A thoughtful round on life’s eternal verities.

“All Aboard for Mars” is a cartoon slide show using all of my characters from “Doug and Mike’s Adult Entertainment.”  I’d grown quite familiar with them; and wondered what they would be like in another setting, without Mike’s characters.  I sketched the whole business with pencil and markers, rather than my usual ink, and performed it on R. Sikoryak’s long-running series “Carousel.”  The acting class went on an expedition to Mars, where they were captured by Martians and forced to put on a talent show.  Doug’s nephew Kevin won handily, and was crowned king.   Here’s the exciting scene where they almost crash into an asteroid.

Eddie Gray, my ventriloquial sidekick, became a detective in this skit, which we performed at various downtown spaces in the ’80s.  Jay Geary played Sergeant Groggins, and I portrayed Eddie’s assistant, thus giving Eddie two clueless adults to deal with.

Some evocative pictures of Doug and Eddie, in this proof sheet by Laurie Simmons.

Mark Maynard thought this up for his zine Crimewave USA.  I bear Marilyn Vos Savant no ill will; I hope she learned something.  I also did this on stage once, with Michael O’Connor reading the questions, at the late lamented Surf Reality in NYC.

The seventh string quartet is for four violas. Here’s the beginning of the second movement, based on a theme I heard in a dream. In the dream, I was singing it with these words: “Oh, dear, you’ll never understand; you’ll keep on for that undiscovered land.” I suppose that is what I do.  If this musical scrap is due to cryptamnesia, or to a neighbor’s radio, I apologize to all concerned. When I woke up, I wrote it down, added a counter-melody, and then developed it into a four-part round.