This one’s a collaboration with Kevin Moore.
Tonally, this is very different from my usual strip, but I hope the change-up is fun.
I literally dreamed this up while lying half-asleep in bed. When I imagined the drive-by shooting done by lefties on bicycles, I laughed aloud, and that woke me up enough to get out of bed to write the idea down.
I wish they’d all come this easily!
I knew Kevin Moore’s wonderfully slightly-grotesque characters would be just right for this cartoon. Kevin’s had less time for drawing cartoons lately, due to a shiny new job, but happily he had time for this one.
Kevin says:
“What I enjoyed most about drawing this strip was the variety of absurd elements: a talking fetus, a tut-tutting Jesus, an antifa drive-by shooting — I even forgive you for making me draw bicycles and machine guns, Barry!
This is a very silly strip on otherwise serious issues of reproductive rights and gun violence. Right wing ideology has such upside down priorities — how can you not mock them?”
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels.
PANEL 1
This panel shows two teenage boys. One of them, John, has floppy blonde hair and is wearing a red t-shirt with a big horizontal yellow stripe. The other, John’s friend, has messily-cropped orange hair, zits, and a blue t-shirt. John is rolling his eyes and looking aggrieved.
JOHN: I’m going out to hang with the boys, Ma!
MA (off-panel): John, you can go if you take your little brother.
JOHN: Aw, Ma, do I have to? Timmy’s such a drip!
PANEL 2
This panel is mostly taken up by the title, which is written in a big, cheerful-looking font that’s colored red and pink, with shiny white highlights.
THE ADVENTURES OF TIMMY THE SIX WEEK FETUS
Below the title lettering is a drawing of Timmy, a six week fetus, which looks sort of like a red lizard curled up into itself. Timmy has a little cartoon smile. A little curly label pointing to Timmy says “1/4 inch.”
TIMMY: I’m just like any other kid!
PANEL 3
John’s friend, in the foreground, is leaning forward and peering through a magnifying glass. In the background, John has his hands shoved into his pickets and is pouting.
FRIEND: You brought your stupid little brother with you, John?
JOHN: It sucks! Ma made me take him!
PANEL 4
This panel shows two men with bandanas covering their lower faces riding by on bikes. They’re each holding a machine gun of some sort (I’m sure that someone will let me know that it’s not really a machine gun, it’s technically an [insert specific type of gun here], and let me assure you in advance that I really don’t care) , which they’re firing towards the sidewalk. Sound effects by the guns read “brapp brapp brapp.”
CAPTION: Suddenly… A random drive-by Antifa shooting!
ANTIFA DUDE: Ha ha ha! Take this!
PANEL 5
A shot of John, looking shocked and frightened. A bullet is on a path to hit John in the heart, but Timmy (who is too small to be seen, but we can see the zip line indicating his path) jumps in front of the bullet, which bounces off Timmy to the side.
JOHN: Gasp! Timmy jumped in front and took the bullet for me! And now Timmy’s dead!
TIMMY: Gak!
PANEL 6
In the foreground, John is kneeling, holding his cupped hands in front of him, as if he’s holding Timmy’s invisibly tiny body in them, and has raised his face towards the sky. John is weeping hard.
In the background, on one side of John, we see John’s friend lying on the ground in a spreading puddle of blood. The Friend has little “x”s for eyes, indicating that he’s dead. (I told Kevin that he could choose drawing the friend alive but shocked and sad, or dead, but I was 99% sure Kevin would go for the corpse option.)
Also in the background, on the other side of John, is Jesus Christ, with his arms folded across his chest, looking very stern.
JOHN: Why didn’t I love you like you deserved, Timmy?
JOHN: WAAAAH!
JESUS: I’m so disappointed in you, John.
Nicely done.
I especially appreciate how the death of John’s friend, in the background, goes without comment by John or Jesus, to underline how tortured the logic is around protecting the lives of fetuses, when people who have been born and are alive are not prioritized in the same way. In real life John’s friend would be mourned, of course, but it’s a cartoon so stretching suspension of disbelief is part of the package. Also, the dada-ist absurdity of a Antifa drive-by shooting on bicycles?! is patently wacky.
Thanks, Eva!