One Sketch 205) (Tuesday 16th) #inktober2018 Prompt 16 Angular

Ah, Dizzy, now there was a guy
Who often did things on the sly
A devious sort
Or so it is thought
But then he was gone, and bye bye.

OK - so what do you do with angular, I thought? Which immediately led me to think of pyramids, as you do. Which led me to think of one of my favourite Victorian political cartoons, by one of my favourite Victorian political cartoonists, Sir John Tenniel. He's my absolute joint favourite along with the wonderful American, Thomas Nast. This is almost a direct copy, although I did stick an extra pyramid in which isn't in the original.

One Sketch 204) #inktober2018 prompt 15 - Weak

A girl called Elizabeth one
Was truly as chaste as a nun
Despite some men's urging
This queen stayed a virgin
Majestic, but not really fun.

Couldn't come up with much for the prompt weak. Then the Elizabeth I speech in Tilbury on the eve of the Spanish Armada. You know it - it was where she said "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but the hear and stomach of a concrete elephant" - come to think of it, that may well have been Blackadder.

One Sketch 203) #inktober2018 prompt 14 - Clock

I've said it once, I've said it twice,
I'll say it once again,
You shouldn't underestimate
The power of the train.

Train, what's that got to do with it? Well, this is the exterior of St. Pancras station in my home city of London. I just felt it might be nice to use the clock prompt to illustrate the prompt - clock.

One Sketch 202 - Saturday 13th) #inktober2018 prompt 13 - Guarded

I wouldn't say they're cheating,
Although I can believe
That every single one of them
Has aces up their sleeves.

I set myself the challenge of just spending 10 minutes o making this sketch. Does it fit the prompt? Well, I just felt that a poker game would see all of the participants being guarded and careful about exactly what they give away to their opponents.

One Sketch 201) #inktober2018 Prompt - Whale

I've heard, though I may well be wrong,
That whales are addicted to song

I believe that this one is a humpbacked whale, which species is particularly noted for whalesong.

One Sketch 200) (TWO HUNDRED!) #inktober2018 Prompt - Cruel

Corporal Punishment?
Major Cruelty.

31 years I've spent in teaching, and one thing I'm constantly grateful for is the fact that the ambiguity over corporal punishment was brought to an end when it was banned in English and Welsh schools in August 1987, just before I took up my first ever teaching post.

I once got into a fight at school, in a PE lesson. It honestly wasn't my fault. The other guy started hitting me, so I hit him back. Cue the Head of PE - a Yorkshireman, short on temper but long on beer gut - arriving. He broke up the fight, then took off his trainer and gave each of us a beating while at the same time chanting, "That'll - teach - you - vi-o-lence - is - wrong!" I would have suspected that this was a crude attempt at ironic hunour, had it not been for the fact that he was a bear of very little brain. I was only 12 but I could see the inherent flaw in his argument, but this fuckwit Charmer saw no contradiction. Moron. Sadly he was never struck down with the bout of amoebic dysentery I heartily wished him.

Not that I am bitter, you understand.

One Sketch 199) Medusapunzel #inktober2018 prompt - flowing

The problem with snakes for your hair?
It encourages people to stare
They rant and they moan
While turning to stone
Sometimes it seems life isn't fair

I had the idea of Rapunzel - long flowing hair - to fit the inktober prompt, and then the thought occurred that maybe I could to a take on Medusa. Combine the two and you've got - Medusapunzel! No? Well, please yourselves.