Hi grandpuzzler. As you say, the pictures under 2D ANIMATION are drawers of famous cartoons (some of my favourites past and present). In all but 2 (maybe 3), there are tell-tale objects in the pictures (selected for that purpose) serving as clues to what they drew.

Al Capp – Li’l Abner
Jim Davis – Garfield (a bit of the orange Garfield on the backdrop)
Matt Groening – The Simpsons
Herge – Tintin
Leonardo da Vinci – The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, and other works, obviously not the same genre of cartoons as the rest here
Scott Adams – Dilbert
Charles Schulz – Peanuts

Re 28ac – TESTER – in the old days roofs were thatched and during the night beasties etc would fall from the roof on to the bed below as there was no ceiling as such. A cover over the bed kept the occupants free of such intrusions.

Once ceilings became established, the tester became redundant.

Cheers…

Hi susan finnel, you’re probably right – I’ve seen those bottles arranged on the counters, though I’ve missed out on those well-turned out promoters spraying any sort of substance in my direction. It’s just that my male brain never thought of them.

Hi mike04, I suspected something like that for sea road, but couldn’t find it in the online dictionaries, so thanks.

Hi Wanderer, Eileen, Thomas99 – together with mike04, we don’t seem to have a clear majority on 20D. I might add that “travelled by sea” = “rowed” is such an archaic (not since the times of galleys, biremes and triremes) reference, though it might be in keeping with the other uncommon equivalents in the puzzle.

And Eileen you’re probably right about the Eurocentric reference for additives, which gives me an excuse for not knowing about it!

And mike04, I am taking a break, during the course of which I’ll be at Derby, so hope to see you, if you’re going, and the rest.

You’re right, of course. I didn’t read the blog carefully enough and missed ‘was up’. Apologies.

I came to this late and have just run out of time, given up and come here, so thanks for the blog.

Re 11dn: a fourth [!] suggestion: I think the additives are E numbers – “number codes for food additives that have been assessed for use within the European Union (the “E” prefix stands for “Europe”)” [Wikipedia]. They’re listed on all food products here and are commonly referred to as ‘Es’.

I read 20dn as Wanderer did.

20d I read as Route = definition, and travelled by sea = ROWED, for which we need to find a homophone. But I’m not convinced!

Thanks to you and Phssthpok.