The problem with being able to understand the “speech” of animals is that you might not want to know what they have to say. Cats in particular. Cats are vicious bastards.

In any big city it’s impossible to go anywhere without encountering some manner of local urban fauna. It could be anything from the much maligned city pigeon (in the event of the apocalypse remember; pigeons are made of meat), to the universal flea-bitten street cat, to even wilder critters such as coyote, raccoon, and snakes. For someone in our hero’s position this makes the simple act of getting a cart full of alcohol home so he can get obliterated like running the gauntlet on an episode of “Wild Kingdom: Los Angeles.”

There were some interesting challenges in drawing this strip. We see the action at different “angles,” from very wide, to very close, to looking up at the “hero” in a moment of horror. I’m starting to understand why Bill Watterson allegedly lamented backgrounds in comic strips as a dying art. It’s difficult to draw backgrounds that enrich the world of the comic and add a feeling of authenticity. Most likely I’m going to need to take some time and go out into my community and draw some store fronts.