The premise was based off of something that I remembered way back as a kid. I used to watch the old Disney shorts on VHS and on TV (back when they did that), and it always bothered the hell out of me when I'd see a Mickey Mouse cartoon where he was pie-eyed, then a short when he had eyes with pupils, then pie-eyes, then 2 pupil ones, etc.. Same when characters looked different from director to director at Warner Bros. or some of the more drastic design changes like Woody Woodpecker. As a kid I didn't understand that the designs had evolved over time, I just thought it was kind of random.
Then later on I saw Roger Rabbit, where the characters were literally made of ink and paint and that they could be killed with "Dip". I came to the conclusion that the characters probably had some sort of cosmetic surgery, and that it would probably be the most painful thing they could possibly experience. And on top of that, since they were a "minority group", they didn't have a choice whether they wanted to go through with it or not. I could just imagine a scene like in A Clockwork Orange, but with Mickey strapped to a chair in the late-30's, screaming his falsetto lungs out while they rubbed his eyes out with turpentine soaked rags while the silhouette of Walt Disney looked on behind glass above.
I thought about again around when it came to my thesis film at SVA. I was thinking about doing it, but then I realized it would probably freak out a whole lot of people, myself included, so I opted for the much more general, less eye-gougy route. I'm glad Ricky came around and asked me about the strip when he did, because this idea was still lodged in the back of my head and it needed to get out somehow.
This is probably hands-down the most horrific thing I've ever drawn in my life, and I'd like to thank Ricky for giving me the opportunity to do so!
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