The Villains in my Home Town- part 5.

O f course, I do know that the ear on the sketch shown yesterday is too far back on the head (not that anybody has mentioned it). 'Sketching' is the right word for it. I presume everybody gets that these things need to be produced quickly and there's no time to fix things. To fix that ear would require starting over. I'd be slopping away with those markers, the thin paper warping under my attack (I can see where it warps in yesterday's pic for example) with my eye on my watch the whole time. My picture was needed for the five o'clock news spot, so that meant a three o'clock deadline. I preferred to wrap it up at the courthouse and hand it to a Channel Ten person so I could go home and work on something else with a clear head. On occasions I'd take it home with me, and I'd always worry it to death before sending it to the tv station in a taxi. Then I'd sit down to watch the program not knowing whether it got there on time.

With the trial I'm showing today, I watched the News that night ten years ago to find the picture of the villain wasn't used. I suspected they may have misplaced it or not known it was under the other two pictures, though if there was more than one drawing I always put a cover sheet at the top itemising the contents of the folder. However, this one's a good example of all the other stuff I would try to include, such as an overall view of the courtroom:



From which they were able to get a close-up of the judge. I'd always wince when I'd see a detail enlarged that much.



I also threw in a profile shot of the Queen's Counsel, who seemed to me to be saying important things. They zoomed in on his hand and you could see all the fibres in the paper:



Also, this trial ran for a few days, so they wanted a bunch of stuff and for all I know they may have used the villain on another day and I just missed it. But by this time I had seen the possibility of a series of anecdotes to run in my Bacchus comic book, which then were caught up in the narrative thrust of the book that would become After the snooter. So I drew him in there from memory.
He was on trial for the murder of his wife because he thought she was having an affair. The proceedings were brought to a halt during the jury selection process because the accused seemed to be opening a dossier on each member. The jury were sent out while the Judge discussed the matter with the barrister representing the accused, who explained that the accused meant no harm by it and then by means of a quick word in his lughole told the guy stop doing it forthwith.