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This week’s Sunday cartoon (above) has a few different opportunities for thoughts and chuckles.

There’s a smile to be had in the wordplay; by traditional Judeo-Christian imagery, the tourists have clearly, in fact, been damned. Then there’s the tourist angle; if you’ve ever lived in a place with too many tourists or locusts, you can certainly relate to how annoying they can be. 

Taking a dip deeper, through the lens of sociology we can see this as an “us and them” situation: angels and devils are by definition at opposite ends of whatever scale you’re using. And, with what’s going on in the U.S. right now (readers in the distant future, see: The Trump Hole) you might see these characters as blue and red in a political sense.

However you look at it, these folks are being scorned for being different. For being where they “don’t belong”. Which motivates me to dig one level deeper and just ask, where did we even get the cliche image of Heaven this cartoon is built on? 

Have you ever thought about how boring it would be to stand around on clouds, all wearing identical choir robes with identical glowing towel rings floating above our heads? Sure, we’ve got wings and flying is super fun! But where are you going to fly to—is it just eternal miles of happy people standing on clouds? And we’re listening to what kind of music? Harps? And on top of all of this, the only people allowed in are the ones who FOLLOWED THE RULES!  Yay. Party time.

Who dreamed up this monotony and decided to call it “heaven”? What kind of person would think that this level of homogeneity is heavenly?

Well, maybe the same kinds of people who strive for that in their actual lives. The sort who favor harsh treatment of folks different from them, be they immigrants, Blacks, non-heterosexuals, non-Christians, civil rights protesters, anyone not following the rules from their point of view. 

I read this morning that the latest polls are showing that the only sector of the electorate where Trump is not badly trailing Biden is with evangelicals. The absurdity of the very idea that the followers of Jesus would end up supporting any person like Mr. Trump used to be unfathomable to me. I think maybe now I’m starting to understand it. 

SOMETHING ABOUT PEYOTE COWBOY

I’ve been having a ball illustrating and posting the episodes of my graphic novel. A lot of you have expressed that you’re having fun with it, too, so thanks for that!

A few people, however, have left comments saying that they won’t participate in anything that glorifies guns. It’s tempting to get sanctimonious and roll your eyes, but given the featured image (below) on last week’s episode, I can see why a person with a strong anti-gun stance would be given to think that.

Here’s what I want all readers to know about this: My liberal attitudes toward society and politics have been evident in my cartoons and blog posts for decades and this story is no different. I am fully against the lack of gun control in the U.S. and my graphic novel in no way glorifies guns or violence. But it’s a story about the Old West, so it’s going to have guns and racism and probably a bunch of other unpleasant things that were not uncommon then. That’s how storytelling works. Like any other work of fiction, read at your own risk.

To end on a less pedestrian note, Episode 11 posts on Tuesday and there’s some shouting and pointing in it but no gunplay. You’re going to like it. The image below is a little teaser. I haven’t titled it yet because I titled last week’s episode too hastily and then came up with one I far prefer. (Ep 10 should’ve been “Count to Three”. Damn!)

And the road trip to which he refers is going to be a doozy, caballeros! Peyote Cowboy is free to read online. Sign up for email alerts. Catch up on previous episodes.

Now let’s slop through the mud over to the chicken coop and see what comedy eggs Wayno has been laying this week in his Bizarro cartoons…

I know you join me in hoping this is the only patch of hair this guy is replacing with insects.

If this character seems familiar to you it’s probably because she’s meant to be Big Bo Peep as a child.

I’d enjoy having a grill ornament like that.

Some folks can’t say enough about sour dough bread but I have the opposite problem.

I didn’t know until I moved to Mexico that those things are called “sugar skulls” in English. Here, they call them “calaveras,” which just means “skull” in Spanish but is used to refer to any artistic representations of skulls, of which there are millions everywhere. I’m not kidding, the art in Mexico is dynamite.

Wayno has some wise words about this cartoon on his weekly blog post about this same batch. He also shows a terrifically cool sketch version of one of this week’s gags. If you like art, don’t miss it.

Well, Jazz Pickles, we’ve reached the end of the pier. Thanks for holding our wallets and cellphones while we jump off the end. If you’re enjoying what we do and crave the deep, eternal satisfaction of supporting it, please have a perusal of a few of our links below.

Until next time, buena suerte amigos!

BIZARRO SHOP We have new stuff in the shop that’s fun and cheap!

… Bizarro TIP JAR

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