Acid in Tubes

Crazy Crab

July 18th was Crazy Crab day. If you don't already know Crazy Crab is the greatest mascot in the history of sports. Heck, he could be the single greatest thing *in* sports!

Crazy Crab was the San Francisco Giants’ "anti-mascot" during the woeful 1984 season . It was intended to lampoon the new influx of mascots to baseball in the late seventies-early eighties. Fans were encouraged to boo and even pelt the poor costumed crustacean with hot dogs and popcorn as he scuttled sideways around the field. Even the players would get into the act, taking out their frustrations with bats and resin bags to the point that the crab required reinforced fiberglass coating added to the costume. His reign lasted only one season but in the ensuing years he has become something of a cult figure. He came back for the very last Dodgers series at Candlestick Park (he came out in a Limo and his eye fell off) and today they had Crazy Crab Bobblehead Night. He has a fan site here.

In March I was invited to be "Cartoonist-in-Residence" at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. This involved sitting in the museum for a Saturday afternoon fielding questions and drawing a comic strip. It was the semi-official launch of a new comic strip I have been working on called "Rabbits Against Magic". In case you didn't know the Cartoon Art Museum is one of only about four museums in the US dedicated to cartoons and comic strips. They have an excellent permanent collection (including a Walt Kelly Pogo daily and a couple of George Herriman originals, one of which--a Krazy Kat Sunday--is the jewel of the collection). In the Bay Area we are lucky to have two (the other being the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Here's the strip I drew "live" that day. I'm not used to drawing while people are watching.