"Mammoth Beard"

 

Occurred to me afterwards that nobody knows what the hell I’m talking about here (cue narrator: "Only NOW?"). As in, most folks think the kid’s just pointing at the bearded dude as if HE’S the fossil, when really I meant it as a meta-commentary of my unkempt and unchecked growth. To clarify: once or twice a year it overtakes my face until I become overly hyper-conscious that there’s something sitting on my lip, at which point it must go. Recently I even heard it referred to as a “depression mustache,” which when a guy just basically gives up and no longer cares about basics such as appearance and hygiene. That probably covers many if not a majority of men in this neck of the woods. Anyway, as to my opening observation, I eventually added in the bones from the original sketch done many years ago so as to facilitate the connection that there are dead things cached in the nest of facial fur. Bon us trivia: the original inspiration behind this doodle (straight off the sketchbook, but drawn slightly better than the usual "Nuggets Sketchbook" series especially since it was rendered with dip-pen + India ink as opposed to the normal ballpoint) will be unearthed again as the source material for yet another upcoming panel.