Watch What You Eat
The idea for this local cartoon was based on a sad reality that happened recently, but in making the cartoon, I was trying to anticipate that some readers of it would react as if the cartoon was saying what happened was funny, which it was not saying at all. I just needed to come up with a light-hearted way to portray the general situation in the “Bear City” world in order to address the practice that led to this particular incident, and the absurdity of a bear being punished for not knowing what he has eaten. I removed the word “euthanized” from my original text, and replaced it with “in trouble” and just showed the bear being taken away, not guns pointing at him, hoping that would lessen the severity of the premise presented in the cartoon.
So, in my concern the cartoon would offend those who find the treatment of the subject a bit too glib, (and this disclaimer can at least address that concern) I left it vague, and heard no complaints about the cavalier treatment of a tragic event, but I consequently got a complaint that the cartoon was hard to understand.
This is an example of trying to solve a problem that hasn’t happened yet, and causing a different problem anyway.
__________________________
Cartoon originally published in the Asheville, NC alt weekly paper, “The Mountain Xpress”.
© 2020 – Brent Brown, Brent Brown Graphix
Discussion ¬