Monsters Ink

I drew this while sitting in the back of a class while attending graduate school back in the early '80's. Yes, even while earning a graduate degree I could often be seen doodling away on a piece of paper at the back of the class while a professor lectured up front.

I've hung on to this scribble ever since. One reason is that I felt it was different in style from the way I normally drew. Over the years, when I have visited school classrooms to do a cartooning demonstration that I do, this is one of the pieces that I like to show the kids. It's generally a big hit with the boys.

One of the requirements for my degree was to face a committee of professors, alone for two hours, answering any question they want to ask from any class you took over the threes years you attended school. The committee is called an "Orals Committee" because the exam is an oral exam. At the end of my inquisition exam, after I had been told that I had passed, I gave each of the professors a copy of this illustration; telling them that it was my interpretation of what an Orals Committee looked liked. They laughed, but I still think it was a good thing that I waited until AFTER they told me that I had passed.

What do you think?