All right, the producer of NPR’s Morning Edition got in touch with me on twitter and asked me to draw their hosts in the vein of my previous drawings. Cue my standard introduction for this feature:

As a comic book artist, I listen to a lot of podcasts while I draw. I can’t help but build a mental picture of the radio personalities I listen to, so I’m going to illustrate and examine this process- what did they look like in my head, and how did my perception of them change once I knew what they looked like?

I listened to the show once, and drew five of the hosts. I’d never heard of the show or any of the hosts before, so I sketched them as I was listening. Then, I looked up their photographs on the internet and sketched quick portraits of the real people, as a point of comparison. So: very fast work, based on snap judgements! Let’s see what happened.

I’m trying to place the actress the imagined woman on the left looks like. A very distorted Joan Cusack, maybe? Whoever she is, she’s far more severe and unapproachable-looking than the real Linda Wertheimer. Linda’s voice exudes a professionalism and confidence. I wonder why I made her look like such a bad person?

Self-realisation: I’m probably a secret misogynist.

Steve Inskeep, in reality, is far more… DYNAMIC-looking than the guy I imagined. I’m from Britain. It’s a pretty different world! Over here we don’t usually get dudes who look like Wall Street traders or car salesmen reading the news, so I guess it’s natural that I imagined this guy who looks like a kindly uncle, as comfortable a presence as an old pair of slippers.

Self-realisation: I’m British. It seems strange, too, that I imagined Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, this beautiful and professional-looking woman to look like a slightly batty community librarian. Where do these character types from? What caused me to socially debase this woman so thoroughly- why did my imagination take away the status and respect she’s worked so hard for all her life?

Self-realisation: I’m also a secret racist. Jeff Brady, then. Something in this man’s voice made me imagine him to be a lot younger than he is. That… is perhaps flattering, to a gentleman of advanced years! My mental image of the guy is possibly not so flattering. I’d have to listen to the show again to figure out exactly what it was in Jeff’s voice that made me imagine this albino ghoul of man, who one can only imagine holed up in his mother’s attic, stalking around at odd hours eating slimy yoghurt from a brass receptacle.

Self-realisation: I need to move out of my mother’s attic. Finally, what happened here? On the right, there’s venerable and golden-voiced broadcaster Corey Flintoff- but on the left, what a hunk. But no surprise, this time. Corey Flintoff’s voice is masculine. This man gets laid. Fact. You could stick a tank of lab rats on top of the speaker and after Corey Flintoff had finished speaking, they’d all be pregnant.

Self-realisation: I wish I was Corey Flintoff.

Hey, if you liked this, I’m @harveyjamestm on twitter. If I drew you, please feel totally free to use my image for whatever you like. See you later!