Earlier in the year I went to an Indy Webcomics Group meet up to learn a bit more about the fine art of drawing.  The discussion was lead by Mike Altman, a friend and really great artist.  He talked about the business of comics but mostly about the art, and how important it is to warm-up, practice, and push yourself.  The final exercise he had the group do was drawing 20 monkeys.  Everyone, except me.  Since he knew I draw monkeys all the time he decided I needed to stretch myself.  SO after a failed attempt at llamas (I argued that I can’t tell the difference between a llama and an alpaca) we settled on raccoons. When the exercise was over and we shared our drawing, Mike commented that expected to see raccoons showing up in my comic at some time… so here they are, thanks to Mike.