Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 3/16/05
Artist's Statement
All credit for this cartoon goes to webmaster
Dave, who thought it up while I was not even around. Interestingly, however,
it happens to dovetail with a conceit my old friend Michael thought up back
in middle or high school, of a big afterlife game show where the host would
finally spin the big wheel to reveal, "The right religion was... HINDU!"
and all the Hindus would pump their fists in triumph and yell "Yess!"
and everyone else, the Christians and Muslims and Buddhists and Jews and Taoists
and Aminists, would clutch their heads and hiss, "Shit!' and just have
to give it another go next time around. Maybe they'd get versions of the home
game or cases of Turtle Wax as consolation prizes.
No particular disrespect to the Pope intended--just seemed like a funny idea.
I'm sure the Pope is a nice old man, though it occurs to me that if he was
my next-door neighbor instead of the leader of a major world religion but
still believed that all contraception is a sin and had only admitted that
Galileo was right in the Nineties, he would seem like an affable crackpot
and I would probably avoid conversations with him.
I copied the drawing of Vishnu out of the copy of the Bahagavad-Gita
given to me by Hare Krishnas at an airport when I was a child, with fucked-up
color plate illustrations that blew my freaking mind when I was eight years
old. You think it's easy drawing all that ornamentation? It's not.
Thanks to some guy at the Polish Club in Fell's Point who gave me not only
the Polish translation for "crap" but five different kinds of sausage
and crazy spherical donuts with powdered sugar and raisins.
Jim Fisher would like me to remind fans of The Pain that he almost fucking
died. He is still in the hospital on an IV diet, watching crap like Mary-Kate
and Ashley: The Challenge and episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show with
me. Currently his fondest dream is to own a new refrigerator that makes crushed
ice. Those wishing to donate any amount of money to this very worthy cause
may contribute at:
Admirers of Jim's
character and cartoons may send get-well wishes to:
James Fisher
Room 2101
Christiana Hospital
4755 Ogletown-Stanton Road
Newark, DE 19718
or via e-mail at: http://www.christianacare.org/body.cfm?id=263