Look out below

When I was working at the Spencer Daily Reporter, I created my cartoon panels by hand. I used pencil sketches, ink markers, just two copic markers for shading and occasionally a make-shift light table (my desk still had the angled glass but not the light, so I just put a LED flashlight under it). There's always days that are busier than others and I would sometimes work ahead with a cartoon, knowing an event was coming up. I had an idea to do something surrounding what the fish in West Lake must think of a car falling through the ice each spring as part of the local Rotary's fundraising contest. After coming up to the Dickinson County News, I began to use my digital tablet to create the cartoons for both papers. The thought then occurred to me around Christmas to renovate the old panel I had drawn on the copy paper (besides, the punchline wasn't that funny, and it wasn't that specific). I wanted to keep the multiple cars from my first draft, since I was referencing both papers on the license plates, but that wasn't quite sensical. I mean, the Rotary gets the car out each year. So, I popped another local reference in there just for fun. But I'll let you see if you can figure it out. In the interest of spreading an understanding of the process, I will post both drafts. You can see what was, what it became and what makes the new better than the old.