Working throught the kinks with Joe...

Jorge is trying to get the Bazooka Joe character right. Here is my email to Jorge describing Bazooka Joe. It is kind of fun interacting with an artist you have never spoken to, but have only communicated with over the internet. It is completely cereberal.

..."Take a deep breath, relax that drawing hand, and come at this fresh and new. Grab a cup of Cafe Bustelo, or whatever good South American coffee you may drink, and drink one hot and fresh and mix in your sugar. You probably have a couple of ants crawling around in the sugar, from what I remember, but don't let them bother you. They give your drawing hand the strength and power you need to create this complex character. He's not someone you see in your part of the world. From the neck down, you've got him. Print a picture of the drawing Bert did and put that drawing above the computer on the wall. Or, above your drawing area on the wall with a piece of scotch tape.

Think of your days in Chicago, in America, and the black men you saw there. Comprende? This is where you have to test your artistic merits. A-rod is only a person Joe is similar to. I did tell you to draw him exactly like A-rod, but do not. Draw him exactly as Jorge sees him as an overly, self-confident male. I know there was a guy like him in personality when you were in junior school. He was always poking fun at people, he was handsome, he wasn't hurtful to a guy like you, in fact, he probably liked you because you were the artist. He probably asked you for a drawing of himself. He probably looked at you at your school's prom and you saw him when he walked into the school auditorium. He was wearing an overly tacky outfit, with way too many gold neclaces on. He probably had a gold tooth, that he thought was "hot".

That bad-ass hombre was with a girl that everyone in your school thought was the hottest girl around.He starts trashing his soccer buddies, and then he looks across the room at you and gives you a wink, letting you know that you are cool in his book. You don't talk to him again the whole evening. But, bottom line, Joe is cool, everyone knows he's cool, and we have got to feel that character."

Jorge lives in Mexico, and this character has been a tough one to get his mind around. These sketches are beautiful. I think he has it.