My Phyllis Diller cartoon!

So, about two months after my inital visit to Phyllis' house, I finally published this cartoon in the LA Times. Because, on January 4th, I got to visit Phyllis again and hang out in her studio with her. I was told by her assistant that she wasn't sure if I would get to hang out while Phyllis painted or if it'd just be a straight-up interview, 30 MINUTES TOPS!!! But luckily, Phyllis was in the mood to paint on January 4th. I took a seat on a stool and sketched her as she painted, all the while desperately trying to think of WHAT to ask her that she hasn't already been asked in her 94-going-on-95 years! I'm no Barbara Walters when it comes to interviews, and I already felt like I was impinging on her private time. I was TORN! Torn, I tell you, between just wanting to watch her in silence, and feeling like I had to get a story. But you know me, I always get my story. Phyllis was very kind, but she wasn't "on." She was painting! And I didn't want to make her work for my cartoon. That was my job. It only took about two weeks of mulling and about an entire pad of the tracing paper upon which I always do my roughs, to carve it out. These little sketchy things I do, of about 8 panels or so, they look like I just dashed them off. BUT I DON'T!!!! It may look easy. Which is good, it's supposed to. BUT IT AIN'T!