The ridiculousness of this character makes her very difficult to draw in any kind of serious light, but Jill Thompson certainly make an incredible attempt. Her persona has always been taken cutesy and outrageously, which is why her comic is largely entertaining. This cover actually relates her to that from which her powers arise, squirrels. The whole image is drawn quite realistically with a very well painted tree and birds in actual flight. Stealing from a bird feeder maybe one of the features of a Squirrel’s life that we all recognise so Thompson has Doreen doing just that, with the aid of her ward Tippy-Toe (the one with a bow). Not only is she drawn as a young woman but her clothes are creatively squirrel-esque with brown colouring and fur lining. I even like how her squirrel ears are a prop too and her bushy tail is suitably huge and cumbersome, as it flops behind her. The mirroring of her posture to Tippy-Toe’s completes the squirrel analogy and even her hand motions are similar to her sidekicks. I particularly like the use of her legs in order to hang down, as opposed to climbing across. As she warns off the birds in pursuit of nuts, we take a look at the lovely blues and greens of a presumed park environment and sit in wonder at a beautiful cover of a girl who actually may be a squirrel.
House Of Flying Scalpels 