Darwin Challenge Island

Who knows whether Darwin would REALLY have fronted a dangerous competition island had he been around today, but I, much like whoever it was who drew on this 10, like to think that it's what he would've been all about. I've heard it suggested on a number of occasions that the Church (y'know, the Church), contrary to popular belief, doesn't (or didn't, at least initially) have a problem with Darwin's theories disproving the Bible's explanation of the origins and development of man and mankind. It was more the implication that nature was a remorseless, terrifying thing, where everything alive was constantly subsumed in a permenant state of fear, struggling vainly to survive - that life, ultimately, was devoid of hope.

Try telling that to Darwin of Darwin Challenge Island. Seems to me that he never doubted the spirit of man. Go on, Darwin! Go on, everyone!

I have to go to work now.

Lord Ilay's Farewell

Ironically, I've seen a few more 'edited' Royal 5's, and Ilay always prevails. It's probobly the sheer effort you'd have to go to in order to make him not-Ilay (i.e. the Batman) what with the hair/wig and his massive features. He also has a fairly utilitarian expression (if that doesn't sound entirely wrong), so he looks confident, worried, dismissive... anything, depending on the context you put him in. A limitation of cartooning is that the subtler modes of facial expression and body language are almost impossible to 'code in' purely visually, for a variety of reasons. So if the First Governor's fizog wants to play ball, then so should the artist.

Also, if you hold the note up to light and look at the back, it looks like the Batman is thinking about Lord Ilay, in that nostalgic way comman to the more emotionally 2 tone Japanese cartoons of yore. I was happy with that. It made me happy.

Science Heroine Mary Slessor

I can only imagine that the Clydesdale Ten is quite difficult to draw on, in that there's probobly a lot of spaces you feel that you COULD draw on, and then it turns out you really can't. I keep forgetting that Mary has her science dog, Chelnov, and was in the middle of issuing a stark warning to injustice (it's bold, but that's her style). You just can't see it. Her logo needs some work.

Jonathan Edwards, if you didn't know, is an olympic triple jumping champion. Good for him. You always wonder what happens to the big athletes who aren't that good in front of the camera, and who probobly don't want to dedicate the rest of their lives to teaching kids how to...well, triple jump / jump three times in a very specific way. I once went to an athletics day where I repeatedly embarassed myself attempting to jump those three very specific ways. I say embarassed, but when they suggested that "It's not really for you, is it?", I felt strangley endowed with purpose, free from the burden of being born good at something rubbish like triple jumping. How many children have accidently exposed themselves as good-at-triple-jumping at "Try This!" athletics days, dooming themselves to a life of fruitlessly jumping, jumping, jumping, only to be told that they're not quite as good as some other guy, at a sport no-one ever wanted to be good at in the first place? Well, apart from me. It still hurts so badly.

The back of the Ten must have been bobbins to write on, btw.

Sovereign of the Sea

One thing I'm often asked in relation to drawing on money is "Why would you drawing on money?". Bear in mind that this isn't the same as asking "Why do you draw on money?" - the latter is a request for some sort of defining M.O. with regards to the pursuit; the former, a rhetorical question - with the right amount of tonal oomph nonewithstanding - intended to blithley insinuate some sort of social or personal deficiancy. It's a shame things have to be so complicated. "You're an idiot." would suffice. I'll give my answer some thought. Oh, and for the record, I don't PERSONALLY draw on money. I just acquire drawn on money. Somehow. From places. Like a useless money magnet.

---

I'll bet the Queen at some point, at some point in time has thought about being a 7 story high super-liege who has the ability to physically protect her subjects from danger. Even if only for a few seconds, I'll bet it's popped up in there somewhere. Which is why the Queen is probobly awesome.

As for the Elizabeth Fry, I can't say, off of the top of my head, I really know what she's on-the-five for, though if she can get Vernon Kaye and the Combaticons working together, she has to be doing something right. I could wikipedia the subject, but it's lunchtime and, well. Yeah.