Titus Andronicus reference (see current film "Titus")

In case it's not obvious, the art in most Bench strips (mine and others') is clipped (and sometimes heavily mutated) from previous Penny Arcade and Bench strips. As I made more and more of these, I started putting in more and more of my own art, especially with the popular Watchmen strips. If you are only interested in seeing my all-russ-art strips, start with June 1, but you'll be missing some funny stuff. :)

I had just seen the new movie Titus, based on Shakespeare's bloody play Titus Andronicus. Those are twigs and branches stuck in the stumps of the wrists, not stationary blood streams squirting out... I didn't think to make the squirrel's mouth open when he speaks. Other than that, I'm happy with this as a debut strip. I didn't want to just make the usual sort of Matrix reference strips. I tend to enjoy more obscure humor and more esoteric references.