INTERMISSION: Meet Iguana Jones, Cold-Blooded Adventurer!

 

Today I’m putting paleoart on hold for a while. Since this very blog doesn’t seem to have been indexed by search engines yet, which apparently means that I have a total readership of around ZERO people, I’m pretty sure nobody will feel disappointed. And we’re staying on reptilian territory anyway. Moving from Iguanodon to another saurian with iguana teeth (and other body parts too, this time!).

I know, it’s a silly idea. But I thought it would look rather cool on t-shirts, mugs, posters, pillows and the like. This drawing represents the first time in years that I sat back at the drawing board (which is actually my kitchen, and I tend to draw while standing, but bear with me on this). I could have kept churning out dinosaur drawings like I used to, and maybe update my book for publication. But my heart wouldn’t really be in it, as that would imply an immense amount of work that right now I, having two kids and a full-time job, just can’t afford to spend on a project with such an uncertain outcome. As I already explained elsewhere on this blog, I started my (unpublished) dinosaur book back in 2006 and managed to finish both text and illustrations right when the 2008 global crisis hit, and suddenly such an investment didn’t look like a good idea for my publisher anymore. So yeah, I even got a publisher at the time and was offered a contract to sign, but the whole deal ultimately evaporated into aether. And I got so disappointed and unmotivated that I eventually just stopped drawing altogether.

So, after several years without picking up a pencil, for some reason late in 2022 I felt the urge to start drawing again, and to try to get something out of it for a change. Maybe create an online portfolio, upload work to print-on-demand sites and even publish something, eventually. And, perhaps, find some use for my old dinosaur drawings too. I just felt sad that all the work that went to that failed book back in the day was entirely wasted. So I decided to start drawing creatures other than dinosaurs and prehistoric animals to widen my range a bit. In my younger years I loved drawing well known comic-book characters like those published by Marvel or DC Comics, but I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of working with someone else’s intellectual property (although it seems that I unwillingly did... but, more on that later).

And so the name “Iguana Jones” came to my mind for no particular reason. It just sounded like a harmless Indiana Jones parody, one with an anthropomorphic South American lizard as a protagonist instead of a human being. I never thought of a back story or possible plots the character could take part in, as honestly I am not really interested in storytelling right now, nor do I have the imagination and writing skills needed for such a thing. But it was something I wanted to try my hand at, as it’s a particularly challenging creature to draw for someone like me with a drawing style that’s usually kind of sparse in details. Iguanas have all kinds and sizes of scales, skin folds and details on their bodies, which make them painstakingly arduous to draw, especially if one’s going for a portrait like this one. It was agony, but I think it turned out well enough. One of those very rare instances in which the result pretty much matches what I initially had in mind.

I need to say that, although I had been aware for quite a while that a fifth Indiana Jones movie was supposed to be in the works, at the time I drew this thing, in late 2022, I honestly didn’t know the film’s release was so close (I’m typing this on June 20^th 2023), so it was not opportunism that led me to try this, I swear it was a total coincidence. Not that I think the release of the film can help me sell more t-shirts or anything, but I just wanted to make that clear. I haven’t made a single sell yet, so that should definitely not be a concern. And depending on how this final (or is it??) entry in the Indy saga turns out, I might even want to distance myself from it for a while. Honestly, I hope it is at least a little better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan since I was a kid, and I really, really wanted to enjoy that one as much as I did the original trilogy, but man does that movie have a lot of problems… and Shia LaBeouf is NOT the worst of them. Not even remotely. The guy gets a lot of flak for his performance, but I think he did the best he could with the script he was given. Also, I found that “nuking the fridge” scene rather funny, and definitely not the most outrageous plot point in the film. I do wish I could unsee the soldier-carrying ants and the monkey army commanded by LaBeouf, though. Overall, I don’t think it was really a bad movie, and I had a decent time at the theater, but the sad truth is that, to me, it pales in comparison to even Temple Of Doom. Which I know is quite a statement, given how intentionally silly everything in that movie was. Definitely, Crystal Skull is not David Koepp’s best writing gig, and I expected much more from Steven Spielberg as a director. But oh well, at least it’s still better than The Lost World. Now THAT was the lowest point for both of them if you ask me.

But I digress… Back to the drawing.

As a blatantly obvious parody of Indiana Jones, and given that laws in most Western countries tend to be very lax with parody content compared to other derivative works based on copyrighted material, I thought it was safe to use this design pretty much everywhere, as I assumed it would constitute fair use. And all art and print-on-demand websites I uploaded it to (DeviantArt, ArtStation, Artgram, Redbubble, Teepublic, LaTostadora, etc.) seemed to agree… except for one particular case. Zazzle emailed me to kindly inform that my design was “not approved”, as they seemed to be concerned that it “contains an image or text that may be subject to copyright”; that they would be “removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly”, and that I could “redesign and republish” my products following their content guidelines. I immediately deleted the design myself, apologized to them for any inconvenience my ignorance regarding copyright law may have caused, uploaded a newer version without the “offending” text simply called “Iguana Adventurer”, and called it a day. And apparently the text (or maybe the font) was the real problem, as the new design remains available and I’ve gotten no further messages from Zazzle’s content review team. I don’t know why only Zazzle seemed to have a problem, but I thought it might be because they sell to countries where parody is not legally protected or allowed without the copyright holder’s permission, like Japan. I asked them just out of curiosity, but they never replied. Oh well, now I have two different versions of this design that I can use.

I hope this rant was at least mildly entertaining. That’s it for today. Take care and see you all very soon.

Modified version without the allegedly copyrighted content, made to meet Zazzle's content guidelines.