Otto has been making appearances in my sketchbooks for a long time. Maybe twenty years, maybe more. I have always loved the industrial speakers that you used to get to hang on your car window when you went to a drive-in theater. Many of the drive-ins around Seattle like Puget Park, the Thunderbird or, my favorite, the Samish Twin in Bellingham had these speakers that looked like they could be a robot. Because in my mind I always wanted Otto to be a librarian even before I had a job for him, I used to try and give him an owl-like appearance, although I love the speaker grill face the best of all.

It’s nice to see Otto pop up in the panels of Galactopera at last. I think his journey is going to be fun.