We’ve been having a lot of fun posting these strips from our archives, stuff we worked on over twenty years ago, but which still gives us a measure of pride and a chuckle or two. But it’s been pointed out that we don’t have any full-colour, Sunday-funnies type strips, so maybe we shouldn’t post on Sunday. Then I remembered another treasure from the archives which I’m happy to share today:

This is the only full colour Rivertown News strip in existence and it was given to me by Tim in a frame sometime after we began working on the strip. I took it apart and scanned it so I could share it with you today as our only official Sunday strip. I believe he hand-painted it on the original Bristol board version of the strip, but I’ll let him chime in on that if he likes.

A word about the opening panel, if I may… For those of you who haven’t given James Joyce’s Ulysses a shot, this situation harkens back to the opening scene of the novel, which takes place at the top of the Martello Tower in Sandycove, south Dublin:

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:

— Introibo ad altare Dei.

So, the original was about sacrilege and shaving and my version envisions the same but with added modern convenience. What more could you want from the auspicious opening of a new comic strip destined for the funny pages, than an obscure literary allusion followed up by a mall culture cliché? Look out world, here we come! 🙂

Thanks for all the likes and comments! We appreciate it.

Mark (& Tim)