Spoiler Alert
For those readers who are not aware, this cartoon refers to one of the first films shown in public, entitled “L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat.” (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat) It premiered in Paris in 1896 and sparked a myth that has lasted for over a century that people ran screaming from the theater when they saw the image of the train coming toward the audience.
While it’s fun to imagine dimwitted chumps of yesteryear being frightened by technology, it has been pointed out that even though films of this sort were new, people had stood on platforms and watched trains coming “close” to them for a very long time. So even if anyone thought the train was real (which is highly improbable) they’d still be unlikely to run or scream.
This cartoon also happens to be a perfect example of something that happens to many daily cartoonists now and then. I awoke the morning of this cartoon’s publication to an email from a friend of mine way the hell up in Canada. (Thanks, Russell!) He knows that I submit cartoons approximately six weeks before they appear, so he was astonished to see this cartoon today because only a few days ago an article was posted on BoingBoing about an enhanced AI version of this same film.
I knew nothing about that when I drew and submitted this cartoon a month and a half ago, of course, but if you draw a cartoon-a-day for enough time, many of these kinds of coincidences occur. I once did a fairly harmless earthquake cartoon and it happened to appear in papers the day after the so-called “World Series Earthquake” of 1989. I got a lot of angry mail from readers who thought I was making fun of the tragedy. (Why, you may well ask, did your client newspapers not omit that cartoon from the next day’s paper? A: Because they had a lot of stories about the earthquake to pay attention to and reviewing each day’s batch of dozens of comic strips to be sure none are stepping on some current event’s toes isn’t on their daily to-do list.)
Lastly, there are 10 Secret Symbols in the image above but in the newspaper version, I accidentally put a 9 above my signature. I corrected it for this version but pretty much anywhere else you see this cartoon online or in print, will have a 9. Sorry about that, sticklers!
What was Wayno terrifying audiences with last week? Let’s find out…
Careful not to sneeze when the urn is open.
Two cartoons in a row about death. I’ve had a few conversations lately about the fact that Americans (and various other cultures, I’m sure) are afraid to talk honestly about death and that’s maybe not a good thing for us, psychologically. Thanks for the ice-breaker, Wayno!
My favorite thing about the way cats play-fight is how in the middle of it, both participants will relax and look away as though they’d forgotten what they were doing, then look at each other and start fighting again.
On another topic, is there a form of pajama art* based on cats?
*Martial art
The trials and tribulations of tater tots.
Our two dogs aren’t butt snobs as much as butt addicts.
As a recovering Catholic, I spent a fair amount of time in a confessional booth when I was a kid. They always reminded me of a drive-thru fast food window. “Care to biggy those sins?” Why, yes. I think I will.
Before you run off, garner a peek at Wayno’s weekly cartoon blog post about this same batch.
Thus concludes this week’s train wreck, Jazz Pickles. I hope you didn’t run screaming from your Internet. If you like what we do and that we do it for free—without a paywall or ads—please consider tossing us a crumb via one of the links below. Every little bit helps to keep the movie projector flickering in this theater of the absurd in which we find ourselves.
Until next time, be smart, be nice, be happy, and resist ignorance and Trumpism.
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