Space Moose's old news

The punchline to this story, according to Finnish correspondent Heikki Ulmanen, is that President Halonen is heterosexual and may be planning to marry a member of the opposite sex soon. Amen. [February, 2000]

Finally, the document of Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) about Space Moose is complete, thanks to the perseverance of my aide-de-camp Colby Cosh. You may download an HTML version or a slightly less up-to-date text version. [January 1, 2000]

Immediately following the December 12 airing of Futurama on FOX, my e-mail inbox was flooded with Space Moose sightings. I caught it myself. During a scene where the characters are checking out various political parties, there is a booth in the background labeled "Bull Space Moose Party" (a spoof of Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party). Manning the booth is a placidly blinking bipedal cervoid who resembles Bullwinkle more than Space Moose. Whether it was coincidence or not, I can only speculate.

Now my dream is to see Marlo Smefner making out with Jennifer Love Hewitt on "Time of your life". What do you say, FOX? [December 12, 1999]

It's deja vu all over again. The University of Regina's student paper, The Carillon, recently picked up Space Moose and then dropped it like a hot bowel movement when some political science students backed up by the Feminist Action Committee started bellyaching. I am not sure how many strips the paper ran before surrendering to threats of legal action and advertiser harassment, but I know that the first two were Political science and Attack dummy. Gird your loins and read the Carillon coverage. {November 5, 1999]

I was recently interviewed by a very good on-line magazine called Fade to Black. The interview appears as one of the feature stories in this week's edition. Check it out and read my highfalutin comments on Space Moose, cartooning and iconoclasm. Don't forget to vote in the celebrity death poll. [September 21, 1999]

Another bastardization The fans are at it again. By clipping and pasting old strips and adding his own text, Peter Lowry has filled the empty hole in his life created by the lack of new Space Moose cartoons. Enjoy his creation while I try to remedy my creative constipation with a pen knife. P.S. Why does everyone think Marlo is me? [September 20, 1999]

In the past week, Space Moose received two very prestigious citations. First, online magazine Big Titty Mermaids covered the Clobberin' Time controversy. Apparently, like me, top-heavy half-fish prefer free speech to censorship. Then, on September 3, my full coverage of the Antlers of the Damned uproar was selected as the Cruel Site of the Day. I am not sure [September 7, 1999]

I just paid out of pocket to have this web site moved to a bigger, better provider, and I will be damned if I let it go to waste. My goal is to get back into the one strip per week groove. I don't care how shitty the strips turn out, I am just going to do it like all those other lame cartoonists out there.

After much deliberation, I have decided to proceed with the Las Vegas plotline. Bear with me. I have too many good ideas fermenting in the recesses of my colon to give up now. The story will resume with Space Moose pumping ass in the casino and Marlo barely clinging to life after the biggest smack overdose in human history. Stay tuned.

It seems the old boy has grown tired of not having his own comic strip to appear in, so he has taken to pulling cameos in other web based cartoons. See the August 2, 1999 episode of The Mr. Chuck Show.

Speaking of web based cartoons, the latest detractor is the illustrator of one. His is Penny Arcade about a gay couple coping with computer gaming addiction. Sort of like a dumbed down version of Bob the Angry Flower, Penny Arcade will go over big with 20-something shut-ins who read magazines like "Game Realm" and "Cyber Life". Check it out!

This just in: "For what it's worth, the other half of Penny Arcade really enjoys your comic." Call off the really hung dogs.

Kerry Diotte wrote a huge Space Moose feature for the Sunday, April 18 edition of the Edmonton Sun newspaper. If you are outside of the Sun's circulation area, or simply too cheap to shell out 75 cents, you can read the article entitled The Moose is loose at the c-news web site.

Here is the first in a series of Space Moose desktop wallpapers that I am working on. It is 800x600 and it works for Windows95/98 environments. It should work for Unix and Macintosh environments as well. Sorry that it is not in color--I don't work in that medium.

We here at Space Moose headquarters are really excited about the success of Dreamworks Pictures' latest animated feature. Our sources tell us that Disney, painfully aware that its seat upon the throne of animation is now tenuous, is scrambling to come up with a response. May I suggest a simple story about a young bipedal moose who takes refuge on a far off planet and becomes a universe-class sodomite and feces fancier? [December 21, 1998]

I regret to report that this year's Robotica competition scheduled for August 14-16 in San Francisco has been cancelled. Space Moose was backing Mister Smashy, a fighting robot designed by Derek Young of Simon Fraser University. Mr. Smashy was to compete in the Featherweight class, but will sadly be confined to smashing Absolut vodka bottles in Derek Young's basement for the rest of the summer. My condolences go to all killer robot fans. [August 10, 1998]

Back in January, Space Moose became a regular feature in The Gleaner, student newspaper of Langara College in Vancouver. They ran a small number of old strips, and it was not long before the critics were wailing at the top of their lungs, calling my cartoon barbaric hate literature. I just added two of the most insane letters I have ever read to the detractors page. The first damns Space Moose for being blatantly homophobic (I always thought it was homoerotic). The second whiner complains about the strip entitled Tamagotchi. See if you can guess what his beef is. [August 24, 1998]

