Maybe I owe the world an apology for unleashing this monstrosity upon it. But the world gets nothing from me!
The simplest explanation for its existence is that I was watching a lot of old episodes of Magnum P.I. and I have a really juvenile sense of humor. The slightly more complicated explanation is that the world is a weird stressful place and for me, the late 1980s represent a time when I felt more at ease about some things. None of which excuses this horror show of thumbs!
Not only must you gaze upon Magthumb himself, but coming in from stage right is the always insufferable Johnathumb Higgins. And what’s that flying out over the water? Why, it’s the thumb copter… or “T.C.”, for short.
Ugh, you’re right. I am sorry.
Connections:
MagThumb, P.I. was the second painting I finished for the library show, before I even intended to draw the whole series together. One of the fun aspects of these early pieces is that I made all those choices without having anything at stake, and then later I had to revisit the pictures and figure out ways to echo them in subsequent paintings.
The classic Magnum shirt design reappears in Ghost Snacks and Affordable Solutions to Unusual Problems. The latter also features another thumb creature.
Digital Sasquatch focuses explicitly on a thumb creature which - like the one in Affordable Solutions - is mimicking another character. Does this imply that the subjects of MagThumb, P.I. are in fact duplicates of the originals?
