Deathly Hallows: SPOILERS!

Throughout the entire series of books Snape, more than Dumbledore, or Voldemort has been the biggest mystery to me. The one thing I was certain of was that Snape disliked Harry and never had his best interests at heart. J. K. Rowling in a recent interview on NBC's Today Show Meridith Vieira both reflected my thoughts about Snape and simultaneously shot down my theory about him.

Since I've already written my bit about Snape prior to reading the book, I was curious to see that my thoughts about Snape were justified. This is an exerpt from the interview:

Meridith: Was Snape always intended to be a hero?
J. K. Rowling: Is he a hero? You see, I don't see him as a hero. Really, he's spiteful, he's a bully, all these things are true of Snape, even at the end of this book. Um, but was he brave, yes, immensely.

Greta, Age 8: If Snape didn't love Lily, would he still have protected Harry?
J. K. Rowling: No he definately wouldn't have done. He wouldn't have been remotely interested in what happened to that boy.

I'd figured that he didn't like Harry (genuinely), and the only reason he saved Harry was to repay his debt to James Potter (who saved his life when they were teenagers). What I didn't see was the dynamic between Lily and Severus-- that he felt something akin to love for her. I also didn't see the promise made between Severus and Dumbledore, to kill Dumbledore in the 6th book. While reading Half-Blood Prince, I rationalized Snape killing Dumbledore somehow (I'm still not clear what I was thinking but was sure that it was all legit). After all, Dumbledore trusted Snape.

Later when I had a chance to listen to the book on tape (CD actually) I was more sure than ever that Dumbledore trusted Snape right up until the moment before his death. In that scene, when Harry is immobilized under the invisibility cloak and Snape approaches him, Harry says that he'd never heard fear in Dumbledore's voice before. Having read the 7th book, I now understand that he was pleading with Snape to do the job he'd promised to do, rather than allowing him to die a victim of Fenrir the Werewolf, or Belatrix, or Voldemort himself.

I admit I'm still not okay with asking a friend to kill you. Especially when you know ahead of time that you're going to die whether it be from a curse or some other way. Dumbledore had several options available to him, including going to St. Mungos, or retiring to place where Voldemort would never find him, and dying in peace away from the action. In either of these instances he wouldn't have put Snape in a compromising position.

In any case, it's been a wild ride. Trying to figure Snape out was a challenge, and I guessed wrong, but I at least figured out that Snape probably would have continued to be a Death Eater if Lily hadn't died.

Snape is a Death Eater

On the eve of the release of 7th and final Harry Potter book I wanted to go on record stating with some certainty that Snape is a Death Eater.

My theory is based on the way he treats everyone around him-- with loathing. Snape loves the Dark Arts, and talks about Voldemort with something near reverence. When Harry calls him by his name, Snape tells him to shut up. Snape himself refers to him as "The Dark Lord".

As further proof of Snapes allegiance being with Voldemort, I cite the following:

During his meetings with Harry in which he attempts to teach Harry Legilimancy. Harry asks if Voldemort can read their minds at that moment. Snape tells Harry that he cannot because... "The Dark Lord is at a considerable distance..."

How did Snape know this? Unless he knew Voldemort’s location?

Later, he comments, "You seem to have visited the snakes mind because that is where the Dark Lord was at that particular moment. He was possessing the snake at the time, and so you dreamed you were inside it too."
"How do you know?" said Harry urgently. "Is this just Professor Dumbledore guessing, or...?"
Snape responds, "It is enough that we know."

How did Snape know that the Voldemort was possessing the snakes mind at that moment unless he got this information first hand from Voldemort himself?

Later, Harry, reflecting on his dream about the snake attacking Mr. Weasley, asks what’s in the department of Mysteries?
“What did you say?” Snape asked quietly, and Harry saw with deep satisfaction that Snape was unnerved. “And why would you ask such a thing?”

Why would Snape be ‘unnerved’ that Harry would ask about the Dept. of Mysteries, and dodge the question unless he knew that Voldemort was searching for something in it? And didn’t want Harry to stumble upon the truth?

I believe that this conversation between Harry and Snape is very revealing about Snape's true character, and where his allegiance lay.

In roughly 24 hours we'll know the true story of the fictional character. It should be interesting.

You Have To Exhale Sometime, Kid!

Now for someone really Harry... er... hairy!

Anyone who know's Harry Potter knows hairy Hagrid, the Hogwart's Game Keeper. I've been listening to the books on tape in preparation for the last book in the series... "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and personally, I think the Prophecy that predicts that Harry is going to kill Voldemort is wrong.

My prediction is that Hagrid is going to pop Lord Voldemort like a zit. Hagrid's awesome!

Toon Club: Dr. Seuss

Over at Toon Club, the topic is Dr. Seuss. I wanted to experiment and see what I could come up with. Drawing inspiration from Seuss' own creative genius, this is it. I want to call it a "Seussian Dog", but it could be a number of things. The imagination truly has no limits.

