Engineering on Friday ‘toon: Walking the Chips

An illustration from my non-illustrated book.

I pitched illustrating my book, Essential 555 IC, but my editor at the time didn’t like the idea for some reason.

I had drawn quite a few ideas, including a cover. I presented the samples and talked them up. All for not, I’m afraid. Zero drawing inside the book.

But at least I can share them here. This drawing I had planned for inside the book somewhere. 

The idea here is simple: "controlling ICs can be a struggle sometimes. But you can do it by learning the tricks." 

I think it would have been cool to pack the book with cartoons...

My editor had another problem with my book; one of my projects wasn’t designed properly, in his opinion. It was my multi-button full-note synthesizer. If you get my book, you’ll see it isn’t there. The last project is a single-note synth, where I allude to multi-button coming next. It abruptly ends like a canceled TV show.

Here was the issue. I made the synth where the buttons went from left to right. Higher-pitched notes on the left to lower-pitched notes on the right. My editor said, ‘It isn’t like a piano, it has to go from low to high pitch.’ Or something to that effect. So, I painstakingly moved everything around to be just like he said. Low on the left, high on the right. But he said, ‘It still isn’t right.’ But never explained why, and cut the project. Like Mr. Burns telling Mattingly to shave those sideburns.

I had made a promotional video about this full-synth before he cut it. I showed it to him, but he still didn’t add it back in. 

I’ve never, EVER, posted this video online… but here it is. Hope you like it. If you skip ahead to after the credits, you can see the camera operator. My son. Glad I left that in. What a time capsule.

I did sneak one drawing into my book, in the dedication section. Although I wanted it to fill the page, they printed it all small. At least it’s there! My first toon published on paper!

I wish I could hand-draw something in every book sold. One of my favorite artists did something like that recently. He drew the exact same drawing over and over in who knows how many books. Maybe I should draw my “me” character holding up an extra project schematic not in the book? Maybe that full-synth?

What do you think? Chime in the poll below.

See the rest of my cartoons in the Engineering on Friday comic gallery.