Writer: Holly G! (Holly Golightly)*
Pencils: Holly G!*
Inking: Jim Amash*
Lettering: Bill Yoshida*
Coloring: Stephanie Vozzo*
Original Publication: Cheryl Blossom, No. 37
Cover Date: March, 2001
Length: 5 pages
*Only the lead story in the issue is credited. I assume the credits apply to all of the stories.
As of this writing, this issue is not available digitally, although the story itself probably is, due to reprints in more recent digests. For this review, I’m looking at my original copy of this issue that I bought in 2000.
Cheryl (who has blue eyes in this story) and her mother are at an art gallery. Cheryl is excited. She can’t believe her mom’s gotten “the famous groovy artist” Ms. H. to paint Cheryl’s portrait. Penelope says it wasn’t easy. Ms. H. is very busy. Penelope had to pull a lot of strings but says it’ll be worth it. Ms. H. only paints rock musicians and movie stars. To Cheryl, no other artist, except Ms. H., could capture Cheryl’s “uniqueness”. Among Ms. H.’s portrait subjects is Chrissy A.. Cheryl’s camo-outfit is by Angela Gong of Canada.
Ms. H. (a young woman with brown hair in pigtails, except for light blonde bangs) arrives to find “Ms. B” and “her oh so groovy daughter, C.B.”. Again with the “groovy”. Cheryl says it’s such a great honor to have her paint her portrait (take that as you will). Ms. H. is wowed by Cheryl’s look and compliments her “excellent” hair. She says this is gonna be fun. Penelope asks if there’s anything that Cheryl needs to do to prepare for the painting session. Ms. H. (who has brown eyes) tells Cheryl to pick out her outfit and do her hair and make-up and show up at her studio at 10 A.M., so they can start.
That evening, in her bedroom, Cheryl puts on an outfit (groovy outfit by Jill Fogel of Bronx, New York) and looks at herself in the mirror. Sugar, sitting on Cheryl’s bed, looks on in confusion.
She tries on various outfits, then talks to Sugar about her difficult decision. Sugar is confused. Cheryl sits on her bed. It’s 11:00 PM. We get a nice view of the outdoors in the window behind Cheryl: hills and trees – plus a waning crescent moon in the night sky. Realizing it’s getting late, Cheryl decides she better pick something.
The next morning, Cheryl and Sugar arrive at Ms. H.’s studio. Cheryl is wearing a stylish all-white safari outfit, and Sugar is wearing a matching white safari hat. That’s cute. Ms. H., for whatever reason, thinks Cheryl’s outfit looks like it’s from the ’70s – but then compares it to the Madonna knockoff. What? Cheryl says it was tough making up her mind, but this is her hottest new outfit.
Ms. H. says this is going to be fabulous and praises Sugar’s look.
The next day, though, Cheryl shows up in a completely different outfit (Sugar is wearing a red bowtie). Ms. H. asks about the “Western glam outfit”. Oh, is that what it was supposed to be? This is Cheryl’s “youthful charm” outfit. Ms. H. tells the “school gal” that she looks “super” and wipes away her work.
Unfortunately, as the days go by, Cheryl has changed five times, pissing Ms. H. off. Cheryl says the portrait “will probably hang in the Louvre“, so Ms. H. agrees to give it another go.
Ms. H. delivers Cheryl’s portrait to the mansion (Cheryl is wearing yet another outfit in it). Penelope thanks her. An exhausted Ms. H. says she stayed up all night, but it’s finished at last. Cheryl asks about going back to the Western glam look. Ms. H. flips her shit and makes Cheryl wear the portrait, destroying it. An angry Cheryl says artists can be so temperamental. Ms. H. runs away, screaming.
This story was pretty funny. Not much else to say.
Extras
After the story are 2 pages of Cheryl fan art with 7 named contributions and 6 honorable mentions – as well as an apology for not having the room to print everybody’s work. There’s no address given to send further submissions, so it looks like they used two pages in this final issue to print as much of the already received fan art as they could.
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