I didn’t manage to do a strip without any cats in it on Monday, so to compensate I managed to do it in this one. It’s good to have Humprey Earthworm back.
Category / Smith
Tracks
This was originally planned as a story that was going to be told by the tracks alone, but I decided that it required Smudge on her wall to make it obvious what had happened. I tried drawing paw pad prints in each one of the impressions in the snow, but by happy accident they ended up looking like smiley faces.
What the fox hat
My wife Linda has an extensive selection of wooly hats with ears on them. There’s a bear one, which is the one most people have, but she also has a badger hat and a fox hat. Suffice to say, a little bit of idea inversion produced today’s strip.
Bigpaw
Another one of those strips where the colouring worked out just right. And look! Perspective! And an aerial view! You don’t get that from me very often. Enjoy it while it lasts.
David
David. As in the guy who slew Goliath in the Bible. Probably never known as ‘Slingshot Ears’.
Pukak
Pukak is the Icelandic word for snow with an icy crust. You’re welcome.
Snow bunny
Silence
A Comics Sherpa Editors Pick, probably because of the blank speech balloons in the first two panels.
Wait a few minutes
There’s a saying they have in Eastern New Mexico, on the edge of the plains where my in-laws live. They say: ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes – it’ll be something else’. Strangely, in England we have exactly the same saying.
The cold snap has appeared on schedule. However, it’s only due to last for about a week or so, and then be replaced with more high temperatures, torrential rain and gale force winds. In this strip it’ll last until the beginning of March, as being stuck in Storm Goliath just after Christmas inspired a lot of snow and cold gags.
Sideways
Sometime I colour up a strip and think it’s turned out just right. This one, especially the last panel, is one of those strips.