What the??? I don’t get it… but then sometimes Slug toons are like that. I have looked and looked at that thing and I think it just might be beyond me.
Whats that thing wrapped around his wrist and why is he making jack off movements fully clothed and nowhere near the neither regions…
anyone? anyone?
His hand’s in his pants pocket, isn’t it? That band-looking thing on his wrist is the pocket opening. He’s giving himself a handjob through his pants, although, yeah, it looks more like he’s rubbing his leg. Maybe Slug didn’t it want to be too obvious?
Anyone else notice the guy in that cartoon kinda looks like our erstwhile psycho/liar, Freak Freely ?
Tell me I’m wrong.
Sheesh.
He’s thinking about being a woman, per the balloons and the gesture of a finger touching the chin. Classic cartoon hints.
It’s obviously a guy in that drawing, and he’s thinking about a woman. The topic of the week is sex changes and sexual feelings that may or may not happen after the ‘switch’.
He’s probably thinking that being a woman may be funner than his current situation. Guys tend to look at women as being able to get laid whenever they feel like it. For guys, it’s not always that easy.
Seeing as he’s kinda ‘nerdy’ looking to boot, and probably not getting laid, he’s beginning to think that getting a sex change might be a way out of his dry spell, especially if he can still enjoy it, like the article concludes.
His hand is in his pocket to show that he’s not only attracted to the idea of getting a sex change, but is trying to see if he has the money to do it.
I like my explanation better. 
My take is that he’s masturbating, and wondering if his orgasms will be the same after he gets his M-to-F surgery performed. He’s establishing the baseline for his comparison.
My mind could be entirely in the gutter, but this is the simplest explanation I can think of.
Audrey-
Your mind is in the gutter, and, apparently, far more down than mine.
The guy is not only a ‘nerd’ and kinda FreakFreely looking…, well…, that should explain that part.
But what he’s thinking about is a voluptious, sensual, striking woman. A woman that could get what she wants. How much better would it be for him to be that woman as opposed to what he is now?
Add to the cartoon the context of the story Cecil wrote about, and the fact that he could still feel sexual stimulation after a sex change, and he could live a completely different life than the ‘loser’ life Slug portrays.
That’s why he’s digging in his pockets. He likes that idea and is so interested he wondering if he can come up with the bucks to do it.
I assure you, I had the best teachers and role models in this matter. 
I don’t think it’s just any woman he’s thinking of-- the woman in the thought balloon looks just like him. He’s imagining himself as a woman.
**
Ya lost me at the last part there. I still think he’s intent on comparing his male, pre-M-to-F surgery orgams with his female, post-M-to-F surgery orgasms.
O.K. Audrey
I looked at it again. Your right. He is the same person, but now a woman instead. Hmmm…
Well, in keeping with my initial thought of what it meant when I first saw it, how about this- Given my earlier assumptions, if he were a woman in a man’s body, he could enjoy the idea of ‘feeling’ himself up, and playing around with all the goodies he enjoys but doesn’t have on his own or access to.
Huh? How about that?
Hope this gets in before your next post…
My last analysis is a bit lacking, seeing as I’m home now and having a couple hard lemonade drinks. Safe and comfy and apparently not making sense anymore.
What I should have said more clearly before, is that he is now both a woman and a man. Woman parts with a mans mind. Seeing that most men are interested in the physical aspects of the women, he is imagining being changed and enjoying the sexual experience on a whole new level. Self stimulation and feelings of a woman with a mans line of thinking, all in one body. A Ying and Yang thing?
Shit. This could be really deep or really stupid. I should look at these drawing alot closer in the future.
Whatever the case, I think the cartoon is yet another Slug Original in poor taste. At least Cecil’s column was pretty fair.
Dear GOD!! Tell me no one thinks about and tries to rationally explain plots in slug toons!! I had a question but I didn’t expect there to be a whole season of soap operas behind it… hehe…
BTW… I had NO idea that was his hand in his pocket… I see it now… but before I thought it was a fist… and wondered what was coiled around his wrist…
Not being a transsexual myself, I can’t speak for them, but I don’t think that what you describe is true transsexualism. If you’re transsexual, you’re already in the wrong body. (In this case, a female gender identity in a man’s body.) If he were to become a woman by surgical means, he’d wind up in the right body-- a female gender identity in a female body.
You’d make a good psychologist, though.
Whammo-
You should know better than to expect anything but the unexpected on this board.
Well, not a transsexual thing, per se, but more of a guys fantasy. That is, the guy is thinking to himself- Wow! I could be a guy with a chicks bod. Now that would be fun. Could or can I afford it? Let’s see here ::digging around in pocket::.
I read it as a typical Slug -Sex from a mans point of view- kind of cartoon. What is he thinking? Slug only knows. But I have a feeling I’m not far off. Maybe if I keep posting here enough I’ll cover every last angle that there is to reading into it.
— Psychologist, huh. My Father must be wearing off on me…
::swat::
You sillyhead! The column was about transsexualism, not male fantasies. Sheesh. Men! Is that all you think about?
Swat this honey!!
Not men in general, you bean brain, but Slug. You are trying to interpret what slug is trying to say. I was taking what I had seen from Slug’s cartoon’s before, his behavior and other factors, making a few interpretations of my own, and making an assumption based on that.
It’s what us good art afficionados try to strive at.
Naw, it’d get stuck to my hands and make a mess. You ever cleaned up spilled honey before? Ugh. Swatting honey is best left to the professionals.
::ducking::
Actually, “swatting honey” sounds like a euphemism for something else.
That’s Miss Bean Brain to you.
So how are we not doing the same thing?
How about a compromise: my interpretation is simpler; yours is more entertaining?
Misssss Audrey. Happy now? ::God forsaken names of ekal fiea jdjepoa. WOMEN!::
O.K… Compromise it is.
Yes. Yours is a rather simplistic, Cheeze-Whiz eating, TNN watching, perspective on art.
Yes. My interpretation tries to tackle the deeper, more meaningfull message behind the artist and his medium. It delves into the mise en scene of the moment, exploring the possibilities that subtly embrace the cartoon.
Sure. I can go along with that.
By the way Audrey, and don’t let anyone see this, .