#1: Coughs, Buns, and Eggs
Hello good people,
It's me, Chris, and if you're reading this, you're one of the fantastic early adopters of this little cartoon merry-go-round. And what a ride it's been. When I look back to the cartoons from a few months ago, everything from the style to the humour to the ideas have evolved, hopefully for the better, and it's been, and continues to be, an absolute thrill to create these cartoons every day.
But, like the cartoons, their delivery is also in need of an evolution. While the idea of an email every day is fun, I don't feel like I'm giving you a whole lot more than what you might seen on my Instagrams. With this in mind, from this post on, I'm going to try and change things up.
From here on out, you'll get one packed email each week which containing all the cartoons for the week, as well as commentary, notes, and whatever other inspiration that feels right for a weekly email. If you would like to see these cartoons with much less commentary, you can follow my Instagram (@chrisshorten) for new cartoons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Or, if you would like the cartoons in a handy bunch, they will all drop every Friday, after this newsletter, on the MiddleSquiggle Instagram (@middlesquiggle). Whatever your poison, please follow along.
Anyway, now that we've got that cleared up, let's have a look at this week's cartoons. As always, if you like it, please forward this email on or find the cartoon on Instagram. Or let me know and I’ll get it printed for you.
Caption: "Mmmm, I don't like the sound of that cough; I'll catch the next one."
COVID case numbers are up. Again. And while I feel like that headline will likely dominate all of this year, it's currently true again now. Recently, I took a few flights and in each instance, I found myself flinching when I heard a cough, or sometimes more than one cough, from my fellow passengers, particularly when it happened before we even got onto the plane. Sometimes the coughs went safely into an oversized mask, but other times they escaped gingerly out into the world. It was enough for me to think that maybe we should catch the next flight, or the one after it. But, of course, then I realised I might never find that elusive no-cough flight. This cartoon takes this to the next extreme.
Caption: "Wait a second, this is just a regular bun with a cross on the top!"
There is a lot to love about Easter, but to me, it's the Easter bunny bringing chocolate eggs and bakers bringing hot cross buns. However, there comes a time in every person's life when they have to face some cold hard Easter facts. You know where I'm going with this. Put simply: hot cross buns are really just regular buns with crosses on the top. I know, I know, it's a tough thing to take, but it's best you hear it from me and not from one of the kids at school. With that out of the way, this cartoon explores that in more detail.
As a little artist's note, I really wanted to play with a larger-than-life, Roald Dahl villain look for the main guy here. With that in mind, you'll see that he's oversized in everyday, and very intentionally blocky. His jumper also falls unevenly, based on physics at least, as I wanted him to feel stocky and stiff in every way I could.
Caption: "What the f**k is this?”
Easter eggs are wonderful, but they're also very weird. A glance at the Wikipedia page for Easter eggs offers a whole host of reasons for why they exist, but there is definitely a 'choose your own adventure' feel to it. This cartoon highlights at least one animal that actually lays eggs. From one angle, it could be viewed as being a lovely act of kindness from some sort of out-of-frame friends of the bird, from another angle, the bird's eggs have wrapped in colourful paper for all the world to see, but from a last angle, it could mean that the birds have been replaced with some cheap chocolate eggs, leading to the the bird in question going on some sort of Taken-like rampage to get them back. I’ll let you decide. Whatever your thought, I think the bird’s exclamation is very much justified. Also, in a rare moment, this one is in COLOUR!
As a little artist’s note, I draw a lot of bird-based cartoons. I'm not really sure why. It might be because birds are inherently funny. It might be because there are so many strange parallels between the lives of humans and the lives of birds. However, it's most likely because I find birds easy to draw. If you ask me what species they are, I'll stare at you blankly and hope you'll move on to another question.
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