Smurf-Thing!

Over at Toon Club, the topic is Smurf. Not my choice of topic, so I made it more fun for me and mixed it up a bit with more of what is fun.

Apologies for not posting in a very l0ng time. I'll try not to be such a slacker in the future.

Tagged! I'm it! (Sketch Dump!)

Mel Milton, fantastic artist and all around good guy, 'Tagged' me. So I guess that means I'm it. As it, I am morally constrained to create 7 sketches (any topic of my choosing) and post them on my blog.

I'm not sure if posting an old sketch is cheating or not, but here are 6 original (drawn last night), and one from my sketchbook of yesteryear.

Thanks for stopping by.
Comments are always welcome.

700 Hoboes: Pickled Noggin Nettles

This is my submission for The 700 Hoboes Project . I've known about the project for a while now, but suddenly got an itch and had to scratch it.

This is "Pickled Noggin Nettles" (#469). He gets nervous as Midnight approaches and the other hoboes get 'snacky'.

Spider-Man Guy™

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a bug! Yes folks, Spidey's gone stick man.

Walter Matthau

Here's a little something I did for my portfolio while trying to get into the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio. I don't generally do portrait work, but this worked out okay.

Toon Club: Super Grover to the Rescue!

You can imagine Bert's dismay when he can't find his bottle cap collection and Super Grover comes to his aid. Bert will recover-- he always does.

Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman

As a kid, Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman, always cracked me up. Their adventures going through time in the WABAC machine were both amusing and educational. I think. Actually, I don't remember learning anything pertinent, just laughing my head off.
Who says learning can't be fun?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone. Thanks for stopping by.

The Chandler Family

Sketch Dump

Toon Club 3000 A.D.

In the year 3000 we'll be invaded by aliens-- but nobody will be aware of it because of the ingenious disquises they use to hide their true identity.

This man will run for, and get, the U. S. Presidency.

Toon Club: Frog Prince

Inspired by the works of Bryan Beach (who is also a member of Toon Club) whose amazing illustrations are created in a program known (oddly enough) as Illustrator, I decided to do a little experiment (something I'm utterly opposed to doing normally). The topic at Toon Club is Frog Prince, and I figured I'd take a stab at creating a frog in Illustrator. This is the result.

I confess I've had enough experience using the program not to hurt myself in the attempt, but not enough to make a living at it. I've got a long way to go before I'm 'good' at it, but I thought the only way to get better is to try. So here's my attempt. Enjoy!

Toon Club: 80's Video Games

As a kid one of my favorite arcade games was Joust. I spent way too many quaters in that game and got pretty good at it. I never quite got the score that's illustrated, but I was better than most of my friends.

Somehow flying around on an ostrich jousting with guys riding vultures seemed cool-- probably since ostrich's are flightless. Go figure.

Toon Club: Imaginary Friend

Over at Toon Club, the topic this past week was Imaginary Friend. I admit I didn't have an imaginary friend growing up, but always drew funny critters and characters that I though would make good friends if they took on a life of their own. Confronted with the topic I though what my Imaginary Friend would look like if I'd had one. After a few sketches Stillson emerged. He gets startled easily, one of his defining and endearing qualities.

Mr. Prickles was one of the "imaginary" sketches I drew prior to Stillson. I liked the head & mouth shape, and went another direction with the body-- and put clothes on him. Cheryl Spears (from my high school days) would be proud of me. She was always telling me to put clothes on my characters. Nobody tells me to do that anymore. What does that say about our society? Probably nothing... just posing the question.

Cordelia's Corner

On Friday Cordelia's Corner will be featured at the WTHRA toy trade show. The trade show will be held March 10-13 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. The hope is that this will give them lots of opportunities to show off their line of products and make contacts. As part of their advertising campaign they've hired me to make a logo and clean up some photographs of girls wearing their dresses. Below is a sampling of what I've been doing for them. In each of these images, I had to do some serious work in Photoshop to get them where they are. Some of the many things I've been doing to these photos includes tearing up sidewalks and planting sod, planting and watering flowers to brighten up the photos, and tearing out the sides of houses and putting up brick where windows used to be. It's hard work being an artist. I should have been a doctor like my mother wanted.

My wife, Deborah, and her sister Rebecca Blake are in the business of designing and making dress up clothes for young girls ages 4-8. The idea to make dress ups originated when the two sisters would get dress up clothes for their girls only to have the dress-ups fall apart in the washing machine after only a few uses. Cordelia's Corner dress ups are mostly machine washable, and are durable enough that most of the dress ups will be worn by their sisters, or cousins after they're through with them. This is why the companies slogan is "Quality products for enthusiastic play". The fact that they're gorgeous, and that the girls love dressing up in them is just a perk.

For more information you can look them up at their website at www.cordeliascorner.com.

