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.

Scribbles, Updates, & a Thuggish Guy Named Thornton

 Here are some new, or rather old, doodles, but they are new to you, the readers and avid gander-ers (I know it isn't a word) to this set of scribbles. I am aware that they do not compensate for a new drawing in The Detective Scribble series, but I have been quite busy with other things at the present time. If you can hold on a bit longer, I will, with any amount of luck and perseverance, have a new drawing in that series by the end of the week. In the meantime, enjoy these couple of scribbles & keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Here's a bit of a clue for the next detective that will be shown in the next Detective Scribbles series:

I have mentioned this detective before in the previous series of drawings

and this detective becomes very engrossed in his work,

very engrossed, indeed.

Keep a sharp eye out.

Boredom & Bow-ties

 I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but it has been an eventful couple of weeks. I would rather not go into details, but I do know that these drawings don't really compensate for the Detective Scribbles series, but I have been, as of late, very distracted. I will, rest assured, post something that goes with the series that I have been working on.
Keep a sharp eye out for my next post and enjoy these little doodles, which were drawn quickly, but they are doodles, none the less.

It's Not Easy Being Green

 Here are a couple of watercolor doodles that I did just yesterday, according to the date on this post, and they were done out pure, unadulterated boredom. There is not much to say about them, accept that they were all done with the color green being quite prominent in each of them. That is, really, the only similarity or continuity betwixt all of these drawings, so there isn't much to say.
I will be posting a new detective in The Detective Scribble series within a couple of days, with any luck. I am still deliberating which detective to post next, so if you, being a hopefully devoted reader to this random set of scribbles, have any suggestions to any detectives for me to draw, please do leave them in the comment section of this post. Thanks for enduring the rambling.

 Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

The New Banner...HUZZAH!

If you are a diligent follower to this scribbler's website, then you'll notice that there is a new banner that adorns the top of each of the pages. It is a hand drawn banner that I had created just last night, according to the date that I am writing this post. I was just thinking that the blog was getting a bit bland with the right ordinary banner with just some simple words upon it, so I decided to doodle this quickly. Posted above is the unedited version of the post that isn't cropped and lettered via the website picnik, which I have mentioned before in previous posts. It is a faithful website that I have used numerous times to make some doodles and pictures look official. The style of the banner was inspired by an artist by the name of Eric Canete, who is a truly one of my favorite illustrators, now. Needless to say, I had a truly great time doing this great collage of various things, but one of my favorites to draw was something I called the Cthulhu Hat, the bowler with tentacles, that is holding up the sign that says "Bowlers are Cool," simply because they are. I have also done some much needed updates to the site, so do tell me what you think of it in the comment section of this post.
Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Some Tintin...Well, actually Calculus

Here is the first colored picture to grace this post. Noted, it probably isn't that good, but I had fun painting one of my favorite characters in the Tintin series, the absent-minded and hard of hearing Professor Cuthbert Calculus, or, as he is known in the actual French text, Tryphon Tournesol.
This interesting little character made his first appearance in Red Rackham's Treasure in the Tintin series, the same comic the movie is based off of (see the post entitled "Nostalgia & Comics" to see the movie trailer). The inspiration for the look of Professor Calculus was from an actual person, a Swiss scientist by the name of Auguste Picard. Just as a small history lesson, Picard was a physicist and balloonist and was very tall. Herge once said that he had made Calculus a sort of "mini-Picard" because he would have to enlarge the frames if he didn't. If you would like to look further into the scientist's life click here to see the wikipedia page about Picard.
Also, as a mere side note, I realized that the character's name is actually Professor Calculus, not Doctor, but the ink had already dried before I came to that sobering fact. Most sincere apologies to those diligent readers.
Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

The Detective Scribbles, No. 2, Mister Nero Wolfe



For those devoted followers and readers to this blog, you will remember that I had sent out into the ether a little riddle. The riddle can be found in the previous post, to help reduce the rambling. Now, to continue, here is my new piece of work for the series entitled "The Detective Scribbles," and it is the corpulent American amateur detective Nero Wolfe.

For those who do not know of this colossal calculator, Nero Wolfe, here is a brief explanation. The character of Wolfe and his trusty sidekick, Archie Goodwin, came from the brain of one man by the name of Rex Stout, who was, coincidental, an Indiana native (which was a fact I didn't know about until early this summer). Stout, for those interested in his works, was born in Bloomington, Indiana, just a further explanation on the tid-bit of information given. Anyway, back to the character of Nero Wolfe. Wolfe made his first appearance sitting in his brownstone on West 35th street in 1934 in a story called Fer-de-Lance and it was well reviewed as being a work of genius. Since Wolfe's genesis was during a period known as "The Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Wolfe had more eccentricities than you could shack a stick at. For instance, Wolfe, who is described as being "a seventh of a ton" in the stories, is always punctual when it came to his meals, and his meals consisted of only the best cuisine that came from his manservant Fritz Brenner. When Wolfe was having his meals it was made clear that no one, absolutely no one, was to disturb Wolfe during his meals, which almost seems to border on the religious for any character.

