Thursday 6 March 2008

A Mammoth Task...(or should that be 'Tusk'?)

Oh but the mammoths have been patient...
I first drew this about a year and a half ago, and the cartoon hasn't changed - it's still the same one - but the punch-line was a different matter. At first it was "Is it me, or did this whole 'Ice Age' thing sneak up on us?", but that's only funny if you lived a couple of million years ago and had to run from the glacier that was s-l-o-w-l-y swamping your home. And I couldn't think of anything better, so I put it on ice (haha) until I could. But then, when I dragged it out of the drawer a couple of days ago, it suddenly hit me that I should maybe make it more topical to make it funny. So the mammoths stuck in the glacier now have a more contemporary feel to them by mentioning Global Warming. I must admit, I'm generally wary of topical gags as they date REALLY quickly, making a cartoon, at best, a humorous historical footnote. That's why I base my stuff on phrases and cliches and idioms and general truths of life.
As an aside, I think this is one of the prettiest cartoons I've drawn. This was the first time I'd ever drawn a mammoth, (and a glacier for that matter) so I was pleased with the result; especially how cute they look. I'd love to be able to drawn woolly mammoths more often, but they're not the best of creatures to squeeze into jokes. Still, if you can think of one, let me know in the comments below and I'll see what I can do...
And, as ever, I want to know what YOU think. Find it (or any of the others) funny/unfunny? Don't just sit there, speak up!

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