The Duck is here!

Dudu Geva was the most incredible Israeli cartoonist who ever lived, and also the coolest Israeli. He was a total god for me, and a huge influence on probably anything I've ever done comics-wise. I was introduced to his work at a way too early age, as most of it (or at least his 80s stuff) was very adult-oriented, through books my parents had around the house for some reason. Neither of them has ever displayed any signs of the kind of sense of humor required to enjoy that sort of books, so the whole thing has always been a complete mystery to me. Divine intervention issues aside, the books were there, and my fate was sealed. Over the years I've been following his work almost religiously, and when he died of a sudden heart attack in 2005 at the age of 54 I was absolutely crushed.

The Duck!

His most famous character in the last decade or so of his life was The Duck, the lovable Tel-Avivian loser and his constantly failing quest to bang sensitive blonde chicks. Yesterday a statue of The Duck was unveiled at Masaryk square in Tel-Aviv, where it shall remain for all eternity and bring joy to children and adults alike.

Rubber duckies in the water fountain

The Mayor of Tel-Aviv

Dudu Geva's children

Everybody loves the Duck!

I must have read some of his books dozens of times, not including his many publications in newspapers and magazines. I have always fantasized about meeting him in person and showing him some of my stuff and basically basking in his almighty glory. That probably won't ever happen now. Sigh.

Some of my Dudu Geva books

Oh, and, also: HELP! I'm being stalked by side characters from Mehubarot! I saw one of the girls' mom there, and she even sat down next to me on a bench. Now, Tel-Aviv is full of local "famous" people, and it's extremely uncool to note any such encounter with one of them, but the people I've been mentioning here are such minor "celebs" that the whole thing goes way past uncool and onto freakishly-hilarious, which brings us right back to cool, sort of.

This evening it's the Jewish new years eve, and so I leave you with this, in hope of a better, less retarded year:

Pusta in a box!