What Day Is It?


The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

I'm tempted to forgo the explanation of this booksketch, for comedic effect. An old man hurdling a baby carriage? Vat in ze vurld?

Well, I can't do that to you. The old man above is Professor de Worms, a German professor as old as death and perpetually on his last legs. He is one of seven individuals on a anarchist council-of-sorts, one individual for each day of the week. The main character in the novel, Syme, was thrust into the council as part of an undercover sting set to bust the anarchist and their leader, Sunday. Syme ends up being Thursday, hence the title of the book.

Each of the council members is very peculiar in his own way. Professor de Worms appears to be always on the brink of death. Syme was very surprised to find the Prof tailing him one day after a council meeting. Try as he might, Syme could not shake the Prof. Now, there was no baby-jumping in the novel; I just threw that in there to make myself laugh, but the chase did involve some pretty strenuous physical activity, which perplexed and unsettled Syme as much as it did myself.

I can't tell you the reason for the sudden instillation of life into the old coot, but I will say that that Chesterton is an amazing author, haha. This book has plenty of fun twists.

About the illustration:
Originally inked with Prismacolor pens and then colored in Photoshop.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like this! It makes me want to read the book (I do like his poems and short fiction & essays), but it also reminds me a little of the white rabbit - the fixed and incongruous urgency perhaps.

Burt said...

Thanks for the comment! Haha, yes, there definitely was an urgent reason for de Worms following Syme! An extremely old white rabbit.