"Xmas 2012"

This panel was actually completed way ahead of the curve: usually I'm a couple/few months out, on a seasonal cycle that's disconnected with the real calendar. So if you ever wonder why I'm suffering from SAD on a hot summer day in March when there's 21-hours of daylight, it's a simple matter of projection... call it "method" cartooning.

Here's a little bonus peek at process: after banging out a big ol' batch o' funnies, I more or less kinda doodled this holiday panel out on a leftover scrap of Bristol. Hence the clusterfuck composition plainly seen on the scan of the original linework posted above. Some judicious digital editing salvaged it mainly by opening up some visual breathing room around the elements - an example being the cramped lettering. As evidenced by the smudging, I also obviously committed another beginning-level cardinal sin - that of not waiting long enough for the damn ink to dry before erasing the underlying pencil. Normally in the studio setup there'll be hairdryer holstered under the drawing table (that and be juggling multiple panels/pages in varying stages of completion), but what with all the migrating going on as of late, I'm lucky enough to at least have a back room and a simple space to work in as it is.

Edit, edit, edit... another mid-course correction was made to edit away from any depiction of indigenous culture - as mentioned briefly in an earlier panel, the usage of cartoon animals often affords a convenient (and most of the time, funnier) dodge, so as to avoid the baggage of incidental assumptions and problematic stereotypes that detract from the underlying stupidity of the original work.
Merry Xmas anyways.