#87: Desperately seeking courage

Hello carolers,

It’s another week of somewhat amazing cartoons, packed comfortably into an easy-to-swallow email. This email.

This week we see a new discovery for an old lion, and get a little direction from on-high.

Still lost,
Chris

Like what you see? Follow me on Instagram (@chrisshorten), or talk a friend into following me on Instagram. Or, buy some prints from my website.

Caption: “And then I realized: online, I don’t need courage.”

On the internet, even a Cowardly Lion can stay cowardly.

The internet has brought us some truly wonderful things. Inspiring things. Earth shattering things. It’s also meant that we can comment, react and share things with very little consequence for our actions.

Because, on the internet you can be anything or anyone, and you do it courage-free.

A little artist’s note: Gosh, I had forgotten about this cartoon.

But then, with the release of that Wicked film, I saw a bunch of other cartoonists releasing their Wizard of Oz cartoons and I thought: hey I’ve got one of those.

And then I remembered the reason why I didn’t put it out. Because it looked like this:

When I originally drew this last year, my style was still on the way to being what it is, and I disliked looking at this so much that I completely forgot about it. Intentionally.

But, in the interest of keeping up with popular culture and with what people are talking about, it felt time to relook at this cartoon and, obviously, completely redraw every single line. Which is what you see here.

Caption: “I guess this is the place.”

Everybody’s looking for a sign.

And I mean everybody. Because what happens if that star wasn’t enough of a sign? What if upstairs has to get a little more heavily involved? I’m hopeless with directions, and I doubt if a star would be enough.

Would you need a helping hand?

A little artist’s note: I drew this around mid-June of this year in one of those rare moments where I thought: why don’t I think ahead on my Christmas cartoons? And I did, and I liked it, and then this week I remembered that I had done it. And so began what felt like an endless amount of touch ups. Endless, endless touch ups until, finally, it became what it is now.

And, hilariously, it was probably fine in the early versions, but, well that’s what happens when you have too much time on your hands to work on something.

Still, I do like this one. And I think I would need that hand if I had to make my way to that little stable.

Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!

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