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Let’s continue the mermaid theme this month with this parody of one of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art: Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley.

I like this painting for two reasons. One, it’s a painting of a shark attack, and two, it’s a painting of a shark attack by someone who had clearly never seen a shark before and who relied entirely on secondhand knowledge. The shark is pretty weird looking. Also, I drew this without using the original painting as a reference, and when I looked it up to confirm I hadn’t gotten it wildly wrong, I was surprised that I had forgotten that Watson, the dude in the water, is totally naked. I don’t really know why he’s naked. Maybe his clothes disintegrated when he fell into the water? Or maybe the shark ate his clothes first? No idea. Still a fun painting, though.

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Andrew Kaye (known in some circles as AK) is the creator of Ben & Winslow and other questionable comics, many of which can be found in his deviantART gallery. He’s also the editor-in-chief of this magazine.