Here is one of my favorite cartoons.  It ran on Sunday, 7/3/05 and for some reason, I had completely forgotten about it.  It’s such a nice feeling to run across a cartoon you barely remember and realize, wow, I really like that one.

7/3/05

I remember how easy it was to come up with the politically correct names for the dwarves, like they were just out there waiting to be plucked out of the air.  There was no struggle–easy pickin’s.  I like that E.O man is bathing in his mask, in a PINK bathroom, and that he has a tattoo which says “Mother.  In Olde English script.” (Quoting Ray Stevens here).  Just who IS E.O Man?  This one panel of him sets up so many interesting things about him, it makes me want to pursue it in the strip.  To find out what makes him tick.  Does he still live with his mama?  He just might!

When the strip first began, I could remember every cartoon that ran.  In fact, I can still recall the first year of the strip almost perfectly.  I remember almost every gag and approximately when it ran, I remember the dates the Sundays fell on and everything.  Then things start to get blurry.

About 2.5 years into the strip, I was reading an old gag I’d written, and I couldn’t remember if it had run already or not.  How could I not know if I’d used it already?  I called my friends and family and read it to them and no one remembered it, so I ran it, hoping that it hadn’t been used before.  No one in the public called me on it, so I think I got away with it.  Whew.  Since then, that has happened numerous times.  I’ve done so many cartoons that it’s impossible (for me) to keep them straight.  I don’t think I’ve ever repeated a gag word for word or even close to that, but I have used similar themes a few times.  Which is embarrassing because I hate to be thought of as plagerizing myself!  I don’t know how cartoonists who have been working for decades can possibly remember what cartoons have run or not. 

That’s why it’s always nice to run across gags like this one.  I remember writing it and coloring it, but it was not one I remembered and looked for as one of my favorites for my website.  I somehow overlooked it when I was going through all of my cartoons.  I don’t think I’ve read this one since I turned it in back in 2005, but I’m glad I stumbled across it. 

I never got any mail either good or bad about this particular toon.  I don’t know if people liked it or not, but I do know that it’s one of those ones that I especially liked (which means most other people probably think it sucks.)  Ah well.  I hope you enjoy it!