All three above have it. Zorro chose a fancy name with slick and quick and elegant Z and ran around marking everything with the Z. He swings in, slash to right! Down! and Back!, and in half a second is out. Gomez, less astute, used a very ornate G. He walks in, slashes and goes up, does a circle goes to the right, angles down, turns and crosses the original stroke, circles back and after a minute or so ends with a swoosh. He stands back to admire his handy-work, and the pissed-off bull kicks him to kingdom come.
“This really would have worked better with a mule. Bulls aren’t known for kicking, which is what the positioning implies.”
I don’t know that the bull kicking him is essential, although it *is* the cause of the career being short-lived. I never even thought of it until Mike pointed it out.
I think the joke is just you can’t swing in, slash, and dash out all in a half second if your mark is a capitol cursive G. I always assumed his career was short-lived because he just took too damned long and the whole endeavor was pointless…. but being kicked by a bull adds a visual rim shot.
(A mule may have more of a reputation for kicking, but the are visually as intimidating or in a cartoon seem as deadly.)
Zorro like to carve his initial, Z; I seem to recall that this was mainly carved into his enemies’ clothes, but I assume he carved it elsewhere too. Z is three easy slashes of a sword.
Gomez could have done as well with the letters A, F, H, I K, or N. Even easier would have been a two-stroke letter, such as L, T, V, X, or Y. I don’t know how hard it would be to carve a block G, but a fancy cursive G would be difficult indeed.
Bulls do indeed kick and buck which is the basis of an entire industry: https://www.buckcattle.com/buckingbulls.html When I was a kid I very nearly got kicked in the head once for getting too close to the back end.
I didn’t think of kicking until reading the comments, but the bull’s expression definitely tells you that Gomez is not long for this world. Whether by kicking or goring is left to the reader’s imagination.
Comics I Don't Understand 
This image is just before the bull kicked Gomez into the Great Beyond.
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The problem is Gomez didn’t choose a cool, easy to slash, nickname. Zorro’s real name was Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro means fox).
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And Gomez chose to use a fancy cursive G.
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Gomez may have been less astute, but his skills were unbelievable. Just look at that workmanship.
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This really would have worked better with a mule. Bulls aren’t known for kicking, which is what the positioning implies.
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All three above have it. Zorro chose a fancy name with slick and quick and elegant Z and ran around marking everything with the Z. He swings in, slash to right! Down! and Back!, and in half a second is out. Gomez, less astute, used a very ornate G. He walks in, slashes and goes up, does a circle goes to the right, angles down, turns and crosses the original stroke, circles back and after a minute or so ends with a swoosh. He stands back to admire his handy-work, and the pissed-off bull kicks him to kingdom come.
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“This really would have worked better with a mule. Bulls aren’t known for kicking, which is what the positioning implies.”
I don’t know that the bull kicking him is essential, although it *is* the cause of the career being short-lived. I never even thought of it until Mike pointed it out.
I think the joke is just you can’t swing in, slash, and dash out all in a half second if your mark is a capitol cursive G. I always assumed his career was short-lived because he just took too damned long and the whole endeavor was pointless…. but being kicked by a bull adds a visual rim shot.
(A mule may have more of a reputation for kicking, but the are visually as intimidating or in a cartoon seem as deadly.)
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Skills that would be short-lived.
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Zorro like to carve his initial, Z; I seem to recall that this was mainly carved into his enemies’ clothes, but I assume he carved it elsewhere too. Z is three easy slashes of a sword.
Gomez could have done as well with the letters A, F, H, I K, or N. Even easier would have been a two-stroke letter, such as L, T, V, X, or Y. I don’t know how hard it would be to carve a block G, but a fancy cursive G would be difficult indeed.
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Bulls do indeed kick and buck which is the basis of an entire industry: https://www.buckcattle.com/buckingbulls.html When I was a kid I very nearly got kicked in the head once for getting too close to the back end.
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I didn’t think of kicking until reading the comments, but the bull’s expression definitely tells you that Gomez is not long for this world. Whether by kicking or goring is left to the reader’s imagination.
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Usual John, even an expert swordsman would have trouble carving an A on someone’s clothes. It would just leave a triangular hole.
A cursive G on someone’s clothes would leave an oddly shaped hole.
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My uncle JC bought all his bulls from a man named Gilmer, so he named them all Gilmer
JC had more sense than to carve their initials on their gonads
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How about an Artist Formerly Known as Prince glyph?
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He did, however, go on to sell breakfast cereal.
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all the comments about a the bull not kicking like a mule, bull just turns and gores him.
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