When I was a kid, the Madeline series by Ludwig Bemelmans was a favorite. I adored the books.

Recently, when I was looking at a Facebook post by the Society of Illustrators, I saw they were inducting Bemelmans into the 2012 Hall of Fame.

It got me thinking of how the premise would totally work with a Harry Potter theme. The idea rolled around my brain for a while and I finally succumbed to the temptation to do this cartoon.

It was interesting to work in a style slightly like Bemelmans; drawing all in loose brush strokes with the simple mostly flat colors. Of course, he also had color plates in the books with the addition of pastel and pencil, but I like the simple images more. I am working on a couple books with fairly complex illustrations, so this was a great palette cleanser.

So the result is this homage. Serendipitously, while I worked on this yesterday the last Harry Potter movie was on HBO. There is something satisfying in the end where all the main characters stand up against the death eaters in a big way. That kind of explains how I ended this little comic. Although one could say it is merely just another case of me ending a story by blowing things up; it just worked out especially well in this case.

I should note that I did not get to enjoy Harry Potter when I was young. I know I would have absolutely loved it since I was a fantasy addict. As an adult, the series has been a wonderful experience, but there is something about reading something like that as a kid that is tough to duplicate.