#3: Crocs, Taxis, and Islands

Hello again fine people,

This week’s cartoons come from a large batch I drew while on holidays, or on vacation, depending on where you’re reading this.

Vacations, or holidays, are great for so many reasons, but for me, it was the sheer amount of new things going on, well, everywhere. It seemed like, no matter where I turned my head, there was something to provide inspiration. To provide drama and chaos. To offer a new perspective on an old thing. Also, I didn’t have to do actual work work, which was probably the biggest hit of the holidays.

Anyway, I hope your own holidays are hanging out on the next horizon, just waiting to be enjoyed.

Hold on tight,
Chris

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Caption: The old woman who lives in a shoe shops for a summer home. "This is bad for so many reasons".

So, apparently, Crocs are making a comeback. Or, maybe they never left. I’m not really sure. But what I do know is they are still a very funny pair of, uh, shoes. This cartoon is a mashup of three things: Crocs, in all their practical, but impractical glory; real estate agents, even tiny ones that sell shoes to live in; and the old nursery rhyme about the old woman who lived in a shoe. Put them together, and you have this!

A little artist’s note: Crocs are strange weird shoes, and I stand by my desire to never own a pair, but one thing I did discover is that they are also quite intricate and quite hard to draw. All those little hooks and holes and random plastic things that make a Croc a Croc, and all of them needed to make it look like a Croc and make the joke work.

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Caption: "Let's see, the map says we can take the river, the expressway or the boulevard, or I can just drive you back home so you can don't have to make worry about making any decisions."

In some places, the only way to get around is by taxi. Rideshare just isn’t an option or is too expensive, or, in the places we were, was frowned upon as it took money away from the community. Whatever the reason, we have rode a lot of taxis recently and, while staring at the road go by, I realised how much I enjoyed not having to make decisions on these trips. Which, of course, led me to wonder what it would be like if we had to make all the decisions on these trips. Which led to this. The most extreme example of decision fatigue.

A little artist’s note: Believe it or not, this one took forever to draw and, it felt like, even longer to shade properly. The challenge came with trying to find an angle that would allow the faces of people in the back to be seen, while also being able to show the glee of the driver, and the beat-up look of the taxi itself. Here is an early version of the sketch:

You’ll see in this instance that the angle was a little different, the car had side mirrors, and, inexplicably, the car was more the length of a limo. However, clearly I had a very good idea of what I wanted the driver to look like as that initial sketch looks remarkably similar to the finished product.

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Caption: Display only

When on holidays, we found ourselves staying at a very fancy hotel (it was on sale). One morning, when we walked through the dining area, arriving late for the breakfast session, we approached what looked to be plentiful supply of food only to discover a small sign next to it which simply said, ‘display only’. Disaster!

A little artist’s note: It seems to be a bit of a rite of passage that every single-panel cartoon cartoonist makes a few desert island cartoons, and this is one of mine. But, like anything of this nature, there is a chance this joke has been done before, or multiple times before. But this is my version. One thing I do really like about this cartoon is the look on the character’s face. Disbelief. Fear. Confusion. It’s all in that look. Also, his feet are a little disproportionate and, while I could have fixed them, there is something kind of joyous about this imperfection.

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