Littlest Umbrella Girl Ashcans
While That Umbrella Guy (aka TUG) has gained infamy for his coverage of the Johnny Depp trial, I first knew of him because of his presence in the comics space, more specifically due to a book known as The Case of the Littlest Umbrella. In 2019, I was still a nobody (not that different from now, but even more so then), but I was beginning to make a name for myself with a collage of fan art I was working on that featured a giant collection of indie IP's. After including TUG's character from his comic, LUG (short for 'Little Umbrella Girl"), I caught his attention, and we've had a very pleasant working relationship ever since.
Over the years I've made some art for his channel, and even threw together a one-page comic based on an idea he had during the dreaded '2020 pandemic':
Following this one-pager, TUG asked me if I'd be up for illustrating an ashcan comic to accompany his current campaign (at the time), Another Case for the Littlest Umbrella. I had just been offered Eric Weather's Battle Brick Road ashcan earlier that year, but always the glutton for stressful amounts of work, I happily accepted.
TUG's comics revolve around a fictional version of his own family. LUG is based on his oldest daughter; TUG himself is the featured protagonist; and with the birth of his youngest daughter, I was tasked with illustrating the first appearance of both his youngest fictional daughter, BUG (Baby Umbrella Girl), and his wife, MUG (Mother Umbrella Gal?). It's a big task to be charged with designing new characters for an established series when your experience in comics is a one-page short about pet disease. It was a lot of fun to work on, however, and TUG essentially gave me the freedom to illustrate the comic however I really wanted.
I'm guessing TUG was pretty happy with how it turned out because I was commissioned a couple years later to work on a second ashcan for his next campaign, Hunt the Littlest Umbrella. I've completed work on it, but there has yet to be any formal announcement of it being included, so for now I'll just share this one panel, which gives away absolutely nothing and hopefully won't get me in trouble.
