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 (29) (Please sign in to comment)
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 3 months ago
??
furrykef said, 3 months ago
While I agree that Frazz is a Mary Sue character, I really don’t get an “I am smarter/better than you” vibe from Jef Mallett. In this strip, if anything he’s assuming you’re as smart as he is, which is rather the opposite, isn’t it?
FUNG1 said, 3 months ago
As far as I am concerned; this strip has done it’s job! It gave ME a smile for my money!
Notsoastute said, 3 months ago
I guess Mallet could be using any of the definitions of entropy.
However, as for me, I think he should have gone for the “shuffle board” angle. Guess that is why I read and don’t write these things.
readerlady
said, 3 months ago
I didn’t get a Winter or a Spring Break. I got a Christmas and an Easter vacation. Although the Christmas vacation usually lasted 2 weeks, the Easter vacation was only one week.
Then one year we moved just around Easter. The first school’s vacation was the week before Easter, the second school’s was the week after. A two week vacation around Easter was lovely!
Shirl Summ
said, 3 months ago
@readerlady
Cheater! I never thought of moving, I’m jealous, (lol)
zoidknight said, 3 months ago
Don’t forget, they want to take away summer vacation, to make the school year longer, so they can teach the kids even less.
olddog1 said, 3 months ago
Not sure I get the entropy reference. If he means everything evening out, does it have to do with spacing out the break between Christmas and summer vacation?
jessegooddoggy said, 3 months ago
@readerlady
A child of the fifties like me; you probably didn’t have middle school either.
rshive said, 3 months ago
Yeah, middle school puzzled me for a long time. The public school system had elementary (K-6), jr. high (7-9), and high school (10-12).
-—————————————————Had few defined breaks at all. There was Christmas break, various “days off” (including Good Friday and the first day of deer season) and snow days. Usually everything came out about even. If there wasn’t enough snow (seldom), we went to the last day. If that took over the statuatory minimum, I can’t remember anyone caring.
RussHeim said, 3 months ago
What this strip needs is some bodily noise humor.
QuiteDragon said, 3 months ago
@RussHeim
I’ll pass on the bodily noise humor (that’s my schtick). Some days footnotes would be nice, though.
bigpuma said, 3 months ago
@Chaze126
You’re right on the money. Who in the world “riff(s) on entropy”? Mr. Mallett has plainly indicted himself here. Why he so often chooses conspicuous braininess over being funny I will never understand.
Thriller87 said, 3 months ago
@zoidknight
Extending the school year won’t help in America. With Texas removing/rewriting history in the textbooks the kids suffer greatly. Google Texas/Textbooks
Alex Broadhead
said, 3 months ago
Chaze126, bigpuma – Assuming they know something is the opposite of talking down to someone. Also, it seems unlikely that Mallet would be deliberately trying to alienate his audience, though you are right that he’s probably not aiming for the least common denominator (thank godlike being).