Sunday Mailbag

Q: Regarding your posted porta-pottie-pic from (yesterday), who’s the bust sculpture of on the left? Okay.¬¨‚Ć It’s a simple question that may not be worthy of a Sunday mailbag, but one never knows how long the story may be that goes with the bust!

A: This is exactly the kind of question to answer on a day I am driving all the way back to Minnesota from Marceline, so thanks!

That bust is something I got about 4 or 5 years ago from a small entrepreneur that was making them for a time. It’s hard to find them now, as I do not think anyone is making them nor has for years. It’s of Shakespeare of course, and anyone who has ever watched the Batman TV show from the sixties should recognize it immediately:

Just an innocent bust of Shakespeare?

Me thinks not!!

The bust’s electronic innards act as a switch. There is a cord to plugging into an outlet and another to plug something into, and flipping the switch turns that something on.

The plan was to rig this to a sliding bookcase that would roll aside to reveal a shaft with a pole in it, which I would slide down into a secret underground cavern full of crime fighting equipment. Unfortunately there was no underground cavern beneath my house, and apparently it would cost a lot of money to dig one out. The Lovely Anna puts up with me buying expensive home theater and audio gear, computers, Batman toys and that kind of stuff… but apparently secret underground caverns is where she draws the line.

So, it turns on my light table.

That’s not as cool as opening a secret door to your batcave, but you can’t have it all.

Thanks to Kevin Richlin from San Jose, CA for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!