'What's He Building?' may well be my favourite Tom Waits song, and I've been keen to illustrate it for a long time. Wanting to do things properly, I applied for a licence to use the lyrics, which I really should have got around to doing a lot earlier than being more than halfway through a fairly lengthy and substantial drawing project.
The people at Third Party Music were very helpful, but the publishers have refused permission, so I've had to pack it in. It was always a possibility but it's still disappointing to have to abandon it. However, it was fun while it lasted, although I was a bit stuck on how to successfully illustrate "a consulting business in Indonesia" in a single interesting panel.
Some crumbs of lyric may be discernible in these extracts so I hope publishing this post doesn't trigger a fleet of black limousines to emerge sharklike from the underground car park at Universal Publishing and I make it plain that none of this is for sale at all anywhere to anyone in any form whatsoever.
I was inspired by and envious of Dan Berry's lovely illustrations for the Handsome Family's "After We Shot the Grizzly" not least because he "got in touch with Rennie and Brett and they said go for it."
Ah well.
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