Incredible points. Solid arguments. Keep up the amazing work.
Fuck
— lucianagillies
Is that a command? Or did a spider suddenly skitter across your keyboard? Anyway, this is one of the best pep talks we’ve ever gotten!
Fuck
— Tati & Tony (Thankful Tome Ticklers & Bookmark Bangers of Alliterative Notability)
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
When I reflect with serious sense,
While years and years run on,
How soon I may be summoned hence –
There’s cook a-calling John.
Our lives are built so frail and poor,
On sand and not on rocks,
We’re hourly standing at Death’s door –
There’s some one double knocks.
All human days have settled terms,
Our fates we cannot force;
This flesh of mine will feed the worms –
They’re come to lunch of course!
And when my body’s turned to clay,
And dear friends hear my knell,
Oh let them give a sigh and say –
I hear the upstairs bell!
by THOMAS HOOD (1799-1845)
Public Domain Poetry
Back in 2006, I began a little comic strip about anthropomorphic piggies. I was a rabid, bible-thumping christian at the time and my aim was to anger Jewish folks with a cast of unkosher characters talking about in-your-face spiritual stuff. I honestly thought that they would be incensed. Yeah! I’d show those filthy Christ killers and deniers!
Needless to say, nobody noticed (which I now realise was precisely the appropriate response). Not only did the strips I produced fail to touch on religious themes, they also proved to be quite bland and uninteresting. You could even call them ‘safe’. That’s the worst thing any cartoonist can put out into the world. And whatever the hell I was putting out there wasn’t even being done very well.
Many years later, Tati asked me how these contradictory ideas and creative approach could coexist in one head. Was I trying to fit in with my fellow believers by showing how much a ‘soldier’ for Jesus I could be? Of course, never mind that it was a Jew who began the whole christian religion in the first place, but why let piffling details like that get in the way of self-righteous bigotry? I was taking on the whole goddam heathen world with my misguided scribbles, baby!
What the actual fuck, Tony’s brain?!
Anyway, in 2019 I was no longer a christian, and Tati and I had the idea to revisit this comic strip. We would rewrite and redraw it from the ground up. And this time, it would simply be about some silly piggies living their lives in that universally awkward way that many of us around the world do, no matter our colour, race or creed. Life is messy and unscripted for all of us, and we’re all just trying to do the best we can.
You can find ‘Trottersville’ on Tapas, Webtoon, Ko-fi and our Patreon. We’d love it if you’ll maybe consider supporting us?
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
No, I have no capacity for life.
I could be considered foolish –
Today I am not going to the restaurant.
I am after all this time weary of the waiters,
Who scornfully bring us, with their smug grimaces,
Dark beer and make us so confused
That we cannot find our home
And we must
Use the foolish street lights
To prop ourselves up
with weak hands.
Today I have bigger things in mind –
Ah, I shall find out the meaning of existence.
And in the evening I shall do some roller skating
Or go at some point to Temple.
by ALFRED LICHTENSTEIN (1889-1914)
Public Domain Poetry
unbolt me 