Dropping In

Like myself, prolific pensmith Blue Eyes Wolf (the top chap who inspired the WWWOLF picture, and who occasionally goes by the name of Edward Roche) is very much of the opinion that hyenas have been given rather bad press by the likes of Disney and other cartoony animation-type people. In works of fiction, hyena characters always tend to end up as sleazy, mean-spirited villains or congenital idiots, while the foxes and the lions and the rabbits get to hog the limelight (the writers conveniently leaving out all the bits about poultry-savaging, tourist-eating and fun with mixamatosis). All in all, hyenas are about level with anthrax in terms of popularity; but nobody tells us what to think, right readers?

With the view that the world’s hyenas ought to stick together, Mr Wolf has created a whole series of joyously colourful, characterful comic-style illos in which his character Laff – a friendly, fun-loving ex-circus performer who prefers juggling rubber chickens to pulling the heads off live ones – meets up with Maxted (the furry bloke based on a friend of mine) on a kind of cultural exchange trip. Here we see Maxted getting dropped off in a very literal sense, and taking his Californian host somewhat by surprise. Still, at least he’s got something soft to land on.

Blue Eyes’ artistic abilities are surpassed only by his sheer generosity in coming up with so many spiffing illustrations, each of which demonstrates exactly the kind of imaginative silliness the world could do with lots more of. Chuck Jones would be proud, and if you’d like to join us all in giving Mr Wolf three hearty Hurrahs! for being so unremittingly excellent, you can do so at the click of a button.

Oh, and Laff is the copyright of his creator, by the way. For those of you who need reminding. You know who you are.

Matthew Smith

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