Sketchy

Clockwise.

–

I Am a Bride

IT JUST MAKES MY HEART GO LIKE

my cartoon for yesterday’s @guardian review

#library

Art by Alena Aenami on Artstation.

So it occurred to me that ‘grawlix’ is sort of an obscure and specialized word, but what I didn’t know until I was googling around just now is that it was actually invented by cartoonist Mort Walker in his 1980 book The Lexicon of Comicana, in which he categorizes (and invents terminology for) all kinds of visual cues and shorthand commonly used in comics

a rough translation/adaptation

Yesterday, Licinius, luxurious in leisure,

We played together, you and I, on these boards of mine.

It was agreed we’d come together

In the most charming way,

And we both scribbled down our neat little verses,

Skipping between forms,

Dallying first in one meter, then another,

Filling our tablets as often as our wine cups,

Sly jokes passing between us.

And I have to tell you, Licinius, your charms infected me-

I departed, mind on fire from your clever ways.

And since then my misery is such that mere food can’t sate me.

Nor could sleep quiet my staring eyes,

As I tossed all night on my bed, burning,

Desiring only for the light to come

So that I might be with you and talk with you.

But after, with my exhausted limbs splayed,

Lying half-dead here on my couch,

I wrote these words for you, my darling,

So by these lines, you might know my pain.

Now, be careful, delight of my eye,

Don’t be proud, and don’t disdain my offering,

Lest Nemesis repay you with punishments.