I’ll try, anyway.

I’ve started playing with taking a photograph for reference, just, like, for expressions and stuff.
I’ve got to be careful not to fuck up the style I’ve been trying to achieve.

Ah, well. Every day is a new learning experience.

I swear, there is nothing that comes to mind as a more perfect, joyous, happy-making Christmas song.
And to think he almost didn’t record it.

I love that the lyrics are basically “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” and that’s it.

It’s Christmas now. This pleases me.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

To quote my character in The Full Monty:

“It’s a brilliant plan! My best one ever!”

My wife? Won’t fall for it.

This strip comes to you at the request of Dennis over at 21 Square.

Today, there was a letter to the editor in the paper, decrying racism in a comic strip by Peter Woolcock, one of the gentlest, sweetest, most even-handed editorial cartoonists there are.

Ms. Cox made a statement last week that Race (capital R) was “the gorilla in the room”, mixing the metaphor of the proverbial 800l lb gorilla doing whatever he wanted and the phrase “the elephant in the room”, meaning something that everyone is pointedly ignoring.

Now, as a cartoonist (Not on par with Mr. Woolcock by ANY stretch, of course!), this sort of thing appeals.
A mixed metaphor creating a mental image like that? It’s wonderful.

And the cartoon he did was magnificent. Just gorgeous. It captured EXACTLY what Ms. Cox meant. This surly, brooding beast, sitting there, silent and grumpy, signifying Race (capital R), the “Gorilla in the room”.

To say that this is in any way racist is a stretch of majestic proportions and dismisses ANY meaning in the cartoon, ignoring everything else in it, other than the fact that simian-related words have been used as racial epithets against black people, something which, by the way, I take great issue with and recently got into a knock-down, drag-out over on one of the Bermudian forums. Using “Monkey”, “Gorilla” etc as epithets and descriptors of black people is repugnant. It just is.

That is NOT what is happening in Peter Woolcock’s cartoon.

It just isn’t.

Addendum!

It was just pointed out to me that on January 11th of this year, Mr. Woolcock DID, in fact, DO a cartoon with an elephant in the room!

The fact that he chose to use an Indian elephant shows not only his superior skill in this business, but JUST how conscientious he is ABOUT these sorts of issues.