The trip to Istanbul goes better for Jim than Chuck in this week’s Molarity. Chuck does make some nice friends in prison, though.
201. This begins the infamous Istanbul prison series which stretches over a few weeks. I never got there as a student. Recently I stepped foot in Istanbul to reclaim a carry-on bag, but did not see Hagia Sophia which is on my list of things I must do.
202. I saw the movie “Midnight Express” the spring before the fall I went to Rome with the architecture program. I did the cartoons over the summer so The Observer could start off the year with enough cartoons. And remember my cartoon motto: “Food jokes are always relevant.”
203. I must pat myself on the back. I caught the essence of the movie characters, including this character played by Randy Quaid, even with no means back then to see stills of the movie after which I modeled the cartoons.
204. At the time, Longine watches had a commercial that no matter how nice the gift, the recipient would lament, “I was hoping for a Longine.”
205. By running four cartoons on the Istanbul series and allowing the fifth to be back at Notre Dame, I hoped to appear au current. I also did not want the strips from Rome to tease, “I am in Europe and you are not!”
See the first five classic strips. Check back monthly for more classic Molarity strips. Molarity Redux, the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends, also is posted monthly. For those new strips, check out the cartoon archives.