For years magazine CARTOONS have been a form or medicine for me. It has long been observed by sages (who are seldom identical to those who are merely deemed “smart” or even scholastically qualified) that personal development is impossible without sustaining a life-long sense of humour. This is probably why every culture on earth retains such a deep reservoir of “anti-priest” jokes satirising the morally pompous.

One example tells of two psychiatrists meeting each other in a hospital corridor. “You’re fine!” one says as he approaches the other. “How am I?”

Recent brain-research theory claims that we humanoids love STORIES because our mirror-neurones are activated by the reception (either by listening, watching or reading) of certain narrative structures.

In other words we (briefly and bodily) BECOME the fictional characters capturing our attention, a process which jiggles our awareness off one focus point onto another. If this is true, then magazine cartoons offer an even sharper blow to modern consciousness than the most adroit 150 words of flash fiction.

I’ve decided to test this idea here (hoping I’ll be motivated to make more frequent posts than my recent one-a-month rate) – that magazine CARTOONS – comprise a form of psychological nutrition. What do you think? By accident the first three have what might be called “an airborne theme”.