The Cowboy Wally Show, Chapter Three: The Making of Hamlet
How does one describe Cowboy Wally? No mere description comes close to really doing him justice. Possibly the finest comic creation of Kyle Baker, the titular Cowboy Wally was a slobbish and inappropriate free-lance photographer who blackmailed his way into becoming the slobbish and inappropriate star of his own kids' show, continuing to fail into more and more spectacularly bad movie and television projects (such as "Cowboy Wally's Rough Up Theatre", "Murphy and Leeds: Hair-Trigger Blues" and "Ed Smith, Lizard of Doom") and yet continuing to be adored by millions.
I'm almost tempted to just tell all of you to go buy the graphic novel (told in the form of a documentary about Wally's life), because every single page, every line of dialogue there is gold. But as a taste, here's one of my favourite sequences from the book. The following is from The Cowboy Wally Show (1988), Chapter Three: "The Making of Hamlet".
The sequence starts with Wally and his writing partner Lenny meeting with two movie executives who want another project from Wally. Lenny's got a cold, and over the course of the first few pages has been taking, progressively, cough syrup, antihistamines and some flu tablets the bartender has passed him. Lenny jokingly suggests they adapt "Hamlet" and gets agitated when Wally and the two executives brainstorm and put "Hamlet" through the Hollywood treatment. They have more drinks. Then there's a bit of a time jump...