Resuming my 'sweeps month' special series, here is the artwork of another extremely talented anthroartist who I'd befriended, long before I even began collecting illustrations for my 'big black sketch book'...

Chicago-born Phillip Dana Yeh - or Phil Yeh, for short - has been drawing his characters for a long, long time, before I had the rare opportunity of first meeting him at a comic book convention in NYC in the late 1980s. By then, he had already established a reputation for his unique style of artwork, and his list of independent comic book titles - including "Theo the Dinosaur", "Frank the Unicorn", and "Patrick Rabbit". Today, Yeh is best known for his internationally recognizable character "The Winged Tiger", who has now starred in several comic books and graphic novels.

In addition to all this talent, Phil is also the co-founder of "Cartoonists Across America and the World" - an organization that enlists the aid of other artists to help promote many positive values (such as literacy, ecology, eating right, etc.). And in all this time, he has made many friends around the world (including such celebrities as actor Edward James Olmos, and the late Steve Allen).

One of Phil's usual "CAA" rituals is creating lavish murals with his characters, inviting other artists (and even folks with non-artistic talents) to join in. Said murals have been drawn and painted on many walls around the world, not to mention on other unlikely canvases - including the sides of trucks, vans, and even airplanes!

In October, 1993, I reunited with Phil at a comic book convention in Philadelphia, where he was working on a mural (to promote reading books) on both sides of a large truck. Among the other artists/convention guests/attendees who assisted him were Ken ("Space Ark") Mitchroney, Stan ("Usagi Yojimbo") Sakai, Peter ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles") Laird, and "FA" member MistyPine01. Naturally, he invited me to join in, so I drew my bobcat 'fursona' inside one of the empty spaceships on said mural, with a huge stack of books on board behind me...

In return for this gesture, Phil was kind enough to render a full-page image - in my 'big black sketch book' - of 'Patrick Rabbit' and his girlfriend 'Rachel', flying about in a spaceship of their own.

Years later, Phil and I would meet two more times in Florida - once at the Aventura Shopping Mall in Aventura (where I'd helped him paint another mural - aided by my own mother, who was quite an artist, herself), and again at the "Miami Book Fair" (where I not only helped him promote the values that "Cartoonists Across America..." represented, but I even got to walk around the 'Children's Area' in a 'Winged Tiger' fursuit for an hour!).

Phil and I still keep in touch - by 'snail-mail', E-mail, and Facebook - and (hopefully) we'll see each other again (and work on another big mural) in the not-too-distant future...

And, lest you think this is a good way to end my 'sweeps month' series, hold on to your Magic Markers - because the best is yet to come!

'Patrick Rabbit' and 'Rachel' © Phil Yeh

P.S. If any of you wish to get involved with "Cartoonists Across America and the World" (from buying some of Phil's wares, to helping promote the organization's values in your area), visit the website at http://www.wingedtiger.com/ or http://www.ideaship.com/