I received a reply from Mr. Brooke McEldowney…
Subject: Re: Contact Brooke McEldowney
To: lyllyan@yahoo.com
I took a look at the message board (which I’d never seen before) to catch up
with the thread. To explain: The picture contains no gag at all. In my
strip, I occasionally draw ballet subjects strictly for the aesthetics of
doing it. I have gotten in the habit of adding Solange, the cat, just as a
returning theme. I started drawing ballet-theme cartoons with no gag in
particular a few years ago - especially pictures involving the merging of
black upon black, for strictly compositional purposes. (I like to see how
implied shapes emerge where only black can be seen.)
I got a number of letters about this one, mainly to the tune that the
writers liked the image. I can see from the thread on Straight Dope that it
led a lot of people to wondering what I was trying to communicate. Possibly
the cell phone started the mind searching for what, in fact, isn’t there.
One of the people posting to the thread called it dumb. Perhpas that’s the
best assessment.
Thanks for your note. I hope this helps.
Brooke McEldowney
9 Chickweed Lane