I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it to be true.
Bertrand Russell (1928) Skeptical Essays, I
Space Moose Annotations
The following comments were written by Adam Somebodyorother, the author of Spacemoose. In some cases I have edited them to remove his real name, as per his wishes (that's right, Somebodyorother is not his real surname).
The dates given indicate when the comment was written, not when the strip was penned.
- How long has he been in there?
There were at least two interpretations of this strip. After one friend finished reading it, he said, "that is so true. Deep Sleep 9 is just boring!" I didn't say anything then, but the real joke that I had intended is obvious if you look at Space's pants and the hair all over his right hand. This strip ran on the same day that Deep Space 9 premiered. [October 3, 1995]
- Stop the mutilation!
Space Moose momentarily steps out of character to deliver an important message in this very crudely drawn strip. Apparently, some Jewish folks on campus were incensed by it, which I found odd since there was clearly nothing pointed at Judaism. Circumcision is far from an exclusively Jewish practise. A Jew taking offense to a joke about circumcision is like a Baptist taking offense to a joke about bathing with clothes on. No formal complaints were lodged.
[June 4, 1997]
- My client is a virgin
I had the idea for this strip for a long time before I sat down and drew it. I felt I couldn't just throw Space into the courtroom without explaining why he was there, so I did a lead-up strip the week before. The lead-up strip was really lame (check it out if you don't believe me: It's a summons), and now I realise that it was completely unnecessary. Nowadays, I don't bother explaining Space's various predicaments so conspicuously. The clever readers will be able to figure out what's going on with little effort, and the not-so-clever readers -- frankly, I think they should stick with "Hi and Lois". [November 1, 1995]
- It's Barney!
Barney the dinosaur quickly became America's favorite kicking post after his frightening and inexplicable rise to fame in the early 90's. His saccharine lessons and politically correct bastardizations of classic nursery rhymes repelled everyone but the youngest and most undiscerning viewers. Pretty soon, Barney was being touted as the epitome of lameness and being ridiculed by every two-bit comedian in Western civilization. This is Space Moose's first shot at the obese thunder lizard, but not his last. The portrait in frame 2 contains the first depiction of male genitalia in a Space Moose strip.
[September 8, 1997]
- Hey, Bald Dwarf, did you just fart?
There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding this strip. Someone recently asked me if the text in the last two frames was censored. No. Thankfully there is no censorship on this web site, nor in any of the archived strips (except, of course, for Censored). The punchline here was non-verbal. After a frame 5 pause, Space Moose starts to grin as he acknowledges his shrewd victory over Bald Dwarf. Perhaps the diction was too subtle (I use 'diction' because I cannot think of a better word to refer to the use of drawings to tell a story). A close-up shot of Space Moose at the end would have been better, perhaps with him winking to the reader or giving the thumbs up like in Happy birthday, Miranda. Also, some stink lines might have been cool.
[May 21, 1997]
- Tales of the hackneyed demagogue
I'm sure every university has at least one pot-head demagogue who attends every free lecture on campus and polutes question period with self-righteous ramblings and threadbare questions. At the U of A, we have David Malmo-Levine, a paranoid marijuana advocate who believes the police, the media, the university, and everything else is conspiratorially responsible for everything from civilian massacres in East Timor to issuing fines for his bicycle riding violations in downtown Edmonton. Viva l'idiot!
"I'm also sure that every university has at least one crass, lazy-ass
fool who insists on stinking out the entire comics section of the campus
newspaper with self-righteous ramblings and offensive cartoons."
- a Space Moose detractor to me via e-mail
- Space Moose: the origin
This is a rare glimpse into Space Moose's extraterrestrial history. Observant fans will recognize Space's spacecraft, the Mauve Armadillo, which appeared in several early strips when outer space was a primary setting. This strip also features a special cameo from Gateway bedfellow Neil the Nerd (frame 3), drawn in by the artist himself, the incomparable Eamonn Muldowney.
[December 10, 1996]
- Triceratops scat
When Jurassic Park came out, there were so many toy companies trying to cash in on the dinosaur craze that the market was flooded with all kinds of dinosaur junk. The official Jurassic Park merchandisers therefore decided to mark all of their products with a special symbol which would ensure consumers that they were buying the real thing and not some crappy imitation. Space Moose neglected to heed this, and as a result, suffered the same folly as the parents of thousands of disappointed children worldwide.
A few months after drawing this strip, I came across an official Jurassic Park stegosaur in a toy store. I looked carefully for the JP logo, and sure enough, it was there. So, it seems Billy made an error by presuming one had to have been in the movie to be an official Jurassic Park dinosaur.
