Jean Tripier

We all know somebody like that -not necessarily the least competitive person in the world, but perhaps the least demanding, or the least difficult one. People who really do not know who they are or people who are constantly seeking the very one thing they are meant never to achieve. He is the narcissist who takes your sarcasms for compliments, the self absorbed acquaintance who has seemingly no capacity for or even understanding of self knowledge, criticism or doubt. You admire the absolute indifference to what impacts you so deeply sometimes -the constant feedback you receive from humans, that return channel that stings or makes you reconsider if for a second the image you have of yourself.

They are made of teflon. If you know them long enough you will see that they survive everything and succeed through indifference, superficiality and an uncanny ability to deliver with a straight face the generalities and clichés you can’t even tolerate to think about. Sometimes they even rise to the very top, as leaders of the free world; still they remain incapable of discerning their mediocrity, since “the mediocre eye is never able to recognize mediocrity -that’s the penalty of ignorance” (Richard Taylor).

This is the reason I drew this comic -and also because I had this cool looking drawing of an eagle lying around and love that Dick Cheney caricature as well.

I drew the eagle as an example for a drawing lesson I was giving to a 10-year-old and not only did he manage to draw a really nice eagle himself, but he also managed to sell it the same day for $21 to the people seated next to us for dinner at a Japanese restaurant on Potrero Hill. He did an amazing job explaining his drawing and they actually started bidding for it. I am the one that received the lesson after all -and that my friends, was plenty.