What am I on? Back in 2000, I was on VeloNews.
More Dark Ages cartoonery: This time you can blame Khal Spencer, who in comments recalled a VeloNews ‘toon I drew back in 2000, which seems like an awfully long time ago, in part because it was. And yet it seems so … timely, for some strange reason.
This may have been the introduction of a nameless recurring character, a reptilian dope fiend who, like the Fat Guy, grew progressively uglier as the years dragged on. Though the Fat Guy, of course, has yet to test positive for anything stronger than gravy.
Mad Blog Media 
October 12, 2012 at 7:45 pm |
Yep, that was it. Thank you, Patrick!
October 12, 2012 at 8:17 pm |
Love seeing these cartoons!
October 12, 2012 at 9:22 pm |
I defy anyone to say that’s not lmao funny. Amazing talent you have Patrick.
October 12, 2012 at 11:31 pm |
Gotta hand it to VeloNews. Matt and Neal have been no-holds-barred on this thing. Neal’s “what it means to those involved” especially.
October 13, 2012 at 7:17 am |
Patrick, do you mind if I use that cartoon with a tip of the beer stein your way? Got my own snide remarks on the bombtown site.
October 13, 2012 at 8:52 am |
Not at all … use away, Mr. K.
October 13, 2012 at 2:35 pm |
Muchas gracias..
October 13, 2012 at 7:40 am |
Any chance of compiling all of the old cartoons into, say, an on-demand ebook or something? Got a tri-fold appeal here.
One, they’re pretty damn funny.
Two, it would be a good pre-frontal cortex exercise to see how many I’d remember. If only to remind myself how much money I spent buying magazines featuring dudes riding bikes in their skivvies.
And three, mostly timely, topical humor, so I for one would get a kick out of trying to place the context.
October 13, 2012 at 8:09 am |
I have to echo this. I only get the on-line version of BRAIN these days, so I don’t get to see your cartoons anymore.
Come to think of it, I haven’t been able to find any of your stuff over at the BRAIN website. Could you do your loyal following (cough, cough) a favor and let us know when some of your stuff gets posted over at BRAIN or elsewhere? We just like to see how much material you recycle.
October 14, 2012 at 4:06 pm |
I’ve thought about doing another cartoon collection, but one of the problems I have with the notion is the same one I had with the original: Most of the stuff was so dated that as I assembled it all I decided I needed to write explanatory notes under each ‘toon to remind folks what I had been raving about at the time.
Doing a collection of the “Shop Talk” strips from BRAIN wouldn’t require as much of that, because it’s less about what’s going on cycling right that minute and more about making silly-ass jokes.
And speaking of BRAIN, I don’t know whether they’re archiving any of my stuff on the site. An editor or two ago I told them I wouldn’t mind, but the site’s been through a redesign since, so if they had been archived, who knows where the hell they are now?
I should archive some of that stuff myself. It doesn’t all suck, no matter what the readers, advertisers and editors say.
October 15, 2012 at 3:31 am |
Re: dated / timeliness
I actually see that as a good thing. Each cartoon would be either funny or a brain puzzler (and then funny).
October 13, 2012 at 7:46 am |
This cartoon points out well the sheer audacity of the BigTex scam. Not only did the cheat pretty much through his entire career but did a whole lot of implying that while others might have been cheating HE was certainly NOT! While plenty of others in cycling history have cheated, have any crowed so loudly to the contrary?. Ol’ Karl Rove uses the same BIG LIE strategy with his Repuglican Party. Once BigTex is officially yanked out of the record books, let the lawsuits begin! Looks like the Sunday Times of London is already in the starting blocks.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13056/Sunday-Times-considering-legal-action-against-Armstrong.aspx
October 13, 2012 at 7:12 pm |
Larry, isn’t that the case with a lot of deniers?
They deny that they do what it is that they find most inexcusable, imply that everyone else does the inexcusable, and then look surprised when they are caught doing the same?
Usually this involves cops breaking the law, politicians with hands in cookie jars, anti-gay gays, etc. So it should not come as a surprise that dopers who claim innocence – or at least insist that they are ‘above the law’ – react the same way. As someone who is very smart once said: if you keep telling a lie, at some point you believe it so it must be true (or something like that).
I wonder: has anyone seen anything from Filippo Simeoni since this story unraveled? He and Kimmage should get together and write a scathing book about this entire fiasco. I would read it!
October 14, 2012 at 2:21 pm |
Sure, look at Rush Windbag going on and on about how dope addicts should all be locked up, while doing his own hate-radio shows fueled by pain killers obtained via phony RX’s. Cheats are one thing, hypocrites another! Simeoni’s made a few comments on various websites and I wonder if the UCI will now have the audacity to show up at their court proceeding against Kimmage in light of the recent revelations about their governance (or lack thereof)?
October 13, 2012 at 11:24 am |
Still out there – http://www.amazon.com/Season-Starts-Cycling-Cartoons-OGrady/dp/1884737668/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1350148938&sr=8-16&keywords=the+season+starts+when%3F
I’ve still got a copy on my shelf. Must be good, someone is asking more than a $100 for a new copy!
October 14, 2012 at 8:30 am |
Wow! $100 for a new copy.
Mine is PO autographed…maybe $102.49?
October 14, 2012 at 4:07 pm |
Somebody’s smoking weed. I was astonished that anyone bought it at $12.95.
October 14, 2012 at 5:04 pm |
My copy was a gift *lol*
October 14, 2012 at 7:06 pm |
$240!!! Plus $4 for shipping!
October 14, 2012 at 7:20 pm |
Soooo, clearly we’ve gone from smoking weed to smoking ice. Who is this, Mitt Romney? No, he clearly has no sense of humor.
October 13, 2012 at 1:45 pm |
Good one OG, brings back some memories. The sad part is that even back then everyone with a clue about bike racing knew Postal was running on a lot more than bread and water, and it took until now before anybody did anything about it.
October 13, 2012 at 1:54 pm |
If I’m going to pay that much would rather it come directly from the artist. Do you have any more copies Patrick? Would love to get an authographed copy for $100?
October 13, 2012 at 2:36 pm |
For $100, I’d only buy it if it is both signed and beer-stained.
October 13, 2012 at 2:38 pm |
One of the reasons I enjoy your comics so much. If you had been that truthful with words then, you would not have made a living in this industry. Therefore I look to the comics for the truth, as always.
October 14, 2012 at 4:55 pm |
Oh, I was writing some pretty nasty stuff too back in 2000. By that time I’d been involved in cycling journalism for 11 years and my cherry was long gone.
But like the ‘toons, it was obvious to even the dumbest shyster that whatever I wrote was fairly boiling over with satire and parody, which enjoy a little greater latitude than straight reportage when thin-skinned types start bandying about words like “libel” and “lawsuit” — especially when one is heaping said satire and parody atop a public figure.
I will confess to dialing my act down a notch from time to time. I didn’t want to make things any harder on the guys in the field than was absolutely necessary. I was making my little japes at other people’s expense from the comfort of the home office; they were actually out there going face to face with the objects of my derision.
October 15, 2012 at 8:14 am |
Speaking of the funnies … What does As the Toto Turns do now? No funny dealing in double-speak when the truth is out n
October 15, 2012 at 10:02 am |
Nike Advertisement, original and revised, courtesy of Bike Radar.
revised…
October 16, 2012 at 7:51 pm |
This cartoon has inspired my Halloween costume: a USPS yellow jersey with cycling shorts and a meat-basting syringe hanging out the back. Fortunately I have the physique to pull that off. Unfortunately I don’t have the bike speed to pull that one off… 😛