Cynthia's Circus Card

The first weekend of October, AlyshaKahuna joined me when I went to New York to attend the birthday party of Cynthia von Buhler.  The theme of the party was Freaks, and the menu included popcorn, hotdogs, and cotton candy, so we decided to present her with a circus themed card/gift.  (The actual post on the party is yet to come, I am still backed up on schoolwork at the moment.)

The party was also to celebrate the publishing of the Evelyn Evelyn graphic novel, so I included them in the card.  I wanted to reimagine Evelyn Evelyn's circus life as somewhat happier, though Alysha made sure everything remained a little sinister under the happy colors.  I added Sandy Fishnets as the trapeze artist just so the girls would be reunited with their childhood friend.

This is the second collaboration between Alysha and I.  For JAFAX this summer, she did some quick drawings of some yokai based on my suggestions and we sold badges and stickers of them at our table.  So began us working together.  For this one, I came up with the concept, sketched it out, directed her as she worked, printed/cut out/arranged the final images and helped with things here and there.  We discussed how nice it was working together and I've decided my new longterm goal is to become an art director.

Alysha did a wonderful job inking and hand-painting everything especially since we had less than a week to do it and ended up doing 3/4 of it in a hotel in Jersey.

Below are her drawings for this.  As she did all the final work on the characters, I've watermarked them with her name.

Ringmaster

Strongman

Bimba & Kimba, the world's only conjoined elephant

Sandy Fishnets as a trapeze artist

Eva and Lynn, or Lynn and Eva