When I first met Mike Norton, he was about to take over the art for Sean McKeever’s The Waiting Place, a book that really launched both of their careers (and rightfully so) with its stories of teenagers in a midwestern town.

Since then, he’s drawn all sorts of books, from the creepy horror of Closer and the gigantic robots of Jason and the Argobots (both from Oni Press) to superheroes such as Gravity, Runaways, and currently the All-New Atom.

But back in 2001, it was still all about The Waiting Place, and that’s exactly what I got in my sketchbook. An aunt of mine unabashedly drinks Boone’s Farm wine (if one can really call it wine), and every time she triumphantly holds it up (there’s a vile-looking blue one in particular that she likes) I can’t help but think of this drawing, chuckling to myself.