So Long, Souter!

Justice David Souter has announced his plans to retire from the US Supreme Court, so it seems like a good time for me to dust off two illos I drew of Souter.

The first one was for the cover of SCREW Magazine issue #1,121, in the Summer of 1990, (when Bush Sr. appointed Souter). This was one of many bizarre cover concepts that leaked out of the brain of SCREW publisher Al Goldstein, to be passed along to me with a shrug by the mag's long-suffering art director Kevin Hein. Goldstein's cover concepts generally made sense to Goldstein alone, and I'm at a loss to explain what this one is about. All I can offer is that Goldstein envisioned himself and Souter as a "Laurel & Hardy" style duo, with Souter bopping Goldstein with his gavel.

Yes, I know this illo is a little shaggy, but please bear this in mind: topical SCREW covers like this one tended to have a very short turnaround. Never mind that, the goddamned thing's twenty years old, so cut me some effin' slack.



My second Souter illo is a little easier to explain. In September of 2002, JUNGLE LAW art director Marcus Villaca, (for whom I drew nearly as many illos as I drew for SCREW's Kevin Hein) tossed me a particularly fun assignment: I was to draw all twelve Supreme Court justices as superheroes, each with a unique super power. JUNGLE LAW's editors assigned Souter the title "The Galaxy's Most Boring Man," and here is the result. (if you're interested, you can check out a handful of the other illos from this job in the "LAW & CRIME" section on my website.