| This cartoon is clearly derived -- indeed, traced -- from Gary Varvel's most recent one. The outlines of the
characters are very similar, and the "Fred Flintstone" bicycling caveman
originated with Varvel. Two of the characters, however, have been changed substantially:
Varvel's ape has been converted into a knuckle-dragging walking caveman, and Varvel's
bicyclist on a track racing machine, wearing a helmet, has been converted into a
bolt-upright utility bicyclist on a roadster, wearing a cap. The "funny bike" at
the bottom right remains substantially as in Varvel's drawing, but evolution does not
continue onward with recumbent bicycles as with Stegmann and Varvel. Apparently, the
museum's proprietors considered recumbents to represent too advanced a stage of evolution
to be understandable by prospective museum visitors -- or perhaps also, the recumbents
would have made the cartoon too large for the pamphlet. In any case, the museum version
lacks the humorous "fish-man-fish" symmetry of the Stegmann and Varvel versions.
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