The Road To Not-So-Wellville

The legendary exploits of Professor Brian Pemberton Chorleywood Thrupiece hardly require elaboration. The famous Professor of Culinary Bioethics excelled in so many fields - diplomacy, art, photography, public speaking and - perhaps most productively - horizontal jogging - and enjoyed so many adventures during his sadly curtailed life (he is officially "lost presumed missing" following an incident with a small handheld electrical appliance in a luxury suite in the Hotel Cornarvin Geneva) that few, if any, are now unaware of the range and depth of his talents and achievements. [Some sentence! [ed]].

How many, however, recall in any detail the Gap Year Roadtrip he undertook in the summer of 1958 when, barely eighteen years of age, he crossed the great continent of America with travelling companions Bob and Carol Threadeagles in search of the first McNightly Restaurant?

McNightly's was famous for many things. Hygiene was not amongst them.

It was, as was remarked at the time, "a brave and perhaps rather foolish homage to an unknown - and frankly rather distant - relative who's exploits with a beef patty were hardly the stuff of culinary legend". Was it affection which drove the young Professor Thrupiece on or was it hunger (Dorset cuisine in 1958 - even in the hands of a talented amateur like Mrs Thrupiece Snr - left something to be desired). Or was it, as some have surmised, a scientific trip during which he hoped to isolate, synthesise and make commercially viable the salmonella essence - a characteristic ingredient of McNightly's Double Whammy! - for which the restaurant was already well-known. Alas, we will never know.

What we do know, however, is that the trip had a profound influence on the Professor who found himself sharing an errant and briefly disputed onion ring with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower during a stop over in the Chez Bubba Cafe, 1234 May St Goehner, Waco, NE 68364. Having argued over the bill, the two went on to discuss the need for a US Space Agency and the rest - as they say - is conjecture.

It is appropriate then that on the 60th anniversary of the trip, Threadbone Comics should issue a commemorative Professor Thrupiece World Famous 1959 US Road Trip Comic which, in a single page, magisterially distills the essentials of the trip. We have permission here to publish only a low res black and white preview, but interested readers (and who wouldn't be?!) can download the full colour digitally enhanced version by clicking on the link below and using the special promotion code (PROJECTILE-VOMITTING).

For that full colour digitally-enhanced experience CLICK HERE

Professor Thrupiece's legendary 1958 US Roadtrip took him from New York to Robert Downey Snr California. Having experienced all the delights of West Coast Fast Food, his attitude to Culinary Bio-ethics undertook a profound shift.