#2: Holidays, Cats, and Pirates
Hello good people,
I hope your week has been all the right levels of chaos. For me, that chaos involved Easter celebrations, which largely meant Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs, both of which are the right kind of chaos for me.
This week’s cartoons, however, have nothing to do with that chaos. Instead, they touch on things home, away, and very away.
As always, 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 these cartoons in a handy bunch, they will all drop every Friday, after this newsletter, on the MiddleSquiggle Instagram (@middlesquiggle). Whatever works for you, please follow along. And, uh, you know, like and subscribe and all of that.
Here we go,
Chris
Caption: "Let's see, we've got clothes, underwear, and that card game we always pack but never end up playing..."
We recently got back from a lovely, tropical holiday and, as I unpacked everything at the hotel, I realised that for the first time in a long time, we hadn’t brought any card games. No UNO, no Exploding Kittens, not even a random card deck. However, what is most surprising of this revelation is that while we almost always bring a few card games on holiday, we almost never play them. I’m not sure why. It’s the perfect opportunity to do so, but it just never seems to happen. And this situation, of course, inspired what you see above in all its glory.
Caption: "Alright ducks, remember that today, and every day, our focus is tuna. You hear me? Tuna, Tuna, Tuna!"
This cartoon is based on our beloved cat, Molly, and it’s one of the rare cartoons where it really needs context to make sense. I’ll admit that needing context is not good practice, but it does give me an excuse to also post a photo of Molly so, you know, good practice be damned.
We always joke that she owns the house, but I don’t think this is very far from the truth. You know, other than the lack of any payment on the mortgage. One morning, I looked out the bedroom door and saw Molly staring at the wooden ducks that hang out in the hallway, and I wondered what might be going through her head. Given Molly’s love of Tuna, I would not at all be surprised if the caption was her plan.
As a little artist's note, this one is a lot less cartoony than my usual cartoons, and this is because it’s drawn very close to how Molly and the wooden ducks really look. Below is a photo of the situation, taken by my partner, Emily.
Caption: Patriot city. Mourning. Revolution. Pirates.
Sometimes, the wave of a flag is all you need, and how the flag is waved says a lot about, well, what you want to say. There’s also something fun about the progression of the flags from patriotism to piracy. The idea for this came from a taxi ride through the aforementioned tropical location where I noticed flags, somewhat unintentionally, in varying states of flying. This is also one where I feel like this joke has been done before, perhaps not in this exact way, but in a similar way. If that’s so, then a big thanks to whoever did it first.
As a little artist’s note, I’ve been slowly experimenting with my style, and this continues with the subtle paint brush texture that appears on the poles. Also, just in case you’re wondering, the flag is most certainly fake. The patriot one, not the pirates one, obviously.
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