Mal tries his hand at playing Ralph Steadman for a female Hunter S. Thompson

Here is my first cartoon featuring "Mayor Gonzo," illustrating one of her wild stories. Sammie Mays, rubber chicken toting Honorary Mayor of Key West, Florida, is a feature humor writer, t.v. host, former member of National Enquirer's elite 'Foreign Legion of Journalists.' You can read some of her tropical madness at saminthekeys.com

Mayor Sam-I-Am was evidently a reader of mine, although I don't know of which blog (since I have too many of them). Sometime last year she contacted me and suggested that I might take a stab at tapping into her craziness and trying to cartoon some of it. A lot of water has run under the Overseas Highway since then, but I've finally gotten a few free moments when the creative blocks cleared- so here it is. This particular one is from a column she wrote about Merle Haggard called "Too Vile to Publish." Watch this space for more "Gonzotoons" in the coming months.

I don't know how many of these I'll manage to get done or how often or how soon. I don't even know if Mayor Sam will like them, but I like Hunter S. Thompson, Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett, so why not have a little fun and draw some surreal cartoons to accompany a few sailor's tales once in a while. Maybe this square nerd from Arizona, living in tall corn country (where it's currently 4°F) can make a name for himself by collaborating with a blond Conch and fellow parrot-head. Who knows? Maybe she'll smuggle me a Cuban stogie for my trouble.

Come to think of it, I'm already pretty famous there, the main gathering place in Key West, also known as the Conch Republic is "Mallory Square."