Mea culpa. I don’t know why this didn’t go up first thing this morning, but you know, sometimes life happens.
Anyway, this is where the cartoons start to get out of sync with the current calendar date. Right now, in the real world, it’s Spring, it’s balmy, things are turning green everywhere and summer isn’t too far off. But in the world of Rats…
We’re into a series of cartoons I drew for October of 1989, and the subject was Pumpkin Wars. Every October, the freshman/rats had to come up with a jack o’lantern that the upper classmen dubbed the Great General Pumpkin. The Great General Pumpkin was stationed in the company area on the desk where the announcements board was posted. So long as he was there, we had to speak up and act as normal in the company area. But if the Great General Pumpkin disappeared from the company area, the rats got to be “at ease” in the halls and didn’t have to speak up to anyone. I can’t recall if it was just in the company area halls or the entire dorm. Part of me wants to say the entire dorm because I have this vague memory of being in Kilo Company area (which was where all the 2nd Battalion female dorm rooms were, regardless of what company you were in) and seeing a lot of upper classmen scowling at me because they knew our pumpkin had gone missing and I didn’t have to speak up. But I can’t be sure because my memory on that is not so clear.
Anyway, the promise of “at ease” in the hallways and no speaking up lead to some pretty wild antics on the part of the freshmen to hide the Great General Pumpkin, which in turn led to some pretty wild antics on the part of the upper classmen to find him and restore him to his place. You’ll see that play out over the next few weeks, as I drew a few more strips on the subject.
Sorry again about being late today. Honestly, I have no idea why this did not go up on time today!
