The (D)evolution of Man
The inspiration for my final design comes from drinking! And of course the famous evolution of man chart which shows humans evolving from apes etc and growing as they go. In this case a drunken man wakes up on the street after a night out and is restored by drinking a beer. This is shown visually through his posture and body language. I chose to have him holding a sign post to rest on as a reference to the stage in the chart where man is holding a spear. I chose to keep the story speechless as I feel his body language and facial expressions convey what is occuring well. I had considered putting his speech on his shirt akin to The Yellow Kid by Richard F. Outcault but couldn't envisage anything that would enhance the story and therefore would just cause distraction for the reader.
This piece is a comment on alcoholism - that although this beer is a good thing for him now, drinking in this way is a vicious cycle. Even though he is rising, the sun is setting. This can be viewed as time passing but I chose to add the sun to represent his future decline and how alcohol affects people in the long run. The sun also works as a visual device to lead the reader's eye towards the final panel where the character is restored. The sun is positioned (pretty much) in parallel with the man’s head and is also the same shape to enhance this mirror image.
I also decided to use fence posts as the panel borders to comment on the fact that he is trapped in a cage of alcoholism. I feel this works well as you could just be looking at him through a railing on the other side of the road but it could also be viewed as prison bars.
The character himself is a visual mix of The Yellow Kid, Tintin by Herge & Oor Wullie by Dudley D. Watkins with hints of Pop-Eye by E. C. Segar, his restorative spinach powers now being beer. I also included a visual reference to Watchmen by Dave Gibbons in the bottom left panel - a beer pouring down the drain like the blood from Watchmen. The colours of the beer can were also chosen to make reference to the famous smiley badge as well as keeping it at home referencing local Scottish lager Tennents.
