It WAS after some inadvertent comic archeology that I discovered why I drew Arno’s hair that way.
Wabbit Hutch was the first comic strip I invented back in 1978. Radar was one of the characters, a rabbit with exceptional ears. I must have drawn that character a million times… So, it was a natural thing to begin drawing Arno’s hair like that. I did not even realize it.
I was pretty surprised to figure that out. Finally, I’m putting it out in visual format so you all can see for yourselves. There also seems to be minor similarities with other characters I’ve drawn… subtle ones… Merv is actually much like a rabbit character I had called Punk. Punk was more of a deadbeat though. He had long ears as opposed to hair. Merv also takes a characteristic from another character called Winston. Winston hid behind glasses and showed virtually no expression. Merv hides in his hair until something freaks him out. Winston was a bit of an intellectual and used Latin phrases to seem important. I gave that quality to Vlad…
Arno, Erna and the rest are pretty unique though. These characters are their own deal. Merv is too, actually. The more I draw them, the more I learn about them. They seem to grow more dimensional with time. It’s as much of a mystery to me as it is to you. It’s like we are all getting to know these guys together.
That just goes to show that all of this comes from somewhere else beyond me. Even I have not idea what’s going on…
TjÂ
Erna’s visage comes from my hippie days… See below. Don’t freak out now…
Hippie Me in College - Scary, eh?
That’s actually a very cute picture