Coming up with a name for the new feature was difficult.  Geoff the Ref was chosen because Ref rhymes with Geoff, and has a sports analogy.  You want to come up with something that has your name in it, but I felt I had exhausted all the usefulness out of my first name.  I then started thinking of things that start with the letter “W,” when “World” hit me.  Whimsies was another candidate, though I cringe at that thought.  “World” has a sort of weight to it that makes me think of “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”  My editor’s positive reaction sealed the deal.

 

I wanted to have some fun with this one, and it would show off just how much I had improved my style.  I had thought that the layout of each page would be similar to the “Geoff the Ref” space with a small icon on the upper left hand side.  Since the space bore my name, I would have to draw myself in front of a drawing desk with my lamp and all the tools of my trade.  The globe spinning was another natural fit, and took me two years to fully pull off with a basketball in real life.  And yes, I truly am left handed.

 

The version they put on the site was cropped to fit a little square, so you lose a lot of the goodies on the bottom half of the cartoon, mostly the idea bucket and the sports gear.  I especially like that my desk is braced at the correct angle by a hockey stick.