by association....

Although this isn't a Space Case, it was done between the HP-Compaq closure and the Victorian inventor. I was in Lincoln, Nebraska, hanging with Pat Moriarity and Dale Ashmun and this was one of three pictures that I drew in Dale's sketchbook. Inspiration bit hard during an intermission of a Charlie Burton concert and I drew it sprawled across the seats of the Farmer's Cadillac II on that sweltering August dog day. The engine is the cliched huffed and flame belching Hemi, but it's such a good cliche! The character is a whacked out version of Zader Jader from the Greater Beta Crater. The usual version of him is seen as a background gag in that picture of Flexia riding the flying saucer in the October Archives. I believe that he is an original character that I created in the late '80s, but I wouldn't be surprised if I unconsciously recycled some throw-away background character from some reprint of a '50s Mad material, perhaps penned by Wood or Freas.

The other two drawings in Dale's book were done at his house, earlier in the day. One was a prototype of the B.Q./Becky Nyu character as a morbidly obese nekomimi with glasses in full Mel Allen Sink mode. The other was a head shot of Flexia.