Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 07/18/01

Artist's Statement

This is a rarity for me--a work of pure joy. This is my first joyful cartoon since "The Man Who Kisses Things," which was too long ago even to be included in the archives here. The last few weeks, as some of the more perceptive among you may have noticed, I've been uninspired and slacking off some. Doing the cartoon was starting to feel like a job. So this Friday I was procrastinating as usual and feeling sort of sulky and resentful about having to sit down and draw another fucking cartoon already, and I had to give myself sort of a stern little talking-to. "Tim," I said, "You are some sort of amazing dipshit. I cannot believe you are complaining about having to sit out on your porch in the sun and draw a cartoon. Quit your whining and do your job." I had just suddenly remembered that my life was ridiculously pleasant and I had no real problems. So I brewed another cup of coffee (some days three isn't enough) and put on the soundtrack to Boogie Nights and sat down and drew, well, this thing.

I can't remember now how the idea for this cartoon occurred to me, but it was part of the exhileration I felt at having such an absurdly fun life. I can tell you that that's my girlfriend Allison, who is overworked and underpaid at her office, on the far left, and I do feel sort of like the boyfriend depicted here whenever I stop in to pick her up at work--like this silly, lascivious, wiggly, mortifying thing. The winking penis was probably a side effect of that fourth cup of coffee. When I penciled it in I laughed out loud and cried, "Oh, dear God in Heaven!" I considered taking it out, thinking that it was too much, but, instead, I didn't.

I offer this cartoon as a reminder to all of you, and to myself, that if you wait long enough and ride it out and maybe have one more cup of coffee the pain does end, although not for long, and never forever. But we do get a few good days now and then.