The Unkown Cartoonist – Genius of Ambiguity

An interesting submission from the Unknown Cartoonist this month, once again demonstrating both his talent for drawing and his ability to tease us with ambiguity. Clearly, he is operating on a wavelength the rest of us can only guess at. We generally agree he is a genius, which disqualifies any of us here at the Foolish Times from interpreting any of his works. Yet still we try. Is the Unknown Cartoonist a reader of the Roman philosopher Boethius? The reason we ask is that the fifth panel seems to suggest the futility of striving and the transitory nature of earthly accomplishment. The rocks are gone, but where did they go? The other caveman doesn’t have them. Is he saying that no matter how hard you try to get ahead, you wind up right back where you started? I know that’s how I usually feel on a Monday morning. Still, that’s not what’s most intriguing about this month’s submission. It’s that fourth panel that chills us. Is UC saying that death is the great leveler (all the rocks are level in the last panel)? Or is death the great equalizer (both cavemen are back to their beginning state at the end of the comic)? Perhaps the key lies in a previous cartoon—maybe the caveman had a bad case of the vapors, and the rocks were annihilated in the ensuing blast? If you have any thoughts, please send them our way. We’re out of our depth here. We’d be out of our depth in a wading pool, actually, which is why we can use all the help we can get.