Wednesday’s Wound-up: A year’s worth of O’Grady cartoons
- By Patrick O'Grady
- Published Dec. 30, 2008
- Updated Dec. 31, 2008 at 5:43 AM UTC
It’s not always easy to be VeloNews’ editorial cartoonist. I’ve been on the job for nearly 20 years — my first contribution, starring the Old Guy Who Gets Fat in Winter, appeared in the March 1989 issue — and it often seems as though the same old problems keep popping up issue after issue, year after year, immortal pests in an eternal “Groundhog Day” game of Whac-A-Mole. How many different ways can a guy say, “Doping sucks?”
Still, there are surprises. A denim maven sponsors a team, promptly gets sideways with The Suits who run the sport and by year’s end has a national championship under his leather, heavily studded belt. The reigning Tour de France champ is not invited back for a rematch and snatches up the other two grand tours as consolation prizes. And Old Whatsisface gets tired of marathons, celebrity girlfriends and tussles with bouncers and decides to saddle up his Waterloo Rocinante for one more tilt at Le Windmill.
And when all else fails and the muse is on suspension, well, there’s always that old fat bastard to fall back on. Makes for a soft landing, don’t you know.
So without further ado, here’s a look back at 2008 as seen through the greasy bifocals of a 54-year-old baldheaded malcontent with a bicycle fetish, too much time on his hands and ready access to pen, paper and the Internet. A happy New Year to you and yours.
Photo Gallery
FILED UNDER: Uncategorized
Patrick O'Grady
Patrick O’Grady joined VeloNews as its cartoonist in 1989 and a succession of editors has failed to dislodge him. He was a newspaperman from 1977 to 1991, but it felt too much like work, plus he never got any free bike parts. So he quit for the carefree life of a free-lance rumormonger, and now you have to deal with him, as do we. Sorry ’bout that. O’Grady lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Shannon, and their cats, Turkish and Miss Mia Sopaipilla. He has more bikes than chins, but only just barely.