Whale Fail
[dc]C[/dc]‘mon, Xerx, brah. Relax. Don’t do something crazy, like, you know, give the Hellespont 300 lashes. Based on what I have read about Xerxes (historical Xerxes, not Frank Miller Xerxes), it would not surprise me if he actually did try to ride a whale. Also, this is not the first time I have made a Xerxes/Hellespont joke (I’m a history nerd).
Originally, the gag was just any old whale. Then, I decided to make it the Fail Whale, because I figured I needed to explain how the hell the thing got there (even though I don’t show the birds). The original Fail Whale image was created by illustrator Yiying Lu. I recommend checking out some of her other work.
