Dr. Beast, Ph.D.

[Text by Amberle Ferrian]

"Dr. Beast, Ph.D." (beastphd.gif, 675x760x2, 15347 bytes) is the twentieth in a continuing series of fine Disney fanart drawings by Bob Ito <ito@[...]> and the fifth in the so-called "Bucketland Cards" series of handmade greeting cards, "when you're too cheap to buy a card." :-)

"... If he could learn to finish his experiments and his dissertation before his 21st semester, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to stay a grad student for all time..."

Ask near any grad student what it's like, and he or she will probably tell you that it's not dissimilar to what Disney's Beast (as in BEAUTY AND THE...) went through. After four years of college, you could have had any job you desired (neglecting things like recessions for the moment :-), but you were masochistic, brain-dead, and unwise. Then one day, a haggard professor came up to you and offered you a singular stipend in return for shelter from the Real World (tm). But when you sneered at the offer, and turned to other thoughts, the professor melted away to reveal a powerful advisor. And as punishment, you were transformed to a lab with a hideous amount of work, and a powerful spell was placed upon you from the minute you enrolled. Ashamed of your meager wages, you concealed yourself in academia, with your office window your only mirror to the outside world....

:-)

...But, like the Beast, some grad students eventually break their spells as the years pass, and graduate! And so it was for rec.arts.disney's Future Disney Cabinet (FDC) walkaround Beast, Jeff Wilson <jdwilson@[...]>, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in theoretical chemistry on 11 May 1994. And in recognition of this achievement, a number of his net. peers on r.a.d have gotten together to take a "picture" of Beast at his commencement ceremony, in full academic regalia, with Belle proudly adjusting his doctoral hood.

This is a scan of a handmade graduation card drawn by Bob Ito and signed by him and three other r.a.d net.residents: David Cuthbert, David Uy, and myself. The image is divided into four parts as follows:

upper left:  front cover of card
upper right: inside right of card
lower left:  envelope, also custom-drawn
lower right: lower region on card back

As with all "Bucketland Cards" images, addresses and personal messages have been deleted.

Congratulations, DOCTOR Jeffrey David Wilson! (Or is that "Dr. Beast"? :-)