Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for February 26, 2012

Was hoping for the follow up to last Sunday’s “before Eve” cartoon, but Wiley has proved himself to be ‘Non Sequeltur’.

So this was the first pyramid?

What? No whales? But, seriously, I remember when supporting the arts was considered a good thing…It’s hell getting old…

Caveman Michelangelo

We’ll think it was done by space aliens in their hovercraft!

The women are off to the side laughing at them for not just using a very long paintbrush.

Extraterrestrials painted the pictures! Yeah!

They will think cavemen were extremely tall.

Certainly looks like the hunters painted in with the animals are a bit “light in the loafers” or are practicing ballet moves. Don’t exactly look like the guys holding up the artiste…

Wiley is standing on the shoulders of giants.

Yes, there are several cave sites where “how did they get up there?” is relevant, but the real question is one that Wiley isn’t even addressing in this strip.There are a number of locations of cave art that are in total darkness. There is no trace of soot on the ceiling that would be left by torches or oil lamps. How did they do it?And don’t tell me that they washed the ceiling.

The Sistine Cave… By Grogangelo?

I hate to spoil the joke, but “How did they get up there” is usually pretty simple. If you want to get higher, you climb a tree (or eat “magic mushrooms”, but that won’t work if you want to still see the art tomorrow.) If there’s no tree in the cave, cut one down, trim the limbs to stubs long enough for foot and hand holds, and carry it where you need it. Now you’ve invented the ladder, in the form that was universally used from pre-history up until lighter and more convenient factory-made ladders replaced it. The artist quite likely needs support from his buddies to haul that tree-ladder in and erect it, but once it’s set, there’s only one guy working.

Where this won’t work is where there’s no good footing for the ladder, but a human pyramid requires equally solid and much wider footings. If you find cave paintings in places with no place to set a tree ladder or rappel down to the site, either the cave changed in 25,000 years, or someone invented cantilevered scaffolding…

They will wonder on what continent there would have been bears and rhinos

At least that art was WORTH supporting, as it was for many centuries since. Only in my lifetime has art become almost entirely done for shock value, and even PBS only does a few artistic things (usually from BBC) that don’t simply promote their liberal views. THAT SAID, It WAS a great strip, Wiley!

Hurry up! The Rapa Nui need a cave painted and they pay for travel time.

This debunks the legend of the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and the lesser known myth of the caveman who played the practical joke of flooding the cave, leaving only a raft and some useless brushes for paddles.

The paintings are high up on the wall because that was where the floor was back then. 5000 years on running water could have moved 8-20 ft of floor.

I hope those guys rotate. I’d hate to be the guy on the bottom all the time.

The exact same cartoon appeared in the British magazine Punch about 60 years ago. The caption read “This will make them think either that we had a ladder or the floor subsided.” I’m pretty sure the same anthology of Punch cartoons is in Mr. Wiley’s reference collection.

That explains the pyramids, their builders just wanted to mystify us.

This is really meaningful to someone who has just finished “The Painted Caves” by Jean Auel.

1. They made ladders. 2. In my back yard there were bears and rhinos, but a long time before Man came, the rhinos were gone. 3. They had glow sticks (with six legs) they had to keep shaking??

that’s no way to get high….

And Michelangelo thought he had it tough!

If the artist awoke to find that it was only a dream, wouldit be considered a ‘pigment of his imagination’’?

I knew it! I knew it! And they tried to make me think that the cave man knew how to build a scaffold.

I KNEW IT!

Wiley,

This is a MASTERPIECE!

It took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel – good thing it didn’t a second coat.

I first heard my little Michelangelo joke on TV many tears ago but I didn’t credit the source. Is that plagiarism? I think it might have been Ted Baxter.

There is no shame in copying good work. But some people are dumb enough to copy the bad stuff. I’ve seen a lot of recycled jokes in the comics and elsewhere. Nothing wrong with it.

A salient quote from Picasso that I actually came across today for the first time:“Good Taste is the enemy of Creativity.”

At least the critic won’t be able to urinate on it, as in “History of the World, Pt I”.