Funny animal comic - a hungry bird and a surprising spider

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You might have seen that one on an episode of "One Planet". A bird searching for spiders and receiving an unpleasant turn. This scene was genuinely one of the most surprising outcomes in a natural story on television, even for a long-time-nature-documentary-watcher like me.

Funny animal comic about a bird finding a spider to eat, just to learn that it belongs to a deadly viper.

The spider-tailed horned viper is a quite recent, but extraordinary discovery. It evolved modified scales on the tail that form a tail tip resembling a spider. Camouflaged against the rocks of Iran, it imitates spider movements to attract birds which want to feed on spiders. In a split-second the snake attacks with its venomous fangs to kill the bird.

The viper was actually first known to the Western world in 1968, where it was captured and investigated in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA. Back then, the weird and unhealthy looking tail end was written off as a spider attached to the snake, and later regarded as a deformation or tumour.
Only later in 2003, when another specimen was found, scientists recognised the true shape of the viper's tail.

This comic was more challenging to finish than the previous one, for different reasons:
  1. First, obviously it has 8 panels instead of 4 which doubles the amount of work I had to do (math genius I am, he?). But I couldn't bring across the surprise with only 4 panels.
  2. The comic story wasn't an original one, conceived by my own mind. The comic is largely a retelling of what was shown on a BBC show years ago. So as soon as I sketched it out and had my first round of feedback, the excitement wore off a bit and it just turned into mere work.
  3. I had a lot of on/off phases with this one, partially to point 2) as well as a 2-month hiccup involving search for my day job and other personal life projects. That seems mostly sorted now.
Leave me a comment if you like what I do. It helps to see who is coming by.

Until next time,
Andi Pasti

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