This cartoon, in the February issue of Reader's Digest, is one of those where the magazine wanted an edit. Originally I had another line at the end in the speech bubble: "I expect he'll be here soon." But I think they thought the point was already made. I think they were right.
I find that editors usually are right (probably because I used to be a newspaper sub-editor myself!) so I'm never very precious about making changes. I always think of that Gary Larson line: when his editor suggested the title "The Far Side", Larson was just so happy to be seeing his stuff in print that his comment later was, "They could have called it Revenge of the Zucchini People for all I cared".
This is not the first Waiting for Godot cartoon I've done. I'm not a huge Beckett fan or anything, but I studied it for A-level so it's etched on my brain - particularly the memory of a young, female teacher reading out the line "let's hang ourselves, it'd give us an erection". Never forgotten that for some reason ...
This is another cartoon submitted for the "But is it Art?" exhibition, part of the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.
Cartoons by Royston