dangoldman, we split my studio for some local Chinese take-out. Dave, the proprietor of Ling-Ling, asked me "You cartoonist, right?" and I told him "Yes." Dave said something about how cartoonists were "worth million dollars for head, now," referring to the massive bounty on some of those Danish political cartoonists for drawing anti-Muslim comix [which I have yet to see]. I made a comment about how my head will never be worth a million dollars and Dave pulled down a sheet of paper that was hidden in a cubby hole above the cash register. He said "Customer make me comic and I don't want it here no more. You take away." Dave laughed a glassy-eyed chuckle and handed me the cartoon which was a color xerox. A quick glance at its contents and all I could wonder was: which customer drew this?
There are only four types of customers that order food from my local Chinese take-out:
1] cops from the precinct around the corner.
2] the posse of mail carriers that congregate every day for lunch and beer.
3] neighborhood Mafioso and their unruly off-spring.
4] people like me which are rare because most of my 30-something freelancer/artist "tribe" travel up the corner to Naidre's for various forms of wheat gluten and natural health foods.
Blasphemy in the form of cheap Chinese food in one hand and blasphemy in the form of comix in the other, I walked back home with
dangoldman who found the cartoon offensive yet magical. It was ugly, sophomoric, and dark, yet, despite freedom of speech and artistic expression, how many times had I drawn something stupid like this about a former classmate or principal in high school? In fact, I was almost suspended twice because of the cartoons I drew about Mr. Gampert, an art teacher I was at war with. Upon further inspection, I deduced that the comic was either pulled from the internet or drawn by a cop who must've been the black sheep of a Mafia gang lord. Hell, maybe Dave drew it? Either way, I wished a fortune cookie had complimented my sesame chicken, instead.
