I was casting about for an idea for my first illo for this Calendar. I had just seen The Matrix on a rental tape a few months earlier (I mostly see movies this way). When I thought of that famous promo poster, a bunch of puns and transpositions came to mind one after another to the point where I just had to do this thing (though, Touma as Cypher is a bit of a stretch...).

Having done a Flash piece, I had to do a Classic one (after all, the original "movies" Calendar was for that version). I figured a scary movie would be good, but I wondered what there could be in those dark woods that would really frighten those two... and, of course, I needed some menacing figures in the distance. So I ended up with a three-way crossover...

I was wondering how many people who looked at this Calendar would even have seen this movie. In a nutshell, Michael Douglas plays a very successful, hard-hearted and bored investment broker. His ne'er-do-well brother gets him a birthday present from something called Consumer Recreation Services, which, for a price, guarantees that the client will receive an interesting 'life experience'. In this case, the 'experience' is disorienting and life-threatening (before long, you cringe every time you see anything with the initials C.R.S.); but is it all just a game or a plot to kill wealthy customers for their money?

Somehow, I found myself reminded of 'Mysterious High School Seventeen' and a certain purple-haired prankster...

(and, yeah, I really blew the perspective on one of those skyscrapers -- just keep telling yourself, "It's only a cartoon...")

For balance, I thought I'd do another pic with the Classic Pair, but by the end of the year, I felt that the original Angels had gotten passed over completely. What to do? Well, it wouldn't be a Mission: Impossible episode without somebody peeling off a latex mask...