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I FOUND IT
Dec. 9, 1976

Note: This cartoon (one of my personal favorites), based on the then-current "I Found It" religious movement and intended for the Dec. 9 issue, was never published. I felt it was a brilliant piece of sarcasm, puncturing religion and pop culture with word play and history. The staff advisor felt otherwise. Never sent to the printer, I was able to save the original ink drawing from our paste-up room and impending oblivion.

The original shows a hole cut out above Jesus' right arm, below the trumpeting angels. I can't recall what I had drawn, but I vaguely remember using an X-Acto knife to remove something after speaking with the skittish staff advisor. Apparently removing it wasn't enough to make it suitable for publication!

At the time, I thought that the depiction of Jesus was what caused the pulling of the cartoon. Or my mocking of people's "religious" beliefs. Looking at it now, perhaps it was the humorous familiarity of God calling Jesus "Turkey" (for misquoting Jesus' own words from the Bible) that pushed it past the limits of suburban respectability. One of the first times I realized not everyone liked everything I had to say, especially on the topic of religion.

Just before this cartoon was drawn, my girlfriend broke up with me. In typical teenage angsty fashion, I appear symbolically as a twice-stabbed, belly-up turkey (labeled "ME" so there could be no mistake). Since I didn't get this bit of self-expression out into the universe with this cartoon, the dead turkey stubbornly reappears with Santa Clause in the next one (looking totally out of place in a Christmas setting!). Surprisingly, the staff advisor never asked me to explain the appearance of this gruesome momento mori. Perhaps she feared the answer?




All work displayed on this page © 1976 Rick Hines.
Material may not be used without the artist's written permission.