The Detective Scribbles, No. 3, Kurt Wallander

Sorry about the long delay, but here it is, the next in the Detective Scribbles Series and this time it is the Swedish bloodhound, Kurt Wallander. This is, by far, the most disturbed detective that I have ever seen, but he does get the job done. This detective was the brainchild of Swedish author Henning Mankell and his books, along with the British version of the series on Masterpiece Mystery, a program I talk about often in this series of scribbles and meanderings, anyway, the books show a Sweden that is not blissful and beautiful, but it shows the dirty underbelly that is behind this picturesque facade.
Wallander's character was introduced in the story Faceless Killers, which is a story reflecting not only the pure evil of the crime, but of the dark sin of humanity, racism. Since then this detective has enthralled its readers throughout minute parts of the globe. I, personally and unfortunately, have not read the books by this author, but I have seen the series that stars Kenneth Branagh and it is very good. What I liked about the series is that the main character is basically a tortured soul, and you don't commonly find that in any other crime series, at least to this extent. Wallander fuels himself with junk food and has eyes as red as a bloodhound, I think that is how his author described him, and also this character basically kills himself inside and out through every single case, because he always feels personally responsible for every case that is handed to him. Again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I have never seen such a fictional detective become so personal with their cases, take so much of it to heart. Wallander is a perfect detective with more than one vice about him, but that is what makes a good character I think, their graces are only as good as their flaws, and that is what makes Wallander one of my favorite detectives.
Wallander took quite a long time to figure out what he would look like. I thought at first that he should have blonde hair, but I thought it would see too cliche, since Wallander is not the stereotypical Swedish character. Then I thought that he should just be a dark character, since he is very much dark and macabre. He is a bit like the American gumshoe with the sprawling city as their home with the flickering fluorescent lights just outside their windows, Wallander is much like that sort of character. So then, with that in mind, I decided that he should have just very ratty things, since he takes very little care of himself, and just to make him more film noir-ish, I thought that he should have the upturned collar that is mostly hiding his haggard face. So I quickly drew him in pencil as an outline and drew over it with a dip pen, using waterproof ink, and then used the same ink, but instead I used a brush, to darken him, which seemed to fit Wallander quite nicely.
There are plenty more detectives to come in this series, so keep a sharp eye out for my next post.
Note: If you would like to explore the author Henning Mankell's website click here.