My favorite comic strip ever was a Griff and the Unicorn which I cut out, plasticized with scotch tape, and have carried in my wallet for years. It showed the snake (forgot his name) and the flower (forgot his name . . . well, probably her name, right?) watching as Simon the ant crawled up a thing that looked kind of like a sundial. The second panel showed a close-up of Simon struggling mightily, maybe even sweating a bit, the third panel showed him cresting the top of the thing with an exclamation point (maybe two or three) shrieking above his tiny little ant head. In the last panel, the snake (who was wearing a fedora, I failed to mention) is saying to the flower--or possibly vice versa-- "Simon was trying to get on top of that sundial all day. Why is he crying?" The flower responds, "He thought it was a drinking fountain." Now, all of that was from memory, so I'll have to check to see if I got it right, but that's definitely close. And that seemed to say it all to me. You work your ass off only to discover, once you've attained it, that what you thought you were working for didn't exist. (Cue the marriage processional tune X 2, please.) All your effort is for shit, and all you're left with is a whole lot of tired and some fuck it on the side. Also, the idea that the flower (or snake) watched the poor sonofabitch Simon--who was a friend of both characters, by the way--struggle, knew that the little ant was struggling in vain, and just fucking watched . . . WTF? (Reminds me of most of my "friends" after my divorce from Clare.) Sympathizing, of course, but not willing to step up and pronounce the truth . . . and not willing to put themselves out to lend a hand, foot, or even a sphincter whisper.
Ahhh. Or, as the poet said, "I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around." (Charles Bukowski)
Anywho, for some reason I was thinking about Sokoloff this morning, and I went Googling and found some good shit . . . like The David Sokoloff Griff & The Unicorn Page , for instance. (I'm particularly fond of page 3. Check it out.) And I found a couple of his books on Amazon--The Ten Little Rabbis and Jewish Stories of Fun and Adventure: Starring Menschy the Clown and Chickenface & Noony, Foofy, and Cooky. (It was Foofy who put it over the top and into the shopping cart for me.) And it looks like there are a few more, but those are the ones I ordered. There's also The David Sokoloff Biography which seems to be linked to the cartoon pages mentioned above, but it looks like the links are all fucked up, so viator cave.
I'm also trying to find an email address for the feller so I can send him a gushy fan note. First effort resulted in Delivery Status Notification (Failure), but I'm not one to give up on anything (except life). So . . . to be continued, perhaps. But BTW . . . Mr. Sokoloff, if you ever Google yourself (I know it sounds like a sexual perversion, and I'm sorry about that) and happen upon this little page, I would really love to know where I can buy a complete collection of Griff and the Unicorn! It'd make a great Kickstarter project.
