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No. 4: Stifling parent

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Stifling parent

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Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/pomh/?comic=4

Strip by: Ian Boreham

{a mother boa constrictor is speaking to her child, who has an obvious bulge in its body}
Mother Boa: You've swallowed your first prey! That's wonderful!
Mother Boa: Come here and give Mummy a big constrict!

The author writes:

OK, so this boa is hardly being a stifling parent in the usual sense. After all, snakes are widely known for their "hands-off" approach to parenting.

Speaking of which, I wonder what it would have been like to be a transitional form between a limbed reptile and a snake. At what point would they have stopped thinking "Gee, I sometimes wish my stubby little legs were a bit longer, although mostly I seem to get by," and started thinking "What's the point in these dangly bits that get in the way when I'm sliding through small openings?"

The strip was pencilled and inked by hand, scanned and coloured in Inkscape. Partway through colouring, I found myself thinking "Why the hell did I think it was worth fussing so much to make the skin patterning look like a real boa constrictor?" I guess I just don't want to lose the herpetology buffs. Because clearly they aren't going to be annoyed by the inaccurate posture, behaviour and habitat, but they'll care about where the spots are.