My cousin Steve's birthday was coming up a month or so ago, and I wanted to do something a little special. This usually means either spending too much money, or breaking down and doing a drawing.

I chose the latter.

But to do so, it's always nice to find a good card to start with. Especially if the card's theme/look/punchline spawns an idea for the interior drawing.

So when Dear Wife and I stumbled upon this one, I knew exactly where I'd go from here. We snapped it up.

And I drew a pretty funny interior that cleverly played on the cassette tape theme, but also the idea that Old School both has its good points, and bad.

So, great. I felt like a wonderful human being for conceiving and executing a loving tribute to the anniversary of my dear cousin's birth. A stamp was bought, the letter was mailed, I sat back and awaited the plaudits.

(Yes, plaudits.)

Problem was, no plaudits were forthcoming. Dear Wife and I were distracted, having plunged headlong into a moving all our worldly goods into storage and crossing the country for a few months' sojourn in the wilds of Virginia--but still, I was bugged.

I checked in with my cousin's wife.

"Didja get the card??"

Reply was "Negatory, good buddy."

?!?!?!

I'm bummed. I'm angry. The U.S. Postal Service (howevermuch maligned by others) had never let me down.

Well, dang.

We reached Virginia (drove it, brother--three days). I checked with my cousin again.

Same reply.

I stewed.

That card + drawing was too good to let disappear in some postal vortex.

I started hunting for a replacement card.

Modernity, as we all know, has done much to "flatten" our consumer choices, wherever we are in this great nation of ours. But where greeting cards are concerned, VA. offered significantly fewer options than Californy.

It took a few weeks of dedicated searching, but I found a replacement. The exact same card.

Awesome.

And with a little elbow-grease, I recreated the original drawing (no photo reference for either--and this one was straight ink. I work without a net, often with disastrous consequences--lemme tell you, I've screwed up the first drawing and had to buy the same card again more times than I care to remember!).

And that's what you see here. Because I decided on one last triple-check before mailing the Birthday Redux, ("Oh, the embarrassment," I thought, "Were Dear Cousin to receive TWO near-identical drawings!" As a semi-pro, I know that's a no-no: much too much of a "look-behind-the-curtain" to allow a civilian...they might stop believing in my magical drawing powers).

So, I emailed my cousin Steve one last time.

"Are you really, really, really sure you didn't get that (great) birthday card I sent??"

He replied, "The one where you drew me with super-huge arms? Oh yeah, I got that. Thanks."

!!!!!

Here's the Redux version. (Kinda muffed the brachioradialis/extensor carpi radialis longus....)