Bozo by Foxo Reardon for May 10, 2021

1 – Hey, one reward is plenty! (Alternately… it’s a tip.)

3 – Well beyond Prohibition, now I’m gonna wonder all day why the cops would raid a swanky joint like Club Elite. (Bozo figures he’ll get pinched before dawn anyhow, so he wants to make sure he gets his regular cell.)

2. I’m put in mind of that scene from Mad Max 3.

3. Bozo wants to make sure he’s really seen as one of the upper crust.

Also, as an aside, Bozo is the best new comic in ages (if you can consider a comic from 1945 “new”). It’s so consistently good.

1. Since you was so nice, here, you gets your dollar back.

2. Bozo needs no weapons to beat you, crook.

3. Hey! Waits for meeeee…!!

This strip takes me back to the type of comics published when I was little. It definitely deserves to have many more followers!

1. If I gives you your dollar back, can I have another kiss.

2. Now that your hands are full of all my stuff, let me teach you a lesson. I got this Mr. Policeman, you can go back to your nap.

3. Bozo missed the “bus”.

1 Virtue is its own reward.

2 Bozo is about to get arrested for assaulting the citizenry, isn’t he?

3Man, Bozo can’t even get arrested in this town!

To me, the metaphorical theme today revolves around the idea of “nefarious activities”:

1. Even the best of us (Bozo included), will have those angels and devils sitting on our shoulders offering us guidance on how to be and how to act. Although we cannot know for certain, perhaps Bozo was listening to the devilish ( nefarious ) side initially when he did not immediately return the dollar to the purse…. but his conscious (and the kiss no doubt) ruled in the end and he gave back the dollar too. Will the lovely lady a) realize it was her dollar to begin with, b) presume Bozo is offering a dollar for ANOTHER kiss, or c) be affronted at being offered money for the first kiss?

2. In this set of panels, it is obvious the big, over bearing, damnable oaf of a fellow is the nefarious component. Bozo, in his hunting duds first hands him the shotgun (too obvious to use) and then thwarts and defeats the crook through the use of ingenuity that has been seen in nearly every detective film or television program since. Could Bozo have been the originator of this now common genre plot pattern? Perhaps doubtful… but I like to think so. :)

3. For some reason that seems unclear to me, the impressively and fancily dressed fellows at the posh club are being herded into the paddy wagon and taken to the hoosegow. One or more of these fellows must have done something nefarious…. but what? In 1947, it would not seem likely that the fellows of this ilk would be indulging in illicit activity. But if, as others suggest, this may have been originally drawn by Mr. Foxo twenty years earlier…. it becomes more clear… these fellows have been found to be indulging in a wee bit of the etheral liquors frowned upon during Prohibition. Yet, to me, it seems unlikely that a watering hole of this sort, offering illegal-for-the-time elixirs would put up such blatant awnings and signage as “Club Elite” so…. I am still thinking it must be something else.

(3 continued) But in the end, regardless of origin story, Bozo does not want to be left out of the action…. even if it is negative action.

Gambling, perhaps? Untaxed spirits being consumed?

I noticed that in the first strip that Umbrella Guy had a ladyfriend.

I think I love this ‘new’ ’toon! Thanks ♥♥

Too cool. Love the back-story as well. Thanks for sharing, Diat! :)

Who’s UG ( I’ve already forgotten his real name) consulting with in the BG of strip 1?