The punchline refers to the movie Cliffhanger which was advertised at the time by posters screaming "HANG ON" in gigantic letters. The word "Cliffhanger" appeared much smaller at the bottom of the poster, so for the longest time, I thought the movie was called Hang On.
[December 17, 1996]
- Summertime tips for picking up babes
This is one of the strips for which I have lost the original. I was able to scan it in from an old copy of the Solstice (the summer students' newspaper). I really don't have anything more to say about this strip except that you are stuck with it as "Today's feature" until August 24, because I'm gone until then. Haw haw.
Oh yeah, Dwayne Martineau checked a reverse directory to see if the phone number "FUC-KYOU" (382-5968) existed anywhere in Canada. Sadly, it did not. [August 8, 1995]
Footnote:
Our telephone sleuth, Dwayne Martineau, who searched unsuccessfully for the phone number "FUC-KYOU" (382-5968) in all of Canada, has made a startling breakthough. If you use the "O" as a number zero, instead of changing it to a "6", you can reach Better Half Fashions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Maybe I could get them to consign a few Space Moose T-shirts. The whole phone number, then, is (306) 382-5908 or (308) FUC-KY0U. Good work, Dwayne! Now how about the US? [August 24, 1995]
- Barney meets Grimace
In the stead of the regular Space Moose players, Barney the once ubiquitous dinosaur battles it out with Grimace of MacDonald's fame. There was a continuation to this strip, but it's not in the archive yet because I don't have the original anymore. I lost a lot of my originals during the 92-93 school year - probably due to the atrocious disorganization of the Gateway offices, or else newspaper volunteers were stealing them. Back in the old days, the managing editors used to carefully file all of the cartoons submitted, and none ever went missing. The cartoonists would pick up their files at the end of the year. But now, I am careful to retrieve the originals soon after they have been used. [June 20, 1995]
- We wanna join a frat
Space Moose has a personal agenda to affront every social group before his time here on Earth has ended. In this strip, fraternities are the subject of his belligerence. Few social groups remain to be offended by the cervine hooligan. Unfortunately, the Gateway has a strict editorial policy to censor all racist, homophobic, and sexist material. I've been toeing the line all these years, hoping to one day cross it without anyone noticing. I'll let you know when it happens. [July 27, 1995]
- Bulbous yet agile
It seemed rather lame at the time to do another Barney strip. By this time, every two-bit comedian and self-styled funny-guy had developed a lengthy repertoire of tiresome Barney jokes, and I was only too eager to get off the bandwagon. But pressured by a deadline, I whipped off this sequel to the epic battle which began in Barney meets Grimace a few months earlier. By this time, the purple arch-rivals had moved on to the Reichenbach Cliffs, where Sherlock Holmes bested the evil Professor Moriarty.
[February 12, 1997]
- You're making a huge mistake, pigs!
The hackneyed demagogue makes his triumphant return in this first of a three part series. The "hemp fairy" was likely incarcerated while showing off in front of his pot-head buddies at a public smoke-in or some other shit-disturbing event.
Note that the rarely kept promise "to be continued" is actually honored.
[March 12, 1997]
- Blow the lid off the media conspiracy
In this sequel to You're making a huge mistake, pigs! Space Moose attempts to prepare his vapid client for the upcoming trial. This is a pretty weak strip on its own, but it was essential in providing character and plot developments for the next strip, The Trial.
[March 19, 1997]
- The Trial (3 parts)
This courtroom drama concludes the three part Hemp Fairy series. I wanted it to be as climactic as possible, so I stretched it out to triple the usual size. In a brilliant legal maneuvor, Space Moose buys his client a few extra days of freedom. In the process, however, Space gets kicked off the Bar, of which he was probably never a member.
Bee Bobby, the loveable recurring retard, makes a cameo appearance as the suspendered juror. Captured in a rare happy mood, he can be seen grinning impishly in frames 1 and 7.
[March 26, 1997]
- Portrait of a Gateway fan
This strip will make little sense to anyone who was not a frequent reader of The Gateway two years ago. As editor-in-chief Stephen Notley put it, "once again, Adam Somebodyorother bites the hand which feeds him." Just for interest's sake, TLF stood for "Three Lines Free" which was an on-and-off feature of The Gateway whereupon anonymous students could post miniature announcements in the classified ads. Needless to say, TLF quickly became a hotbed for banal drivel, and the most popular section of the paper. [September 19, 1995]
