Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 07/11/01

Artist's Statement

This is a sequel to a cartoon that ran years ago, which probably no one reading this remembers. (The original "Superheroes Nobody Wants to See in a Crisis" included the [O]Possum, the Lurking Fear, Superego, and The Big Log.) All the superheroes depicted here are based on friends of mine, though I hope they're universal enough to be funny. The Inaudible Girl is Allison, my girlfriend. She's very soft-spoken, and once got yelled at in a bar called Bar for not speaking up. She has not returned there since. Helmet Boy has been my nickname among a select group of people who were present on an occasion many years ago when I wore a motorcycle helmet and the crowd amused themselves all evening by whacking me repeatedly in the head as hard as they could with a broom handle. The Bold Intruder is my friend Jim, who fills in as cartoonist for me each year (See 2/25/01 in the archives) and appears in many of my drawings. He became the Bold Intruder one long, drunken weekend in Fell's Point when he was dressed exactly as depicted here and made dramatic entrances in a a number of establishments where he did not belong. (My superhero name that weekend was "Mister Fancy," and I wore a dickey on my head.) The Eliminator is Boyd White, who appeared most recently in the cartoon "Faith vs. Works," and whose flatulence is the stuff of tall tales.

I hurriedly finished up this old cartoon and ran it because last weekend was my annual 4th of July party, a legendary and riotous affair that requires quite a lot of preparation. This year everything went more or less well--no serious injuries, and the premises are not utterly trashed--except that I mistakenly drank absinthe. I do not recommend it. Anyway, what with all the festivities and the brief psychosis, there was no time to draw anything new. I promise fresh pain next week.