Topiary Lion

A new comic, plus some thoughts about shapes and lamps.

I drew the comic shortly before Sarah and I set off to go to London. I did get to admire the topiary lion in her family's back garden, and we decorated him with fairy lights and stayed up late sitting outside.

A note on the word topiary: the origin of the word is Latin and it literally means fancy gardening. It is defined as "the art or practice of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes" - it doesn't have to be animals, but let's face it, isn't a lion more exciting than just a shape?

Is a lion a shape?

I just remembered that last year, when we were choosing a lamp for our living room, we did what we normally do before any decision, big or small: we extensively researched all available options on Google for weeks. I came across a sub-genre of lamps that I did not know existed previously: animals that are incorporated into the lamp shade or stand. I would suggest Googling "giraffe lamp" or "duck lamp" for some examples - the possibilities are sheer endless, and many of them make me giggle with delight. "Lion lamp" yields similarly wondeful results: a life-sized, bright white lion, shining from the inside (life goal: be able to afford a flat that has enough floor space for this "floor lamp") as well as several lions holding light bulbs and lanterns in their mouths and paws. Fancy lamps to match a fancy garden?

I shall end this post here before I start researching topiary lamps.

Thanks for reading!