One of the challenges of this series has been matching the art with the tone of the tales. One way I’ve done that has been collaborating with other artists, but funds and opportunities for that are limited. The tales involving “Sir” have been some of the biggest stretches for me, since this kind of gritty style doesn’t play to my instincts.

The title of this piece is a reference to the 1960s Sidney Poitier movie, and the title lettering is lifted from it. I haven’t watched the whole film, but it’s… not like this. Even so, the title has always seemed a little creepy to me, probably because of the theme song, which was a #1 hit back in the day. Poitier’s “Sir” is a strict teacher who pushes his English juvenile-delinquent students to take their education seriously. The song is written from the perspective of one the girls, who croons things such as “how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?” I assume there was no implication in the movie that he was sexually grooming this girl, but to my ears the song sure as hell sounds like it! Yikes. Which may be why I thought of it in the context of this piece.