This cat and crow cartoon was a joke I made to cover up my inability to draw a superhero — but then it became a reality.

I was asked by an environmentally conscious company to draw a superhero character to represent their protect-the-Earth initiative. I immediately thought about an electrical engineering student in college (because EEs are heroes) who can transform to save certain elements of nature depending on the need of the day: fire, Earth, water, and air.

In my mind, the character would embody the element. I loved the idea that their hair would reflect the given element. As I was daydreaming about this super Earth hero, the company told me they needed my pitch NOW!

So, I drew this mock-up as fast as I could. Because I didn’t have time to make an Earth background, I dropped my figures on this low-res Earth pic. I sent it off talking about the character’s background as a maker/engineer. All of this other fictitious history. Then said, “Or maybe I’ll just draw a kooky animal holding an Arduino or something. Ha ha!”

Silence…

I figured they might not like it. It was the second superhero I ever drew. So, while they were pontificating on my pitch, I drew the main image of the Cat & Crow, which, in my opinion, was a bit of a concept piece, too. I just liked the idea of a split-tail cat and a crow with one red tailfeather going around doing Earth cleanup. The cat and crow install a trail camera to watch for poachers, illegal garbage dumping, and wildlife destruction.

They came back to me saying this hero shouldn’t be hovering over the planet, but down on the ground getting involved. A few on the committee thought it wasn’t resonating with the idea of an engineer turned environmental hero. Yadda yadda. I interjected the email exchange with this pic, and they loved it.

Ultimately, the Earth cleanup campaign as planned was canceled. But I still had these kooky animals fighting disasters.

I ended up drawing a few more adventures with the Cat & Crow, but I’ll save that for another week.

What do you think about either concept for an environmentally concious superhero"? Add your comments below; follow this link.

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