The Mangrove Finches of Isabela
The Mangrove Finches of Isabela tells the story of the desperate struggle for survival of one particular species of Darwin's Finch, which is restricted to two tiny spots on the largest of the Galápagos Islands.
The Charles Darwin Foundation commissioned this short comic in 2009, and distributed it to local schools.
WATCH THIS SPACE
Pending the approval of the Charles Darwin Foundation, you will soon be able to read this comic right here, or download it for free!
Behind the Scenes
When you work on commission, the client is always right, and on many occasions I have had to change my artwork according to the client's wishes. For the creative mind, censorship is sometimes hard to swallow. For this particular comic, I was asked to change the scenes showing the original helicopter used by the local scientists to the boat featured in the final version of the story. This was after I had completed the final artwork.
Lesson learned: always submit black and white drafts for client review, before doing the colouring!
Much to my dismay at the time, it was also deemed unsavoury to show the villains of the story, the rats and the Philornis fly, on the cover of the comic. To my eye, they are the stars of the show.
