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A pretty epic one for me - this cartoon only ever intended to be about Dervel at the show. In fact, it was only ever intended to be the very first page! Somehow it grew.The plot about Dervel and Sammy being mixed up was originally going to be a completely seperate cartoon but the concept of being at a show seemed like a good way for the confusion to actually be plausible.
References: Friends (Sammy's "Mr Heckles"-like conversation with Snitch); Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back; Miss World; Aladdin (Turquoise Cage-girl costume);
Notes for non-rat-owners: There are several rat-shows in the UK each year which are like miniature versions of Crufts. As well as being judged on appearance and temperament, there are also fun agility courses. If a male rat (buck) doesn't want to move (rats can be startlingly stubborn) a jokey trick to shift them is to hold a female (doe) in front of them.It works!
I like: The line-up where Dervel tries to disguise himself by altering his ears using a scrunchie.
"In-Jokes": The two references to Dervel's ears are due to a) the fact his ears have changed completely during the evolution of the characters and b) because as a top-eared rat, Dervel's ears in the cartoon are just wrong!
Artist's Notes: A real change in direction with this cartoon - this heralds an alteration in visual style, and one that will continue! This is a favourite cartoon for me as it was the first time I could begin to see it as a 'Real' comic strip...if you get me. No more piddling around.
Also the frame where we see Dervel has decided to get the cage girls to act out a scene from Star Wars is based on something that happened in my own life. A spontaneous re-enacting of the Star Wars trilogy during lunch-time while I was a sixth former. It invloved a rag-tag mix of about 40 people and somehow I was cast as Obi-Wan. For about 5 minutes. Then all the boys objected very strongly, and I was demoted to a stormtrooper.
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