Sunny Days Ahead (2012)

CLIENT: Cincinnati Enquirer
AGENCY: In-house

This was not the first time that I had drawn Mr. Redlegs, and it wouldn’t be the last, but this is by far my most relaxed drawing of him; I’ve always thought that the most endearing thing about Mr. Redlegs is that his irises are lighter than the whites of his eyes, which makes him look like a drugged-out teeth-gnashing maniac. He is super fun to draw because of this. My version also leans more toward Teddy Roosevelt than most others I’ve seen.

I thought about Colorforms for some reason. Remember Colorforms? Little vinyl pieces that you stuck on stuff? I liked those when I was a kid, especially putting characters where they didn’t belong, like sticking He-Man in the middle of a Decepticon base or something. I suppose I was thinking about Mr. Redlegs being uprooted out of the ballpark and given a wardrobe change to kick back in the middle of an Arizona desert during spring training.

Part of my drawing made A1 again, and that’s awesome, but the two parts of this illustration that I’m the most proud of are 1) realizing that a turn-of-the-last-century holdover character would probably wear suspenders on his socks and 2) the looks I got from everyone in the newsroom when I took a survey on whether or not the rest of Mr. Redlegs’s skin is also made of baseball leather. I mean, why wouldn’t it be, right? … I KNOW, THAT’S WHAT I SAID.