I don’t think Deed The Inky has many ginger-haired people. I guess we are all gulty in our own ways.

The last cartoon I posted (the Homeopathy one) caused something of an unexpected stir, in that it got more complaints than the cartoon which may or may not have depicted Muhammed. So I thought I’d come back with a theme week in which the delicate subject of racism is dealt with in the most appropriate of mediums, retarded internet cartoons.

I don’t think this one is all that funny particularly, but I felt I had to get something out on this topic. In case you are unfamiliar with the subect matter, Pope Benedict XVI recently visited the UK, my homeland, and gave a speech which alluded to the idea that Nazism was an atheist movement. This was quite a ballsy move in a country where two of the three political party leaders (including the deputy Prime Minister) are atheists, along with at least 40% of the population. It also set off a lot of people like this douchebag.

It was also, in my opinion, complete bullshit. I am not especially religious personally, and my general attitude is that I’ll leave religion alone as long as it leaves me alone. I like to think I respect other people’s beliefs, I just don’t subscribe to them necessarily. But I also have to call bullshit when I hear it, Pope or not. A quick five-minute Google session pretty much unravels the entire thing; he seems to have been raised in a Catholic family, then lapsed out of Catholicism into a sort of non-specific ancient Roman Empire type thing. Also he said stuff like “We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” Which is convincing enough for me.

It also seems like an odd thing to say, because there are many other perfectly nasty dictators who you could quite easily point the atheism stick at. Pretty much any communist dictator would fit the bill, particularly Stalin. Unfortunately the Pope had to go and Godwin himself out of the debate on the first move. Live and learn, I suppose.

Let’s see if I can get my Facebook fan page down to single digits by the end of this week….

The thing about this scam too, is that it’s actually a less gratuitous scam than the ones the banks have been pulling. Plus it would totally work.

There is an important exception to this rule, which I am sure to be called out on – the moons of Uranus do not follow this particular astronomical naming convention. They are named after characters from Shakespeare. Except for some that aren’t. They are named after characters from an Alexander Pope poem. I don’t know why. Man, screw Uranus. (Hur hur)

I’ve always thought there was something vaguely sinister about birds. I’m pretty sure this is what it is.

First comic back since the site’s sort-of-accidental hiatus! For the time being, comics will have to be hand-drawn and not coloured I’m afraid, because I just don’t have time to do full-colour ones all the time. That’s kind of what caused the hiatus in the first place. I’ll try to do as many colour ones as I can though!

I have finally returned after a protracted, job-switching absence. This comic is probably such a non-sequitur that it will alienate everybody except me. Enjoy!

P.S. At least it’s not a Ghost Crab comic. You guys seem to really not like Ghost Crab.

Also a second recommendation to DickensURL, which does the same thing but gives you a URL which is a line from Charles Dickens. Ours is http://dickensurl.com/4303/Old_Marley_was_as_dead_as_a_doornail.

So February 1st is Hourly Comics Day, which is more or less what you would expect – if you are inclined to draw comics, February 1st is a day to draw one comic per hour for every hour you are awake. I vowed to do it this year, forgot, and then did it anyway several days later. It did not go particularly well but here are the results anyway. I am very sorry.

Just to clear up any confusion with this comic, Halliburton really is totally all about rape. Actually, so are about 30 Republican Senators, including John McCain. Stay classy, everyone.

Oh yeah, and AT&T networks can’t handle the iPhone. So their solution is to tell people to not use their iPhones so much.