Lately I keep finding myself in conversations about fashion’s tendency toward revivalism and pastiche. It seems especially commonplace in the last decade, but it ain’t a new phenomenon. Before the ’00s riffed on the ’80s, the ’80s was really into the ’50s. It took us the last twenty years to try to forget that bellbottoms made a comeback in the ’90s, but it was the Roaring Twenties that sported ‘em first. So, granted, these things are cyclical. But! Here’s a little nugget of late-night wisdom for you: they’re also political.

Okay, okay, maybe I’m not blowing your mind here. Yes, you may have already noticed that women wore gigantic, man-shaping shoulder pads both times they found themselves trying to muscle into the office, in the ’40s and the ’80s. But check this out, I think you can predict what era will be in vogue for a comeback by who is in the White House. Eisenhower and Reagan both hated Commies and glorified the notion of a clean, orderly suburbia with plenty of time-saving gizmos and great new stuff to acquire. Change the Commies to Evildoers and it’s easy to understand how the ’80s were so huge in the ’00s. The Obamas/Kennedys-era fixation with long, sharp silhouettes and solid colors has already been discussed enough.

How about, let’s try for a bit of a stretch. Teddy Roosevelt and LBJ both replaced assassinated presidents. They also both used their executive might to take on too-big corporate interests. What was all the rage with hippies? Cowboy stuff! Fringe, leather, big facial hair. It was positively turn of the century!

Well, aren’t you glad we got through that? Are you just here to look at the pictures anyway? Alright, then. This I drew on the Greyhound some time. It’s Don Rosa (as best I could remember) at a barbecue in Charlotte, thinking about Scrooge McDuck (who looks something like that?) who’s thinking about money. Well anyhow, the point is they have similar hair and glasses and mouths. Gahd, cut to the picture already!!

Since last I wrote, I’ve been jamming out an anthology comic with friends Josh, Betsey, and Ben (the last two need to get their internet asses in gear, so I ain’t got shit to link to). It’s about how a cult rock musical from the ’70s has affected people throughout the decades. The movie’s about a hermaphrodite alien who comes to earth, falls in love with a farm boy, and changes his gender (because, obviously, her alien vagina isn’t compatible with a human penis, but her alien phallus fits just fine in a man’s vaj).

So here’s the cover, before it got type. I’ll show you the final after it’s got some gold screen printed onto it.

What an adventure my love dove/co-writer and I had at Natural History on Monday! That place is the best. We were researching for Petrified Girlfriend locations, she with her camera and I with my sketchbook. Mostly we she took pictures. I offended Caitlin’s sensibilities by making her take pictures that look terrible as photographs but are useful for aiding a drawing. So there we were, making tasteless images with flash reflections on glass and blown out light areas that served no purpose but reproducing the displays placed in front of us. Like a couple of tourists. In the dim exhibition halls the camera’s flash was too weak to capture the room and we didn’t have a tripod for some long exposures, so I dashed off a couple drawings to get down the two best spaces while Cait drew plants and animals.

This isn’t to say that Caitlin didn’t get some really cool shots – hell, any of em that she really set up totally beat my drawings. Like check this out (in a Frog Blog first – photography):

I’ve gotta say, though, the dinosaurs have stopped doing it for me. I think ever since they remodeled that whole floor. Maybe it’s just a coincidence and I got old at the same time that happened, but I’m thinking maybe all the clinical, modern glass, and the layout built around evolutionary lineage rather than dramatic impact had an effect. I mean, I’m glad they have the T-Rex standing properly and they’re doing more to teach evolution and all. I just think the ocean life redesign works better because it retains the mysterious cavern atmosphere that the older mammal exhibits still have – plus it has those cool aquatic sounds!

Anyhow, I’m glad I’m not Craig Thompson, and I don’t consider taking reference photos to be cheating. Cause if I was, it would take me a really long time to make a comic that takes place anywhere specific. And I wouldn’t get this snapshot:

Or this cover for Caitlin’s 1978 solo album, Amethyst: