Dry Shave (A Comic Strip)

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Ever wonder what would have happened if Lenny Bruce had teamed up with
Jerry Lewis? This comic strip is about as close as you will come to
finding out. The characters are drawn to look like subjects from a
Twilight Zone out-take. They dress in 1950s clothes; hang out in shabby
bars, dark alleys, strip joints, and flea-bag apartments; and sport
names like Velvet (a whore/waitress), Lipschitz (a suicidal alcoholic),
Monkey-man (who almost looks normal when he is not killing people), and
Earl (who likes to make love to a bar stool while fantasizing about Ruth
Buzzi).

There are also supporting characters like Little Freak (who slips in
your room at night to defecate in your shoes), Filthy-Bastard (no
description necessary), and Ash-tray Boy who breaks into people’s
apartments to confiscate cigarette butts.

The four-panel Dry Shave appears weekly, mostly in alternative
newspapers. It has a certain retro-charm with its porkpie hats,
Brill-Cream hair, and 1950s furniture, but its in-yer-face need to shock
gets old real quick. The punch lines, unfortunately, are just not there,
and there are only so many ways to show people urinating, fornicating,
regurgitating, and masturbating that appear funny.