Red Meat

The reason red meat is colored that way (as distinct from white meat) is because the muscle tissue contains a significantly higher concentration of myoglobin and, to a lesser degree, hemoglobin. These two proteins also cause certain parts of chicken and turkey to be colored darker than others.

Myoglobin and hemoglobin contain an atom of ferrous iron which binds to oxygen, allowing the tissue to absorb oxygen from the bloodstream. When the animal is slaughtered and the meat is cut, oxygen is absorbed by the iron atom and the meat turns red.

The concentration of myoglobin has nothing to do with the high cholesterol content usually associated with red meat. In fact, ostrich meat, which is red despite the fact that it's technically poultry, is very low in cholesterol.

It is for me, though.

The strip always consists of 3 scenes, containing to the best of my knowledge 2 characters, which can be mixed. Johnny Lemonhead and Ted Johnson, for example. The graphics in the strips are simple and static (to truly understand what I mean by that, you have to look at one), so there is more concentration on the jokes.

The dialogue between the two characters in any given strip is usually of the blackest sort of humor, and is branded by many as bad taste. See Bug-Eyed Earl, for example. Still, obviously a lot of people find Mr. Cannons humor quite enjoyable, as I do myself.

At redmeat.com you can also search for past comic strips with specific characters or specific pairs of characters.

Real fans of Red Meat should visit the Red Meat Construction Set, where you pull down a couple menus for the two characters you want to see, then you just fill in everything they say in the three cells, and it spits out a personalized Red Meat comic for you. It's really quite disturbing the things that Milkman Dan says to Karen when I'm in charge, time for me to get back into therapy.