Guy’s dream car

Ordering a cartoon drawing of a custom car seemed, at first, nothing out of the ordinary. It was anything but.

In fact, interest in the 1967 Shelby GT 500 was bolstered by the Nicholas Cage film “Gone In 60 Seconds.” The customer even asked for the name “Eleanor” to display somewhere in the drawing. It wasn’t until more email conversations that I learned how special this request would be.

The customer was ordering the car drawing for a friend who was in the final stages of some virulent form of cancer and was not expected to be with us for much longer. The inflicted man, Guy, was a huge car buff and was restoring a 1967 GT 500 to look like the car used in the movie. It had become quite apparent that the restoration would never be completed on time.

This drawing was to be a kind of consolation gift; substituting for the real thing. Needless to say, I was uncompromising in my effort to make it worthy of the occasion. I have never worked so hard on a drawing in my life and I still can’t help but feel that it could have been better.

I submitted the final scanned image for approval and Guy’s friend assured me that he would love it. I mailed the original yesterday. I haven’t slept well since.

I asked him to notify me after Guy receives his gift to know, once and for all, if my work met his expectations; it came even remotely close to his dream.

I hope Guy gets a cool place in the sky, where there are endless miles of beautiful paved roads and he can spend all eternity cruising the heavenly roads in his perfectly restored, ultra-bitchin ‘1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang.