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 (23) (Please sign in to comment)
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 3 months ago
It’s more fun with pyroxene, plagioclase, magnetite, and hematite…
frumdebang said, 3 months ago
@Nabuquduriuzhur
…and a cherry bomb.
ReneTray said, 3 months ago
When is this kid gets transfered or something “old fashioned” that it is now considered child abuse.
curmudgeon68 said, 3 months ago
@Nabuquduriuzhur
But wouldn’t you need a powerful heat source?
sonorhC said, 3 months ago
I’ve never been fond of the classic baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano for a science project. Sure, it looks cool, but it doesn’t tell you anything at all about real vulcanism. Better to do a more visually-boring project with diagrams of heat profiles below the surface, or some such. Alternately, you could do a good science project on acid-base reactions, but in that case you would do the mixing in glassware, not in a papier-mache mountain.
vwdualnomand said, 3 months ago
mentos and diet coke….instant fun. what about pop rocks and coke?
annieb1012 said, 3 months ago
Maybe I’d have like science more if we’d done things like this. All I remember is refusing to make a model of the solar system, in the fifth grade. Way too boring. Language arts, though – foreign and domestic – now that’s some fun!
bigpuma said, 3 months ago
This changes everything! Usually I can’t stand this kid, but today, I find him to be perfectly adorable. Laudable, even!
Dave Marsden
said, 3 months ago
Kudos to the Discovery Channel
The Wolf In Your Midst said, 3 months ago
Hey, at least he didn’t try to model Mt. Vesuvius, circa 79 AD!
Comic Minister said, 3 months ago
At least her glasses didn’t get fogged up.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 3 months ago
Typical Caulfield, has to tease the tiger or Mrs.Olsen at school.
emjaycee said, 3 months ago
@Chaze126
Why? He is the curious child many of us were before we had to fit into an education system that catered to the ‘average’ student and below without challenging the student who really wanted to learn. Kids today have so much more information available to them than the outdated World Book Encyclopedia set in the school library of my day. Except for the violence and bullying (which we had bullying back then), I’d love to be a kid with so much more learning opportunities available in terms of space, robotics, and communications. You really want to ‘kill’ a kid? Kill their sense of curiosity and wonder. I’m sorry that seemed to happen to you.
prrdh said, 3 months ago
@curmudgeon68
An ordinary sparkler should be enough to set off a nice aluminothermic reaction.
bigpuma said, 3 months ago
@emjaycee
Why do people either want to murder Caulfield, or give him a pass because he isn’t challenged? Is there no in between? Some of each? Please, just once, let me read, “He’s curious and the classroom setting doesn’t meet his needs and blah, blah, blah, but he really is a loathsome little brat.”