You know, I simply wasn't willing to drop $350 USD on those Special Delivery Pikachu promo cards last year (2020) ...but it's all good, because I can make my own Pikachu card MUHAHA!
Ok, enough of that...
This V-Mail edition of Delivery Pikachu (it's ok, I'm autistic) was drawn in what I hope is an original pose for the character (I used this lively dog photo as a reference): https://sta.sh/0165ffuzna47
Yeah, I was asked what I mean by 'stock poses': the above-linked would be an example. :3
V-Mail Pikachu's bag contains thousands of letters---he'll make sure they get to the mail plane on time, no matter the danger! :D
For those who can't or don't want to watch videos, V-Mail was a service provided by the United States Post Office for use during WWII. Concisely, letters to/from soldiers and their families were written on special forms that doubled as envelopes. These letters were then screened and photographed onto reels of film (each reel could have many hundreds of letters recorded onto it). These were then mailed and reprocessed (that is, enlarged) into individual letters that could be easily read. The purpose of this was to save on weight and space on the planes that flew mail overseas.
During this time, some pencil manufacturers developed special pencils that could be used for writing V-Mail letters. The graphite was soft and dark (like 3B or so), and some made indelible lines (said variety could be classified as 'ink pencils', not unlike the 'No-Blot' produced by Eberhard Faber). Some V-Mail pencils were engineered to be able to write in any climate, esp. for soldiers in wintertime Germany or stationed in the Arctic (yes, graphite can freeze, but it takes an incredible cold to achieve this).
EDIT: I discovered this while researching and thought it was funny,
"The patience of Army postal officers was at an end. They issued a stern edict: after St. Valentine's Day, imprints of lipstick will no longer be tolerated on V-Mail. Explained Major Kenneth H. Donnelly, postal officer of the Sixth Service Command: lipstick smears when it passes through V-mail photographic equipment, ruins the letter that bears it, and others that follow. The automatic feeder must be stopped and cleaned after every passing of 'the scourge'"
The featured pencil is a genuine V-Mail pencil made by American Pencil Co. It looks kinda plain, but it's one of the rarer and more valuable pencils in my collection, as these were produced only during a brief period within WWII after V-Mail was established (and, of course, dropped immediately after). :3
This particular model isn't an ink pencil (thank God!), and I'm not going to Siberia to test its ability to write letters in sub-zero conditions (I cannot fathom why anyone would want to), but it's still nice to have. :3
I drew Pikachu via my Wallace Zephyr, and delineated him via the V-Mail pencil (don't worry, the pencil was sharpened by a previous owner).
This V-Mail pencil has an interesting drag---it's fairly smooth, but you can feel it using a bit more power to move it across the paper. This V-Mail model isn't a speed writer, albeit the line is above average insofar as its consistency (ie, not much dotting).
The pencil's weight is middling, though I can imagine this pencil was slightly heavier when it was new, as the cedar wood it's made of has had ample time to dry.
The barrel has seven sides, making it a heptagonal (curious shape, but not unknown in the pencil world). Again, this particular model isn't an ink pencil, so its barrel comes with an eraser, fastened via a paper ferrule (metal was rationed during WWII).
Pikachu looks good. Frankly, they changed Pikachu so much throughout the lifespan of the brand. You just made him more determined to deliver his V-mail.
Pika....Pika....chuuuuuuu.... Excuse me :3
Pikachu looks good. Frankly, they changed Pikachu so much throughout the lifespan of the brand. You
