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Monday 24 January 2011

"Poor Robin Crusoe! Poor Robin Crusoe!"


And just how many points did yours truly garner this week? Go on, take a wild guess. That's right, not a sausage. Not even a chipolata. Zilchola. And small wonder when you consider what my scratchings were up against this week. A very deserved win, in my opinion, by Mr. Mahoney and a very nice bloke to boot.
I really am my own worst enemy at times. The brief for this week's competition was a cartoon with Desert Island as a theme with an optional caption. In other words I could have drawn and written anything I like. So, being me, I concentrated on a character from literature - Robinson Crusoe - and opted to do without a caption. An edgy maverick, that's me! Without any points.
My thinking went like this: which archetypal character do you associate with desert islands? Long John Silver. Well Treasure Island was uninhabited (except for Ben Gunn) until the Hispaniola hove into view. What if he met up with Robinson Crusoe? Mental image: Long John Silver and Robinson Crusoe looking non-plussed at each other. Either one of them could be saying, "well, one of us is in the wrong novel." Yes, hardly a side-splitter is it? Then I got to thinking about Robinson Crusoe. What is the most iconic image of this fictional character that springs to mind? Well, my mind anyway. Crusoe's discovery of a footprint, not his own, naturellement n'est pas? Would he be startled by a footprint? Possibly. Would he be startled by a Nike trainer? OH MOST UNDOUBTEDLY YES! And how hilarious would that be? OUTSTANDINGLY HILARIOUS! And how many points did it get? LLAREGYB!

8 comments:

  1. Never mind Brendan at least you took part !!!!!! It's the taking part that counts.....isn't it .....ok go on tell me to @/x; ~*f then....lol

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  2. John, I would never tell you to ampersand off! :)

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  3. As we've known each other for over 30 years, I'm sure you'll take this as constructive criticism, Brendan and, also in the spirit it is intended.

    You still have the tendency to over-intellectualise your cartoons - use well known figures, by all means but much of your audience may not be anywhere near as well read as you. Even I'm not and I'm an English teacher, for god's sake! (Serious hat stuff).

    Go on, tell me to . . .

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  4. By the way - that's not a slur on any of your readership here - I probably meant your intended audience.

    Oh, and welcome back to Blogland.

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  5. Dave, my thinking has ever been thus: If a simpleton like me can get it, it therefore follows that anyone can. I know that this is deeply flawed logic and I need to step back a little. Without giving too much away, I still think my Formby/Keats idea has legs.
    By the by, ampersand off! :p

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  6. Oh, Robinson Crusoe; I thought it was Tom Hanks! Actually, I thought it some random chap..Robinson Crusoe goes foot in trainer for the old stranded on an island concept..I might have done, fashioning a boat out of a ridiculously large Coconut..

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  7. Mark, I'm beginning to think this may be an age thing. When I was a wee tyke, any depiction of Robinson Crusoe was of him discovering a footprint in the sand. Nurse! I'm ready for my cocoa now.

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  8. I remember Robinson Crusoe and also Treasure Island from my childhood. Any great detail was only there lingering in the moment though as a 7/8 year old say; the foot print was a distant memory. I would have remembered straight away if I saw the foot print however as that would have had the trigger effect (no, not Only Fools and Horses). I think I subconsciously got it when I saw the trainer concept. Ouch, my brain hurts now..

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