"All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost."
~J.R.R.Tolkien

"It is with the utmost affection for my own children and autistic children everywhere that I share these stories."
~Scott

Sunday, October 4, 2009

On the Spectrum #56 - Decisions, decision...

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This is really more of a social story intended for Michael, who's probably OTS's biggest fan.

Last week he broke his arm for the second time in about six months.  He fell off the monkey bars at school, came down and broke his left radius right below the elbow.

In May, he broke his right radius, also just below the elbow.  In that case we don't really know what happened.  DW was in the next room, heard a crash, and found him crying and cradling his arm.  We THINK what happened was that he was using this huge Fire Truck they have (pictured above) as a step-stool and, having wheels, it shot out from under him.  The crash was more likely the Truck crashing into the wall on the other side of the room (which is why we didn't notice it right away) than him hitting the floor, but we don't really know.  So he's in a cast...  Again.  So this one's really for him, a sort "BE CAREFUL" type of pseudo-social story.  ("Make good choices" is the particular maxim that they use at school and at speech and he does sometime say it to himself when he's working through a plan or thinking about a decision.)

Oh yeah... I mentioned that he's probably the strip's biggest fan.  He absolutely realizes that it's all (or at least mostly) about him, and he dig's that.  He actually quote's it sometimes - last night he was stading in front of the TV (so we couldn't see) laughing and saying, "I want the no I can't see!" Which isn't even how he talks anymore, but he remembers it from the comic.  (It was #40, if you're curious.)  But I mention this because by now he's seen it so many times, and seen me drawing it, that he's started doing some stories of his own!  He drew the follwing piece about a week or two ago.  It's content is a bit ironic considering what would happen to him shortly thereafter.  Here you go:

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Obviously I added the text afterwards, but it's all per his own description of what's going on. I thought it was pretty cool, that he could make up the story on his own and all. 

On last thing... Michael's wardrobe update.  You see... it's really been a while since Michael's dressed the way I've been drawing him.  The short-sleeve polo shirt buttoned all the way up was his thing up until sometime last school year.  Now ALL he wants to wear is black track pants (usually with white stripes) and two-tone-tees; You know: the kind that look like you've got a red tee on over a black long-sleeved shirt?  Anyway, I figured it was time to update him, so I'm probably going to start drawing him like this from now on.  We'll see.

4 comments:

madderakka said...

Sam broke his collar bone when he was 2 1/2 because he tried to carry a ride on toy down the basement steps. Can't imagine going through that twice.

Adelaide Dupont said...

Wonderfully ironic.

It's great how Michael participates in the creation of the strip as well as it being about him.

(How does Jacob feel about this?)

Scott Lynn said...

Right now Jacob (who's 5) is pretty much oblivious to the strip's exsistence, as Michael was (at age 7) back when I started it. It's really only within the past few months that he's come to understand that these stories are about him. And it was not originally my intention that his charecter would feature so prominently. It's the case of him having more verbal development and being more outspoken than Jacob, and thus (intentionally or otherwise) having more opportunities to "generate material" for me. LOL. As Jacob gets older, and develops more language, I'm sure that they're will be more strips that focus on him. I actually have quite a few planned out already, I just need to work through some of the older material first. Because some of these ideas have been kicking around for a quite a while now: I started comic over a year ago, but first got the idea for it, and started gathering material, about a year before THAT. So, in the beginning, the charecter of Michael would have been about 5 and Jacob 3. Recent issues are mixed - some new stuff, some old. But I have no doubt that Jacob will feature more prominently in the future. (And particularly if he becomes more aware of the strip!)

Adelaide Dupont said...

Great to hear about the relative prominence of the guys.

I like the strips in which they appear together best.

And it's great to hear about the development and making of the strip as well.