Frazz by Jef Mallett follows the adventures of an unexpected role model: an elementary-school janitor who's also a Renaissance man. While he's sweeping the hall, he's whistling Beethoven. Or Lyle Lovett. He paints the woodwork in the classrooms; he paints a Da Vinci on the cafeteria wall. He's a trusted authority figure who is every kid's buddy. He took the janitor's job while he was a struggling songwriter, and when he finally sold a hit song, he decided to stay on at school. Frazz appears in 200 newspapers worldwide, including the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune and Detroit News. "A few years back, I wrote and illustrated a children's book," says Mallett. "When I was traveling around reading it at school assemblies, I noticed that often, the most respected, best-liked grown-up in the building was the janitor. And I thought, 'Hmm, there's a comic strip in that.'" Often praised for its intelligent wit, gentle spirit and effortless diversity, Frazz won a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council in 2003 and 2005 for excellence in communicating values and ethics.
© Jef Mallett - All Rights Reserved.
Frank & Ernest by Thaves
Fred Basset by Alex Graham
Comments (22) (Please sign in to comment)
Richard S. Russell said, 6 months ago
The leading cause of kids nodding off in school is lack of a decent breakfast. Research has shown that breakfast is 2nd only to mother’s educational level as a predictor of school success.
J Ba said, 6 months ago
@Richard S. Russell
Though surfing the net, MyFace & twittering probably didn’t happen so much when the studies were conducted.
puddleglum1066 said, 6 months ago
@
I don’t know about Social Studies, but you just earned yourself an A+ in Creative Fiction Writing.
zoidknight said, 6 months ago
@Richard S. Russell
You mean it has nothing to do with the monotone voice, the politically correct lessons, or being required to chant along in a monotone voice the lessons.
zoidknight said, 6 months ago
@puddleglum1066
Sorry but he is right.
sonorhC said, 6 months ago
Great parody, @Nabuquduriuzhur. I’ll bet some folks thought you really were parroting absurd right-wing talking points, instead of deliberately making them look ridiculous.
masterskrain said, 6 months ago
@
Nab, you forgot…Romoney DIDN’T WIN!
ncalifgirl58 said, 6 months ago
@Richard S. Russell
If missing breakfast is the leading cause of kids nodding off in class, then the second cause is not enough sleep. Parents don’t put their kids to bed early enough.
holm swedeholm said, 6 months ago
Yes…kids probably don’t get put to bed early enough. It is SO hard for parents to do that. I blame the electric light bulb. Without it, BOTH parents and kids would get to bed earlier and late shifts for the working parents would not exist. Trying to take advantage of that thought, my practice for getting my kids to bed has been to turn out the lights in the house, except for their bedroom light. Like little moths they are attracted there. And then, with gentle but determined discipline, that light goes off at a pre-determined time and all other illumination is appropriately dimmed as well (shades and curtains drawn, no other illuminated devices allowed, for example) and sleep will ensue. Not that it has to be cave blackness, but dark enough for sleeping. And as much quiet as can be brought to bear, that helps as well.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago
@Sharuniboy
The system has a glitch, sometimes random postings are removed for no reason. Or Nabuquduriuzhur did it himself.
-
The PC is used by right wingers it means that they weren’t given the chance to be racist and sexist as they use to be with approval. Now disapproval.
underwriter said, 6 months ago
@holm swedeholm
Of course, I’m not a kid, but quiet doesn’t work well for me because it is too easy to break. A mask of white noise I find much more conducive to sleep, particularly uninterrupted sleep. Darkness I do find essential.
puddleglum1066 said, 6 months ago
I should add that I don’t know whether the kids are learning the Tea Party dogma in class, from their parents, or from those long unsupervised hours in front of the TV set. But they’re learning it somewhere. And they are most certainly not learning any form of liberal or progressive (or, to translate to Faux Snooze Newspeak, “socialist”) version of history, government or economics.
bigpuma said, 6 months ago
@Sharuniboy
I’ve written some things that have not been well received here, and on rare occasions, they’ve been flagged for removal. I’ve noticed that it happens only when I’ve used irony, or made an analogy that was totally misunderstood. Recently, I pointed out that Coach Hacker is portrayed as a “fat, stupid failure”. I was trying to make the point that Mr. Mallett does not always treat his characters kindly. But I’d bet some real dough that the person who flagged it did so because he thought it mean and rude that I would describe the character like that. Here I was, saying that we should be nice, and my post was deleted because it looked “mean”. Go figure.
Konabill said, 6 months ago
The comments were better without the political crap.
packratmac
said, 6 months ago
I’m guessing Mrs Olson was hoping he DID mean during Social Studies!