that runs deep, at least for me. And, in keeping with the overall theme of magic, innocence and fun, I had to include none other than Santa Claus for this holiday cover. To finish, I decided to place the entire scene somewhere in the American Southwest, since my buddy Jay in Phoenix will be inking this, and mainly as an homage to the wonderful Maurice Noble backgrounds I grew up loving from the Road Runner + Coyote cartoons from Warner Brothers.