Another of Wolfe's eccentricities was his absolute love of orchids. His orchidophile attitude was nearly as religious as his meals, note that I am sure that orchidophile is a severely made-up word. He tended to them as if they were family. Although these are just two of Wolfe's many eccentricities, it is true to form that Wolfe is the American version of Sherlock Holmes.

Speaking of which, you might find small, almost minute, similarities with Stout's Wolfe and Doyle's Holmes. One of which is very prominent, almost "a seventh of a ton" prominent, it is the almost uncanny resemblance to Holmes' brother Mycroft. You  could flip through the story of The Greek Interpreter and find some distinct similarities. Both of them are very, very corpulent computers, basically. It is even speculated in some circles that Wolfe is the child of Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes, which could explain the resemblance. Also this could explain the similar amount of syllables in both Holmes' and Wolfe's names. But I shall quit this speculation and try to wrap this up.

To conclude this post I shall recommend that anyone interested in Crime Fiction, especially American Crime Fiction, try to find a copy of one of Rex Stout's analytical detective Nero Wolfe and his trusty sidekick Archie Goodwin, they are certainly entertaining. Click here to go to the wikipedia page about Nero Wolfe and the Wolfe stories.

Both of these drawings, sorry for the abrupt transition, were drawn with an old fashioned dip-pen that I had bought near at the beginning of the summer. I was not qutie sure which Wolfe picture to present on this blog, because I admire this character deeply, so I cut off all deliberation and decided to post both. The one at the beginning of this post was my favorite and most faithful out of the two because of the orchid, but I had accidently put Wolfe smiling, which I found to be odd since he is such a serious character, so this second one here sort of balances it out, I think, but it is a mere speculation. I shall, perhaps put some clues for the next detective in this series before the week's out, mainly because I am still deliberating which detective to draw next. If you, being, hopefully, a faithful audience, have any suggestions, please do leave them in the comment section of this post. Thanks.

Keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Further Update & Some Hopeful Perseverance

Over the past couple of weeks there have been many hurtles that I hope shall come to a neat end. I am currently in the process of writing a detective/fantasy story, as well as other more important hurtles that have interrupted my correspondence. Now, with any amount of luck, I shall now be on my way to posting more little scribbles with extraneous and utterly boring explanations and such within the week. Speaking of which, this update is also a preview to the next drawing in my series that has but one doodle to its name, currently; it is the Detective Scribbles. You, hopefully being an avid reader of not only things on the Internet, but of actual books, will receive but one clue from this scribbler.

The detective's name is Roman in origin and he might remind you of a brother of another very famous detective of international renown.

Until next time, keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

Update...and frustration

This is merely an update and an apology due to the fact that there have been a series of technical and chronological difficulties in the new series, titled "the Detective Scribbles."
I have been cleaning and organizing various things only to find that the days are ticking away without any new pictures being scanned. I can guarantee, however, that this series will continue sometime later in the week, but otherwise, here is this picture depicting my frustration with technology nowadays. It is a small and not a very detailed drawing compared to the previous scribbles that have been posted, but it is still quite humorous to this scribbler. Thanks and keep a sharp eye out for my next post.

The Detective Scribbles, No. One, Monsieur H. Poirot

Here is the first drawing in a whole new series of doodles, entitled The Detective Scribbles. Hopefully, every week or so, I will have a new drawing that consists of a new fictional detective. This week is the most famous detective in the world, according to this character's "little gray cells," I am, of course, speaking of Monsieur Hercule Poirot, the brainchild of a very clever woman by the name of Agatha Christie. He was a Sherlock Holmes of a generation that just emerged from the first World War. This fastidious little character with his waxed moustache and seemingly infinite intellect emerged onto the literary scene in 1920 with his first adventure, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (a book that I would recommend for any bookworm who has an interest in crime fiction). Since his first adventure to his swansong in Curtain, Poirot and his fastidiousness that bordered on the obsessive compulsive had solved grand and marvelous crimes that enthralled the world because of his creator, Mrs. Christie.

He is one of my favorite fictional detectives because he's a character to sort of snicker at due his eccentricities such as how he keeps everything neat and tidy, much like his idiosyncratic moustache, and how it is said that even the slightest speck of dust would hurt more than a bullet. This little Belgian detective has had many actors who have tried to portray him on both the silver screen and the stage, but my favorite actor who has portrayed him is possibly the only one that I think could play Poirot to a T: that is the English actor by the name of David Suchet. If you have followed this particular blog with any particular interest, you will remember that I have mentioned a program called Masterpiece Mystery, which is on PBS. You will find that, at least at this present time, there is a new season of the Agatha Christie's Poirot that is currently airing, it's last episode in the season, Hollowe'en Party, is set to air...well...tonight, Sunday, July 3rd. So, to wrap up this quite lengthy post, I would highly recommend reading Christie's little Belgian detective and see his little grey cells at work, or tune into Agatha Christie's Poirot starring the quintessential actor David Suchet, if you are fans of crime fiction, I doubt that you will disappointed. Thanks for enduring the rambling. Keep a sharp eye out for my next post. (Note: I am well aware that the drawing sort of leans over, quite harshly, to one side, I am most sincerely sorry, it is the one of the faults of being right-handed.) Click here to check out this season of Agatha Christie's Poirot and also previous seasons of the program.