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 (14) (Please sign in to comment)
vwdualnomand said, 5 months ago
wish they would do that to the local high school in my area, but no…the tennis players need to “practice.” not, if there is snow on the ground, the nets are removed, and it is miserably bone-chilling cold. the feasibility of them even playing is extremely low and it is extremely difficult to backhand return a serve if you are wearing a parka, gloves, and other winter gear.
Varnes said, 5 months ago
I don’t recommend it, but in Saginaw, we used to sneak up on cars, grab their bumpers and ride for as long as we could, or to the first busy street……the roads were snow covered back in those days….
starfighter441 said, 5 months ago
@Varnes
Bumperhitching, I remember it well, lot of fun back then.
KasparV said, 5 months ago
@Varnes
I’m about 65 miles south of Saginaw, and we did the same thing here.
Manhunter808 said, 5 months ago
Not limited to Michigan. Grew up in Illinois and “skitching” was a popular, if dangerous, winter sport there, too.
marchman said, 5 months ago
@starfighter441
In Chicago we called it skitching, a combonation of skiing and hitching.
DevilsNight said, 5 months ago
where i grew up we called it bumper skiing
Doctor Toon said, 5 months ago
We called it Bumper Surfing when I was a kid
I was 12 when my brother got his first car, surprised I lived to see 13
masterskrain said, 5 months ago
Never did Bumper Skiing, but I do remember having to drag a new Flexible Flyer up and down a plowed road for a while until all the paint was worn off the bottom of the runners. Otherwise it wouldn’t get much speed going down a snow
covered hill.
asoutter said, 5 months ago
we called it “poogeying” outside of Buffalo….
oldbird1 said, 5 months ago
Around here (w. MT), grabbing a bumper on an icy street was and is called “hookey-bobbing.” Just as dangerous as by any other name…
Elderflower said, 5 months ago
One year (loooong time ago) my highschool flooded the quarter mile track. That was some serious good skating that year!
starfighter441 said, 5 months ago
@marchman
Wonder if kids still do that? Not much in the way of snowcovered roads where I live now, and I doubt that the Germans would do something like that anyhow. Will have to ask my nephew next time I’m back in Canada.
swr said, 5 months ago
It wouldn’t work anyway, two cities in my state have had main water lines break in the last two week, and the water was moving to fast to frezze, did get four feet deep in the second one and they had to shut down a large section of downtown. The paper had a picture of a biker riding over a main bridge in two and a half feet of water.