“Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.” Bruce Wayne sure said a mouthful with that one. He failed to mention that a lot of them don’t seem to be exceedingly bright. I’ve often wondered what, for instance, would drive a man to counterfeit money? If you have the ability to create engravings on that level, you could doubtless find work in almost any artistic industry, at a very good wage. I’m not nearly that level of precision, and my work sells at a pretty good rate (if I could sell more it would be better…A-hem!)
But this morning there was a crime spree here in my own neighborhood. Seems that early this morning the alarm went off at my wife’s studio (located next to my own) around 7am. The criminal(s) had possibly noticed that she’s been away for several days. What they failed to notice were the signs on the doors that indicated that the place actually was alarmed. I thought they were quite noticeable, since I designed them myself. My brother, an electrician, installed the alarm system so we didn’t just post the notices for fun. (As anyone who knows my brother can attest he is extremely detail oriented, and pretty fanatical about making sure an alarm system works and can’t be tampered with).
At any rate, the criminal(s) apparently weren’t expecting an alarm, since they apparently spent the time that they could have been looting trying to disarm the system. Lots of luck, pal! The very idea that a person could in a few seconds randomly discern our combination out of the possible permutations available to our key pad…well!
So the criminal(s) split the scene without taking a thing, so far as we can tell. My brother arrived on the scene, followed by my Dad. They called the Sheriff’s office and a detective came around and dusted for fingerprints, took some tire print casts, and then told my Dad that they pretty much know who the person is.
Seems that this same person has been hitting shops up and down our section of the highway for months. He was in custody until a few days ago, when his girlfriend mortgaged her house to pay his bail. He promptly stole a car and went right back to his crime spree! Of course this is all allegation. But I’m not the police or the DA, so I can say what I want.
I feel for the girl. Her boyfriend is obviously not a good choice. She’s lost her house, since he skipped bail.
The only one who’s come out ahead in this is the bail bondsman, who now has toehold into the real estate market. Oh well, bail bondsmen have to eat too, I’m not putting them down.
What’s any of this got to do with comics? Not much. It just makes you think.
Got to break the news to my wife yet. Nothing was taken! The only real damage seems to be the black dusting powder all over the doors and keypad. I tried to clean it up today, but it’s pernicious stuff. We’ll probably have to repaint.
In the meantime, here are some more pieces that are in the pipeline. A JSA trio of beauties, and a Zatanna drawing. The JSA girls will probably be on the old eBay auction block this week, and the Zatanna has to be inked yet. That will come up in a week or so, I hope. I’m pretty pleased with them both. I think my artwork has improved markedly in the past 6 months, and that’s saying something. I thought I was doing pretty well before. Not that I’m stuck on myself or anything, but when I start doing drawings that I wish I could keep, that makes me pretty happy.
But if you’re thinking of going on a crime spree, keep in mind that even though these super-heroes don’t exist, there are those that do. They’ve got a lot more on the ball than most criminals think. If criminals are superstitious and cowardly, they’ve got good reason to be…they’re going to get caught.
Hawkgirl, Stars, Powergirl, and Zatanna are © and ™ DC Comics, Inc. Artwork by James E. Lyle
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