So ever since I created Dr. DeBunko, I’ve been in touch with the Skeptic Society, who has always been ultra-supportive of my comics work. Junior Skeptic Magazine editor DANIEL LOXTON began to discuss possibilities for collaborating for Skeptic, including some Skeptic Magazine Dr. DeBunko possibilities which never panned out. In May 2008 he mentioned “some little projects coming up we might be able to help each other with.” In June he confided that it would be for a Junior Skeptic illustration, possibly a cover, and that he had the go-ahead to use me as the artist if he wished.
In October, he said we should be ready to begin that project in about a month. In November he said they had to bump the project to complete some books. In April 2009, he finished his huge projects, and we began!
These were my instructions (my “script”):
“… Doris Danger style image of two 1970s teenage *males* confronted at a lakeside by (very roughly) this emerging black-lagoon-style creature … Action is menacing monster, scared teenagers (either standing in Shock! Horror! or fleeing are good). It can be stylistically as over-the-top as you like. (You may wish to hand-draw the Junior Skeptic logo to keep the style unified.”
He sent me some photos and sketches of what the Thetis Lake Monster is believed to look like. He may have sent some links to stories too. I read a couple articles online, and looked up photos of the Thetis Lake. Then I sketched this in pencil:
