Sketchbook: Improvement Era

A few decades ago, Hank Ketchum had a gag in the original Dennis the Menace. Dennis and his family were sitting in church. Alice, his mom, was looking at him in a mix of shock and embarrassment, while the people in the pews round about were chuckling. Dennis said, "Because I know 'Yankee Doodle' better, that's why!"

That cartoon has always stuck with me as an example of a cartoon coming in at the perfect moment middle of the story. We know what happened moments before, and that makes it all the more amusing.

This sketch is, yeah, a blatant ripoff of that cartoon. But with the pervasiveness of Taylor Swift and her influence with teen/tween culture, I thought it might be fun to explore. At least in the sketchbook.