Apparently, a few illustrations have been either banned or removed from the Flickr set. This includes all of my drawings, but most notably, all of the wonderful drawings by illustrator Ape Lad were removed from the Flickr set. This comes on the heels of a Boing Boing story from earlier in the week that the 700 hoboes project had reached 100 drawings. Not only that, but Ape Lad's drawings were being used to illustrate the stories on BB and on Drawn! Talk about a slap in the face.
Now, I understand that the original call to action by Boing Boing was for 700 different illustrators to draw one hobo each. But come on now. Would it really be a terrible thing to see more than one version of the same hobo? Would it be awful for one illustrator to draw more than one hobo? Would the world be worse off if there were two or possibly three versions of Crane T. Eyebrow Smeller? I think not. In fact, I think it would be rather cool to see different interpretations. IMHO, it makes the set better and more interesting than it already is.
So I think I'll try drawing one more and see if shows up in the set. I've been promised by the Flickr staff that my drawings are again public. In any event, Ape Lad has started his own group to showcase all of his phenomenal hobo drawings. And some other artists are joining this renegade "bum group" as well. As fas as I know, this is the only place where you can see the missing Hobo drawings.
Check out the group here. And in the spirit of the holiday, let's give thanks that you can still see the drawings on the net. For now.
UPDATE: Looks like BB has taken notice of this travesty as well.
UPDATE #2: Here's a clever one -- take a photo of your hobo and upload it to Flckr! Brilliant!
UPDATE #3: We encourage everyone interested in contributing to the 700 Hoboes Project join the Flickr 700 Hoboes Group. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the other hobo illustrations that aren't NIPSAed on Flickr. But with any luck, this project will go on much longer than the original 700 expectation.
