Aaaaand another thing...

Howard the Horse

Some simple doodles of Howard, the Horse that pulls Mr. Gumpox's garbage wagon.

Mr. Chinbunny and Uncle Fletcher

Two more characters from Paul Rhymer's incomparable Vic & Sade radio program, which I wrote about last week. The first one here, is the local high school principal, Mr. Chinbunny.

Poor Mr. Chinbunny, the youngest principal in the state, is so worried that people will equate his age with inexperience, that he's always trying to make himself look older. He shaves the top of his head so people will think he's bald. He also enlisted the help of Rush's father Vic, to teach him how to smoke cigars, so that he would appear to be an old pro when the other principals whip out their cigars at an upcoming meeting.

Below is Uncle Fletcher. By far my favorite character on the show, Sade's amiable Uncle Fletcher knows everyone, and has a million stories. He resides in a room at Miss Keller's boarding house, though her meddling often causes him to consider taking up residence at the Bright Kentucky Hotel (much to Sade's distress).

Uncle Fletcher is a bit hard of hearing, but that doesn't seem to stop him from interjecting into whatever conversation happens to be going on at the time. He has an extensive watch fob collection (including a half wit watch fob that's gone and turned to putty!), and a collection of correspondences (not his, just correspondences from lots of different people). His favorite pasttimes include sleeping on the Courthouse lawn and, as I stated previously, riding on Gumpox's garbage wagon. Brilliantly voiced by Clarence Hartzell, Uncle Fletcher was the first new character added to the program. I often equate him with Kramer from Seinfeld- being a bit on the periphary of the family, he is a bit wackier than they are, though not nearly as wacky as all of the friends that he has (Claude Dirtshirt, Sweet Corn McBlock, and of course Rishigan Fishigan from Shishigan Michigan). Uncle Fletcher would often bring up the fellow who walked to his own funeral: "He made his plans, walked to the mortuary. There he later died."

Again, if you would like to meet these hilarious characters for yourself, you can download the only surviving Vic & Sade Episodes here.

Mr. Gumpox, the Garbage Man

This is inspired by a character from the classic radio program, Vic & Sade. This brilliant, simple show followed the life of Victor R. Gook, his wife Sade, and their adopted son Rush (later Russel). For most of the shows 14 years on Radio, Vic, Sade, Rush and one other character, Uncle Fletcher, were the only characters heard, though through their clever dialogue we learned about all the other wacky characters in the small town they called home. With names like Y.Y. Flirtch, Robert and Slobert Hink, Pelter Unbleat (and his imaginary brother), these characters were unbelievably entertaining without ever even making their voices heard. One such character is Mr. Gumpox, who drives the garbage wagon. Gumpox is never described but through the various storylines, we get the impression that he takes his job as garbage wagon driver (and collector I assume) very seriously. So seriously that I picture him wearing some sort of uniform, probably a cast off from the local Railway Depot (the Chicago & Alton Depot to be precise). Those reins he's holding belong to his faithful horse, Howard. I had hoped to write a short bio of my limited knowledge of Gumpox, but sadly the Holidays are eating up so much of my time I just didn't get a chance. Do yourself a favor, if you'd love to hear the original "Show About Nothing", sit back and relax and download a few short episodes of Vic & Sade.