MY THANKSGIVING DINNER (PART 2)

The family commences to do some serious chowing down.

None of the pies last very long.

UNCLE EDDIE: "Er....Grandma, are you feeling calm now?"

GRANDMA: "Yeah, I love to watch the family eat on Thanksgiving."

UNCLE EDDIE: "Really? You're completely at ease, at one with the universe?"

GRANDMA: "Sure.  Why do you ask?"

UNCLE EDDIE: "Well, I was thinking of poor Cousin Lester and his friends out there in the bushes, and....."

GRANDMA (FURIOUS): "YOU MEAN THEY'RE STILL OUT THERE!!!???"

She grabs a bat and runs outside.

Grandma: "Those good-for-nothings! I'll KILL them! I'll MURDERIZE 'em!"

INSIDE: the dog steals Grandma's food.

ALSO INSIDE, AT THE TABLE:

GRANDPA: "Haw! Go get 'em Grandma! ....Geez, I can't talk with these false teeth getting in the way."

He plops the teeth in his drinking glass.

GRANDPA: "I'll just put them in water for awhile."

Everybody stops eating..

GRANDPA: "What's the matter? Why isn't anybody eating? Aren't you hungry?"

EVERYBODY (TURNING GREEN AT THE SIGHT OF THE TEETH): "All of a sudden we're not so hungry."

GRANDMA'S FRIEND TRUDY: "You're hungry, alright! I'm not gonna let that food go to waste!"

PIMPLETINA: "EEEEEEEWW!!!!! There's a piece of vegetable on my meat! I'm not gonna eat this X%$#X stuff!"

PIMPLETINA: (WAILS)

PIMPLETINA'S MOM: "Listen, young lady! You're gonna eat every bit of that, or else!"

PIMPLETINA: "Or else, WHAT!???" 

Pimpletina socks her mom and her mom socks her back.

The room divides into two angry camps and a food fight breaks out.

Beauregard stands up, attempts to make peace.

BEAUREGARD: "Hey, hey, hey! Let's handle this like civilized human beings!"

Howie slaps a pie into Beauregard's face.

HOWIE: "Shut up, Beauregard!"

The food fight intensified into a full-scale riot.

So that's it. I couldn't snap any pictures after that. All in all it was a great Thanksgiving. Boy, I love that holiday!

BTW: This is a work of fiction and none of the pictures belong to me. All are copyrighted by the original photographers or the subsequent buyers.  

PICTURES THAT INFLUENCED ME #1A

BASIL WOLVERTON

Three of these are pictures I saw in Mad Magazine when I was a little kid. One I discovered a little later, I don't remember how. I loved them when I was a kid and they continue to influence me even today.

What impressed me about the drawing on top (above) was the idea that you could do a drawing in the wonderfully ignorant, over-the-top style of the class clown but still project delicacy and restraint. This isn't a shout-at-you, Big Daddy Roth picture. The restraint actually makes it funnier than than Roth. I always meant to ask John K if this picture influenced him because John's caricature style can be described this way.

My school friends and I used to crack up over the galoot and the elbow (above). I KNEW guys like this, guys who aren't bullies, but who step on little people because they don't seem to be aware of their existence. When you're this big only other big people are on your radar. And look how eager and stupid the guy is!


This (above) is the picture that made me aware that cartooning is often about worlds in collision. Two men with totally different personalities are forced to sit so close that they interfere with each other. The pictures are funny even without the beard-in-the-soup gag. They made me aware of rhythm, framing, and funny staging. They also reminded me of the centrality of funny drawing. I stared at this a lot before the teacher confiscated the magazine.



The panel on the left (above) is the one that really captured my imagination. I thought the disgusted guy in the middle had such a funny face that I was driven to spend countless hours mugging infront of the mirror, trying to learn it. Now I've gotten really good at it.
I love to draw this kind of guy, A character who reacts with disdain and disgust to people around him.