12/23/24

 

NOTES: The first thing I did for this special was cast Santa. During Christmas of 2023, I didn't know if there was even a Santa figurine, so I did what anyone would do: turn to Facebook for help. A kind fellow pointed me toward such a figure from Big Bad Toy Store, a classical Caucasian Santa who looked kinda like Jerry Garcia, and which turned out to be out of stock. So I went back and found another one that was in stock, and bought it without looking at it properly.

The figure arrived at my house a few weeks later, and, to my surprise, Santa turned out to be African-American. This made the perfectionist in me panic just a little, as I wanted my photobook to hew as close to the original as possible. After the panic subsided, I took another look at him and reflected that he looked an awful lot like James Earl Jones, and then said, "Oh, well, in this version of it, they managed to get him as Santa." 

The biggest surprise was how this Santa informed the writing, as you will see.