The double-spread spread opening for "The Little Mermaid." I decided to re-start the illustrations for Prince, a series of genderbend princess stories. I want my plots to follow the original fairy tales, but the personalities of the characters and physical designs have Disney references (see the princess's hair for one).  

Our "mermaid" here, much like Disney's Ariel, is artsy and romantic, so his brothers consider him a wimp. He also has low physical self-esteem. You would, too if you had tentacles. He considers the fantastic human world he knows nothing about (and the pretty women found on its mastheads) might solve his problems of loneliness. He even cuts his tongue out and sews his mouth shut, trading his gift of poetry to the sea king, to escape. (Too bad it won't work out.) Mostly, I wanted to keep the theme of "not belonging in either world."