- Blatant rip off of The Family Circus by Bil Keane. It's hard to hate a cartoon that is so bad, and so true to its badness. Generally I'll just roll my eyes after glancing at what the Circus kids are saying, but if it's overtly religious I start to taste the barrel of a gun in my mouth. But anyway, it's great material to make fun of, and the characters are fun to draw, so there you have it.
- I drew this one before I knew how to handle a brush, so Keane's brush lines are handled with a crow quill, and hence look pretty choppy.
- On the computer screen is another reference to my first Scarlet & Black cartoon, Third Party.
- Molly Backes, a fellow Langan 3rd resident in '98-'99, has always firmly maintained that the girl in the towel is based on her roommate, Ali. For the record, this is not true. She's based on someone from second floor.
- Some real creative types rode around naked on their bikes during Russell K. Osgood's inauguration. Good work, guys.
- If you're a Family Circus fan, you know that every once in a while Bil Keane takes a "vacation" and lets Billy (his imaginary character) take over writing and drawing duties. Which is odd, since Keane's probably got a gargantuan staff of bible-thumping assistants, and Keane probably doesn't even write or draw the damn things himself anymore, just looks at them after his assistants have finished, blesses them with his rosary, and steps back into the pew.
- I'm sure you'll also recognize the trail that Billy creates when he's off looking for something. I bet Keane never had him playing on train tracks before.
- This is the first time where laughter (in this case, evil laughter) constitutes the punchline.