This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.
This is a sort of sequel to a previous cartoon I did about time travel.
Rags really was one of my childhood dogs (and the most important one to me). Although Siggy, the big German Shepherd (I think) who would lie under my crib growling at anyone he didn’t know who dared to approach, was also great.
I’m glad Becky drew this one – if I’d drawn it myself, I would have wasted hours trying to recall and recreate my 1983 bedroom layout. As it was, I made poor Becky do revision after revision on Rags. (“He was bigger than that… He had long hair that often covered his eyes…” and so on.)
Unfortunately, we didn’t have any photos of Rags to work from, and I have a famously bad memory, so – despite Becky’s excellent drawings – I’m sure Rags looked different from this. But that doesn’t hurt the cartoon. The process forced me to think a lot more about Rags than I usually do, though, and I enjoyed that. He really was such a sweet dog.
I did draw a tiny piece of this cartoon myself; the Reagan caricature in panel two is my attempt to recreate how I drew Reagan back then. I would draw a peanut, added Reagan’s famously high hair, then add facial features and wrinkles. That was, technically, the first political cartoon I ever drew.
The little kicker panel is my favorite part of this cartoon. If I had a time travel machine, after I’d done all the usual time travel stuff (seeing Sarah Bernhardt in a play, stopping 9/11, going to Palm Beach in 1999 and getting on the ballot design committee, etc), I genuinely would love getting to see Rags again.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, plus a “kicker” panel at the bottom.
PANEL 1
Little Barry is reading in bed when he’s startled by Big Barry coming in through a glowing time portal in the air. Rags, a dog, looks around.
BIG BARRY: Hi, Barry of 1983! I’m you from decades in the future! Ask me anything!
LITTLE BARRY: ACK!
PANEL 2
Little Barry thinks about what to ask. Big Barry smiles but looks very nervous. Rags sniffs Big Barry, tail wagging.
LITTLE BARRY: Okay, um… So is Reagan still the worst President ever?
BIG BARRY: Hah haha ha ha ha! Hoo boy, you think Reagan’s bad! HA! Ha ha aaah oh God.
PANEL 3
Big Barry, weeping, rushes out through the portal.
BIG BARRY: SOB! I’m sorry, I can’t – I – it’s – I gotta go!
PANEL 4
The time portal flicks out, and Big Barry is gone. Little Barry addresses the dog.
LITTLE BARRY: Well, that bodes ill.
KICKER PANEL
Big Barry is petting Rags; Rags is happy for the attention.
BIG BARRY: I didn’t really come back to see my younger self. I came back to see Rags. Who’s a good boy?
RAGS (thought): Is it me? It’s ME!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
Chicken fat is archaic cartoonistese for fun little details in the art.
Panel 1: A poster for the “Annie” musical above Barry’s bed says: “Annie. A New Musical and Barry’s First Celebrity Crush. Remember when tickets were affordable… Must be nice.”
Panel 2: The poster has changed to a crudely drawn caricature of Ronald Reagan, with the caption “Let’s Retire Ron.”
Panel 3: The poster has changed to a shirtless, ridiculously muscled man flexing, little mini-muscle bumps sticking up from his huge biceps. The caption says “MUSCLES MAN… His Muscles Have Muscles!” He has a word balloon, which says “Please get me to a doctor.”
Panel 4: The poster has changed to a photo of Reggie Jackson swinging a baseball bat. The caption says: REGGIE… because being good at hitting a ball with a stick makes you a HERO.”
I would totally go back in time to see my dog rather than my younger self.
And the line from Reagan to Trump is clear. In fact, if I met my younger self, my ambiguous statement would be, “No, not still the worst president ever, but on the plus side you’ll get to say ‘I told you so’ about how Reagan’s policies are going to turn out.”
Then the future would change because I would definitely move to Uruguay at that point.
Yes on the straight line from Reagan to Trump. In fact, I’d say Reagan is to blame for Trump, though he’s not the only one.
The absolute nightmare of Reagan’s presidency is still with us.
Okay, but you didn’t answer the big question: Was Barry’s first celebrity crush Andrea McArdle, or one of the later actors from the stage version, or Aileen Quinn?
I don’t know! It was a looooooong time ago. Whoever was playing the lead when my parents brought me to see it on Broadway.
Also I too would go back in time to see my dog Jake who was the best dog ever, if a tiny bit stupid. My current dog, Shamus, is very smart and also a very good boy.
Actually, my 1983 self’s question would be, “When was the nuclear war?” and would they’d be thrilled with the answer “not yet, but 2026 is looking shaky”. Because at that point I genuinely expected Reagan to start a nuclear war in the next few years. He might have done it too if dementia hadn’t taken his brain some time during his first term.
@Dianne,
Our generation lived with the certainty of nuclear holocaust. Both because of the absolute insanity of Reagan and his lackeys and the many errors systems to detect incoming missiles were making.
Somehow I long for the days where that was pretty much the only existential worry for the vast majority of us.