Mike Lynch Cartoon in September 2006 Prospect Magazine (UK)

Prospect Magazine has a new cartoon by me on page 77. Prospect is a UK magazine, which can be found at a few US newsstands now. It's a good mag, with some thoughtful writing.


This particular cartoon was turned down by 10 other markets before Prospect bought it. I scanned the first version in on February 5, 2006. Here it is:


This is the version that I mailed out every couple of weeks. I liked the gag, and wanted to see it sell. You can see that in the final version, it's much tighter and the violinist is leaning over in serious gypsy playing mode.

I was thinking of a parent telling me about the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. He took his kids there regularly. At this restaurant which caters to kids (I've never been to one myself), fur-covered robots of the Chuck E. Cheese charracters "play" music onstage. He told me they played the Elvis Presley "Hound Dog" tune. The kids liked the music. It was their first exposure to the song. But, he pointed out, some day, later on in life, they'll hear the real original Elvis sing it.

And they'll say, Hey! That guy is copying the Chuck E. Cheese band!

So, sometimes our frame of reference is out of whack. And the fact that people are hearing things for the first time on their cell phones came to mind. The cartoon followed.