It’s fun to see comic strips from before everything became instantly referencable at the push of a button. Like what are these weird Mosquito-headed hornets? I choose to believe that the artist could not be arsed to look up pictures of hornets at the library or bookstore, so they filled in (or hallucinated :D) their knowledge gaps on hornet anatomy by making stuff up.
I read one of his behind the scenes books (artist is Gary Lawson). If my memory is correct, he had to crank at least one of these out a day and there were times where he wouldn’t have a good idea until later in the day. When that happened he sometimes threw his hands up at problems he would otherwise fix. Given the schedule, I don’t blame him for saying these fly wasps were good enough haha.
Good insight. Seems to fit the puzzle. I also suspect time constraints to be the biggest factor behind the “can’t be arsed” part and not the artist’s laziness.