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INKTOBER 52 2023 Day #14: TEARS.

I struggled with an idea for this prompt. Leave it to the English language to have a word spelled the same way, but pronounced very differently and have an extremely different definition. Tears, as in crying, didn’t inspire anything. Even this pronunciation of the word had me drawing a blank for a while. In the end, I opted for using it as an excuse to draw PMD in his hulk form-Gorilla Monkey Dynamo-shredding his tank top a la Bruce Banner. I grew up reading comics and watching all the comic-related tv shows and cartoons. Lou Ferigno’s portrayal of The Incredible Hulk mesmerized me as a kid because he was an actual human being that was actually that huge. I was a skinny, nerdy kid that got bullied a lot. At some point I decided that if I was super muscular like the superheroes I loved-like Lou Ferigno-the bullies would leave me alone. This notion was cemented in my mind after an experience at school involving some of my tormenters seeing my dad’s muscled arms at an event and then hounding me the next day with questions about his workouts and how much he could bench. For a brief moment, I was accepted, all because of my dad’s biceps. I started doing pushups and situps in secret in my bedroom (I was embarrassed), and eventually took up track, weight lifting, martial arts, gymnastics-type calisthenics, etc. I’ve been working out obsessively since I was 11 or 12 years old and loving it. I still haven’t gotten huge, but the bullies did start leaving me alone, probably because of the self-esteem and confidence I gained along the way.

Anyway, muscley superheroes have some significance to me beyond their entertainment value. As an artist, I’ve always enjoyed drawing muscles and anatomy. Given who and what PMD is to me, there’s probably some psychological stuff to be unpacked when it comes to the way I draw him and the way I draw his hulk form. Good thing I’m not a psychiatrist.