Feast your eyes on this most peculiar dermal aberration. The colorful indelible markings were found on the back of a University of Alberta faculty member who has asked to remain anonymous. I assure you this is a permanent tattoo, not some wussy lick-on deal. Anyone else interested in inflicting their skin with the countenance of Space Moose should let me know. I will be happy to aide in the design. [July 1998]

This photo, taken on October 31, 1997, was sent to me by John Doucette (who claims to be a pirate). I had it analyzed, and it appears to not have been digitally altered. The Star Trek uniformed moose was apparently caught on film during some pagan celebrations hosted by the Student Association of North Garneau, just off the University of Alberta campus. To see more photographs of this encounter, stroke the moose's nose to the right. Note that Tim Lennox and Space Moose are never seen together. [April 1998]

Back in December, I was found guilty of violating the University of Alberta's Code of Student Behavior. My penalty: a $200 fine and the following written reprimand:

"We reprimand Mr. Thrasher for failing to treat women with dignity and respect. In future, Mr. Thrasher should be more sensitive to some members of his reading audience in his depiction of issues."

A whole bunch of new information has recently come out, so I will have to update the Clobberin' page when all of this is over. In the meantime, I recommend the following two kick-ass essays which were written by a couple of cool, rational women: "Clobberin' time, but what for?" (no longer available) by master colorizer Monique McNaughton (a.k.a. Arrow 206) and A letter to whom it may concern by Edmonton comic artist and publisher, Lynette Bondarchuk. [March 1998]

Thanks to superfan Neil Macfarlane, reading Space Moose just got a whole lot easier (and more technologically comprehensive). I strongly encourage all Windows 95 users to download Neil's innovative, interactive versions of:

Essence of Space Moose trilogy (780 KB, Zipped)
Look at me: the special edition (723 KB, Zipped)

Several people have had trouble downloading the above files. The problems seem largely due to the shortcomings of Netscape (get a real browser, you cyberpeasants!). The files should download properly now that they have been zipped. All the software needed to unzip these files is available for free from PKWARE. [January 1998]

In the 1998 University of Alberta Students' Union election, held at the beginning of March, five sassy young coeds approached Space Moose to endorse their campaign. Space was all too happy to abuse his local celebrity status and officially presented the Space Girls as the five best ways to better student government. Later, one of the Space Girls (I believe it was Hyperspace) indicated quite accurately that Space Moose was merely a pawn in their plans for Students' Union domination. None of them got elected, but they each received enough votes (at least 10%) to get their $50 deposits back. [April 1998]

It turns out that the ban preventing me from selling Space Moose books in the Students' Union Building (see below) was the brainchild of SU vp finance Garth Bishop. Garth felt that the material contained in the book was offensive enough to warrant prohibition. The Students' Council overturned Garth's decision with a 12-10 vote on December 2, 1997. Garth said that, given the opportunity to decide again, he would still invoke censorship. What a great guy.

I wanted to set up a table in the University of Alberta's Student Union Building (SUB) and use it to sell Space Moose books and T-shirts on the last day of classes in December, 1997. However, some strange new policies have arisen in the Students' Union. The book has been pronounced "offensive" and therefore cannot be sold in the building. Curious. The University bookstore in SUB has been selling it for over a month now, and they carry many books which could offend feebleminded readers. I was told that the decision is final, and there can be no appeal. Sounds fair. Methinks someone in the SU is not very fond of my cartoon. [November 1997]

Directed at the ignoramuses who accuse me of endorsing hatred for women in my cartoon, I present the following suite of strips in which Space Moose uses murder as a problem solving technique:

• Space Moose gets an education
• Hungry hungry beefalo
• Try to seem violently disturbed
• The faster, the safer
• Space Moose 4 prez

I have to apologize to the readers of this page for making some factual errors in my previous reports of the Slur affair. Here is the latest version of the story, which was reported to me by Slur managing editor, Dave Johnston.

During the month of January, 1996, A&B Sound, a big chain of music stores in Western Canada, received several complaints from customers (mostly parents) about Slur magazine which was being freely distributed in their stores. Specifically, they were outraged by the Space Moose cartoon Snow White and the semen dwarfs. A&B reacted by removing all copies of the magazine from its stores. Furthermore, A&B pulled all its ads from Slur, refusing to discuss the matter.

Slur ran one more episode of Space Moose in the February edition, and then decided to cancel it. I guess it was too costly to go on without A&B's advertising. In Slur's defense, Dave Johnston says, "the decision to pull Space Moose was intended to be a temporary measure, made voluntarily by the publisher and myself until we could figure out what to do next, and reevaluate the inclusion of Space Moose in the magazine."

So, that is the story as I understand it. Johnston maintains that Slur's integrity has not been sullied since Slur is acting for itself, and not simply doing what it is told. However, I still see Slur desperately scrambling to appease its advertisers. Although A&B Sound never demanded that Space Moose be dropped, Slur sees it as the only way to lure A&B back. And what of the magazine once A&B is advertising again? Will it be on full alert to not offend A&B's customers again? What sort of guidelines will they put into effect in order to keep the advertisers happy? [March 14, 1996]