The Detective Scribbles, No. 9, Mycroft Holmes

See, I am a man of my word, somewhat. Here is a new detective to adorn this set of scribbles. This time it's Sherlock Holmes' older brother, Mycroft Holmes. I have said before in numerous posts that Mycroft is one of my favorite characters in the Sherlock Holmes canon, this is mainly because of how enigmatic he is and how humorously Dr. John Watson describes him in their first meeting, in the short story entitled "The Greek Interpreter". When they meet for the first time Watson describes him as being a very corpulent individual and when he shakes hands with him Watson describes it as grabbing the flipper of a seal.
In the stories Sherlock describes him as being a true definition of a bureaucrat, as stating that he IS the British Government in various situations. Although seven years Sherlock's senior, Mycroft is quite superior to Sherlock in his inductive reasoning and having a pure analytical mind, but has "no energy" for actually pursuing the work of a detective. Sherlock says in "The Greek Interpreter" that "If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an arm-chair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived." (Note: this quote also describes Hercule Poirot, I think, since he practically sits in his arm-chair and basically goes through all the analysis in his "little grey cells") What I also like about the character of Mycroft Holmes is the look of pure shock on Watson's face as soon as he sets eyes on him. I might have said this before, but it is worth repeating, but I think that it is fascinating that anyone, in the whole of humanity, would have a far superior mind to that of Sherlock Holmes, but it seems rather obvious that that sort of mind lives in an observer like Mycroft Holmes, who sits at his perch at the Diogenes Club basically observing his surroundings, basically gawking and analysing the outside like some sort of obese owl, which helped tremendously in the drawing process (also the monocle bit and his overall structure is based off of astronomer Sir Patrick Moore). Although Mycroft has only shown up (or even mentioned) in four of the stories, he is one of my personal favorite detectives, although he is basically sedentary in his arm-chair at the Diogenes Club. I think that both Mycroft Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Nero Wolfe go hand-in-hand as being the perfect analytical detectives, whose cases begin and end in an armchair, basically.

Notes: The drawing above and below are drawn with waterproof ink and the use of a dip pen. Red permanent marker was used to enhance the second one and pencil to do some minor details, although Mycroft isn't so much the jovial type I thought it would be entertaining all the same, due to the holidays. Also, this is also a good time to have at least one of the Holmes brothers up here considering the amazing movie that recently was released, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where the incomparable and fantastic Stephen Fry, who is well known for his comedic talents and his reading of the Harry Potter books in the UK, plays the bureaucratic Mycroft, and does a fantastic job. Another lovely British actor has put on the bureaucratic attire for the new, and updated, version of the Sherlock Holmes stories. In the series Sherlock, which has been created by the brilliant minds of Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss (of Doctor Who fame), the co-creator Mark Gatiss stars as Sherlock's stiffly starched brother in the series, and also does a fine job.

Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.