Robert Asprin had a bit in one of his Myth books where two people argued over ownership of a cat. The king thought he had an opportunity to act wise, so he did the "Let it be cut in half" thing. The people went along with this, and happily left to cut up the cat. Irritability did a slightly different take on this. Oddly, it also involved a cat. I guess that's one of the standard objects for this. Brecht and Solomon both went with the child thing instead, though.

I like happy endings, so both of the petitioners get a lawnmower. Hooray for Czar rule!

This strip came together pretty nicely. I like when Ben and I come up with a general idea (in this case Stephen holding court) and an idea for the main gag (some play on that infanticide theory of justice from the Old Testament) which lead us to a rough script, which we then chisel away at until discovering the correct form.

That was metaphorical chiseling, by the way. Sculpture, being the most empirical of art forms, is far too contingent for our tastes.