Hello! In response to ~unprecedented levels of demand~ for print versions of Watson's Sketchbook Volume 1, I'm doing another print run, and will be opening preorders here on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, at 9:00am PST/12:00 noon EST/5:00pm GMT.
DETAILS:
-This run is much larger than the two previous ones, but still limited, so being prompt is a good idea. Last time it sold out in 2 minutes, I do not think that will happen this time, but...early bird, etc.
-They will take a bit longer to arrive than previous orders, but should arrive for everyone by the end of January 2025, print- and shipping-gods willing. Thanks in advance for your patience, as I'm working with a small press printer and a small local distributor.
-If your address changes before the book ships, you can always send a message to the shop to update it. In general, any messages or questions about shipping should be sent there rather than by reaching out to me on here.
-I'm really hoping this run is large enough so that everyone who wants one can get it! Thank you always for your support of this ridiculous project that has consumed my life (positive) and for your support of independent art and queer art!
THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY part 3 - read part 1 and part 2 first! What's a detective to do when his perceived invulnerability is tied to his unknowability, etc etc
Some lines are recontextualized from the (frankly wild) opening of THE CREEPING MAN - "He was a man of habits, narrow and concentrated habits, and I had become one of them. As an institution I was like the violin, the shag tobacco, the old black pipe, the index books, and others perhaps less excusable."
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA part 1 - the opening to this story is SO MUCH and almost all of these lines are directly pulled from it. I truly cannot fathom a heterosexual explanation for being this weird and tense with your best friend because he got married.
I based the King of Bohemia's design directly on Sidney Paget's goofy ass drawing of him:
Doodles for THE ADVENTURE OF THE YELLOW FACE (a title which has NOT aged particularly well but is referring to a weird wax mask) - in which Holmes fails to both come up with the correct solution AND to make a confession to his friend.
I was seized with a fervor and could not rest until I illustrated one of my favorite scenes from Sherlock Holmes: the Adventure of the Devil's Foot. While Holmes and Watson take a holiday in the Cornish countryside for Holmes's health, multiple people in the nearby village are found driven mad or dead from horror. Holmes deduces a substance that was burned in their presence is to blame. With a bit of the mysterious powder and a gas lamp in hand, he proposes an experiment to Watson...
content warning for drug use!
I'm not sure if it's supported by the canon but in my mind this is the first time Holmes ever apologies to Watson and he is so overcome with emotion that he immediately makes it weird
Text under the cut:
"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison still remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may be the same distance from the poison and face to face. The door we will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other and to bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder--or what remains of it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let us sit down and await developments."
They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. The turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap. I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It was that vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the glorious sunshine which was bursting its way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape until peace and reason had returned, and we were sitting upon the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience which we had undergone.
"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, "I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry."
"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so much of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you."
He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein which was his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid observer would certainly declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined that the effect could be so sudden and so severe." He dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm's length, he threw it among a bank of brambles. "We must give the room a little time to clear. I take it, Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how these tragedies were produced?"
- Sherlock Holmes, the Adventure of the Three Garridebs
Full text and individual pages under cut:
In an instant he had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes’s pistol came down on the man’s head. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.
“You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”
It was worth a wound–it was worth many wounds–to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
“It’s nothing, Holmes. It’s a mere scratch.”
He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.
“You are right,” he cried with an immense sigh of relief. “It is quite superficial.” His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. “By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?”
I was listening to a Sherlock Holmes audiobook with automatically generated subtitles and it uhhh got a little bit confused over a particular name.
Was this a productive use of my Sunday afternoon? Questionable.
Did I have fun? Definitely.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW CUT
Holmes is sat in his chair in his rooms in Baker Street. Dr Watson looks at him in surprise
Watson: I don't believe it, Holmes. You say you have a brother who has greater intelligence than you?
Holmes: Oh indeed, Watson. My brother Minecraft Holmes possesses a far greater faculty for observation and deduction than I. He simply uses it in his own esoteric interest. If we visit him at his club in Pall Mall, I can show you.
Somewhere in Pall Mall...
Holmes and Watson enter a room where the 'absolutely corpulent' figure of Holmes' brother is standing over a large machine with numerous cams and wheels.
Sherlock: My dear Minecraft!
Watson: (to Holmes) I say! What is that incredible machine
Minecraft: Sherlock, old boy! You've come at an excellent moment.
Sherlock: (to Watson) It is a computational device, inspired by Babbage's analytical engine. With it, Minecraft can perform calculations beyond the capability of the human mind.
Watson: What kinds of things does he calculate?
Minecraft: Apparently there is an ocean monument within 120 blocks of my spawn point. If can only find some diamond to mine obsidian and create a Nether Portal, I can aquire a blaze rod and some Netherwart to make an underwather breathing potion.
Holmes and Watson stare at him - Watson bewildered, Holmes resigned.
Hey fellas, is it gay for it to be worth a wound - worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind your Best Buddy's™ cold mask? Is it gay to catch a glimpse of the great heart as well as of a great brain, the culmination of all your years of humble but single-minded service?
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
kaledo-art
germansingergirl
ellievsbear
vaporwave