Cordelia's Corner. (Click on "Cordelia's Corner" to go to their website and see their amazing line of girls dress-ups.)

Good luck in California ladies. Wow 'em!

Toon Club: Cartoon Villains

Over at Toon Club the topic is Cartoon Villains. I chose Mojo Jojo for my villain-- though my first choice would have been Mad Madam Mim from The Sword and the Stone-- she makes me laugh hard. But Mojo Jojo is my favorite angry green monkey with a turban-- so I went with him.

Mojo Jojo is a character created by the artists at Cartoon Network and is property of the Cartoon Network. TM & © 2007 Cartoon Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

Toon Club: Tortoise vs. Hare

Could this be the real reason the rabbit 'slept' long enough for the Tortoise to cross the finish line? Kids don't try this at home.

I'd also like to tell my wife thank you for her years of devotion, trust, and tender loving support. I love you more than words can express. You're my best friend, and for that I'll thank you every day for the rest of my life.
Happy Anniversary Sweetheart.

Toon Club: Love

When I think about love I instantly think, God, Family, and Country. But since there are standards to be kept, I went with my next set of favorites-- drawing critters (an alien in this case) and eating junk food (ice cream represented here-- though in retrospect maybe I should have drawn a Nestle Tollhouse Cookie... Yummmmm).

More Aliens

Still more sketches.
They live on a planet where the only vegetable is brussle sprouts. Thus the expression, or lack thereof.

Scroll down to see more critters simular to these. Thanks for stopping by.

Toon Club: Duck

Why is it Mad Scientists have unnattractive servants? Perhaps they're more trustworthy. Maybe it's a work ethic thing. At any rate, over at Toon Club, the topic is Duck. Here's my post... for what it's worth.

Aliens

I'm in one of my
"sketching aliens" modes. Hope you don't mind too much, cause I'm having a blast.

Happy New Year everyone!

Drop the Cookie!

I always get sentimental around the holidays, but most especially at Christmas time. So without further distraction I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

This is a piece I made back in 2004, but thought it was appropriate since I hadn't posted it before now, and it's Christmas. 'Nuff said.

I hope your holidays are warm and bright and full of the happiness of the season. And... God bless us everyone!

Action Stickmen™

Hey guys, I need to bounce this off you, pick your brains.

These characters are called "Action Stickmen™" and I'm in the process of creating a marketable product line; including, but not limited to: A graphic novel, t-shirts (one's already available on my Zazzle site), greeting cards, and a feature-length movie (Tom Hanks will be doing the voice of Chrome-Man). I'm kidding about the movie.

The Trademark for the Action Stickmen, and the copy rights to the characters, were just recently purchased, and now that I legally own them, I need to DO something with them.

Feedback is desireable. Any advice? Thoughts on who should my Target Market be?

I thought that my most likely target market would be a younger-teen audience, and possibly a slightly older audience as well (up to 40 year old men who live in their mother's basements). Your thoughts please...

(The link to my Zazzle Gallery is just there in the right-hand column.)

Mer-accountant

The Toon Club topic this week is Mermaid. Okay technically this is a Merman, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go against the grain, and do something unexpected, and I hope, on some level, amusing.

This is the side of the legendary creatures you don't often see, the brains that make Mermish society run smoothly.

Thanks for coming 'round!

Tiki

The new topic over at Toon Club is "Tiki". This 'sketch' is a bit non-traditional, but it was fun working it out. Thanks for stopping by!

Gronk Discovers Irony

Gronk, tired of nearly being eaten by the large predators he's been hunting decides to try smaller less intimidating animal life, and discovers irony.

Over at Toon Club the topic is "A Day in the Life of a Caveman". We've been kind've slacking lately as far as contributing to the weekly sketch, and Adrian threatened to kill a baby seal if we didn't get our sketches done this week. So, in order to save a baby seal from an untimely death, I've done this sketch. I wanted to color it, and still hope to get around to it, but here's my sketch at any rate. Things have been sort've crazy lately. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my stuff.

Toon Club: The Living Dead

Philip the young fashion-conscious zombie cut down in his prime.

The topic over at Toon Club is The Living Dead. Not sure why Philip came into being but after I drew his nails and considered what color he was going to be, I thought if he was a fashion-conscious zombie he'd be having fits at the condition he'd gotten into since the 'accident'.

More Critters

Sorry for not posting in a while. Hope all's well for everyone.

These are some critters I made a few years back and never got around to coloring them.

Thanks to everyone for visiting.

Un-paid Advertizing

It's true... I've jumped on the bandwagon.
A few of my friends over at Toon Club have started on-line stores through Zazzle. Of course I was so impressed by the stuff the guys came up with, I decided to start my own line of T-shirts and Mugs.

You can find me at:
http://www.zazzle.com/ken_chandler

The ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed on my t-shirts and mugs may or may not be my own... but I'll never admit it.