#89: It's a gift!

Hello revelers,

Happy New Year! A year that promises to be, well, I don’t want to presuppose what it will actually be. Maybe lets just assume it will be a year and leave it at that.

This week we have some exclusive items from the gift shop, and we visit Shakespeare on an off day.

Being literary,
Chris

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Caption: “For even more wisdom, why not stop by the gift shot?”

What’s wisdom without a matching key chain?

And, I suspect, if I found myself on top of a mountain, talking with a wise, bearded elder, I would also find myself at the gift shop on the neighboring mountain, flicking through postcards and branded merchandise.

Is it wrong to like the gift shop more than the exhibition?

A little artist’s note: I’m not sure, but I think this might be my first guru on the mountain cartoon. It feels like a bit of a right of passage for all cartoonists, and I’m pleased to add this to the rich pantheon of cartoons about wisdom on high. While the gift shop gag is as old as gift shops themselves, I’m not sure it has been done on a mountain. But, you know, it’s a longstanding trope, so it probably has in one form or another.

Visually, this one has a lot of elements, each one building on the next. It was important that the gift shop itself was in the background, but not too far back and not too obscured so it was in the background, but it wasn’t background art. I also wanted it to look out of place at the back, so that it kind of felt like a bad gift shop, complete with closing glass door, that had been transplanted to the top of a picturesque mountain.

Caption: “Why must everything I make end in tragedy?”

Shakespeare was the master of making tragedies… in everything.

This is one of my sillier ones, I’ll admit, but there is just something great about William Shakespeare, the Bard himself, over-salting a sandwich.

Is this what he would say? Probably, but better.

A little artist’s note: This one is nothing but simple. It’s a man, it’s a sandwich, it’s a loaf of bread, it’s a pile of salt. I was, however, in two minds over the apron. I felt like he needed to have one to show that this was a kitchen and this was cooking, but I didn’t know whether it needed the catchphrase ‘To Beef or Not to Beef’. The answer is probably no, but it made me laugh every time I looked at so I left it there.

There was a moment where I thought that I could make a separate cartoon out of the apron, but I just couldn’t make it stick. Alas. Cruel fate.

Caption: “I would have just pushed him off the bridge.”

It’s a Wonderful Life is a holiday classic film.

But what if George Bailey’s guardian angel was none other than a cat? Do you think he would have gained his new view of the world?

Or would the cat have had other plans?

A little artist’s note: This one is dark, I know. But, you know, so are cats. And if a cat spotted someone on a bridge, I’m pretty sure their first instinct would be to push them off. It’s just basic science.

So, this cartoon dropped on Instagram just before Christmas and, with all the usual chaos of the silly season, it was a race against time to get it finished. But I’m really happy with it, even if it’s a bit dark.

Also, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen It’s a Wonderful Life, but in researching this cartoon, I realised: Damn, that film is really dark too. So, I guess this cartoon finds itself in good company.

Thanks for reading The Mid-Week Squiggle.

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