“Well, I’d want the whole thing taken out, but you might want a second opinion on that.” Cartoon ©D. Barstow.

Not that I’m in the least bit misogynistic. People who know me know I love men, in all guises. But the stronger the better, of course. ;)

This is part of my Morbid series. It’s not that I like jellyfish, which he’d be without the skeleton, but I’m fascinated by skeletons. Once I read a science fiction story that I’ve never forgotten, about the bones inside a man who wanted to come out. They felt the flesh was the enemy, hiding them, hindering them. They knew they were the strength of the man, the real power, and they wanted to be seen. And in the end, they do, don’t they. Now you want to read it, huh?! If only I could remember the author…

One of the first things I studied trying to be a cartoonist was the body form. I’ve taken a few figure drawing classes ever since college, and really should take one every year. To think that you know the body – when every body is different – is a little presumptuous. I’ve heard Sergio Aragones say many times that every time he draws something he studies its form again as if it’s new, so he’ll have a fresh take on it.

Anyway, this was before the internet, so I had to learn skeletons from books. For a while I wanted to do a strip with them! They are pretty powerful, after all, and I didn’t need that scifi story to tell me that.

Earlier version of this cartoon after the jump.

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I don’t like white bread anymore. Only grainy or dark bread or bread of substance. I like my bagels and English muffins  and crumpets to be grainy, too!

I also don’t like toasters. Too slow.

Or toaster ovens. (What is the point of them again? I think I’m going to toss mine.)

Microwave is fast, but where’s the slightly burnt/toasted edges?

That leaves my big stove. That’s right, I turn it all the way up to broil, put a piece of tin foil down and the bread on top, wait 30 sec, turn it over and put some butter on so it melts just right, and Bob’s your uncle!

Honey is optional, along with the guilt.

And I thought Buster Brown only made shoes! Buster Brown Bread through Flickr Creative Commons Photographs by Derek Farr (Detroit Derek). Thanks Derek!

“If you see any bigger than this, just pretend you don’t see them.”

I hope you understand this cartoon. So far, no editor has.

Well, it is a little ambiguous, my favorite place to be. Originally, I meant that they should pretend to ignore any people, and since everyone is bigger than that, that would mean they ignore everyone. Which they do, anyway!

Then I noticed the mousehole – or I drew it, forget which – and so maybe the cat is referring to big mice. And that, too, is typical of cats – to ignore any fight they can’t win.

I guess I shouldn’t go into the story of how I was running around Silver Lake very late the other night and saw a mouse for the first time. I see coyotes, skunks, raccoons regularly, and hear Great Horned Owls. But I have never seen a mouse. So tiny and sort of helpless, running in short bursts to avoid my thundering feet coming up.   Read more »

My favorite bulletin writer on MySpace, Jones, posted an alert today that I wanted to start a viral reaction to:

Date: Nov 16, 2008 11:07 AM

Subject: Obama is a Muslim

Body: I meant to get this out there a few weeks ago.
Sorry for the delay.