Uncle Fester runs a marathon

And so we finish off Halloween week in Frazz -- hopefully as a lot of people run out to the bookstore or library and begin reading Catch-22. Today's Frazz trivia, or arcana or whatever, deals with his shirt. Frazz's shirts often add an extra twist because they'll feature the logo or name of some race or event somewhere, or the manufacturer of some kind of gear that I like (or that somehow meshes with the theme of the strip, however slightly, or that somehow did their logo in a shape that lends itself to showing up between the lapels of a janitor's coveralls) or a musician I'm enjoying, or whatever. Today, though, Frazz is in costume for Halloween, and he's wearing a clerical collar. That's in honor of the chaplain in Catch-22. True, the chaplain is an Anabaptist, whose clergy may or may not wear that kind of shirt, but whatever hell I catch for that will seem pretty mild compared to the Auto De Fe invitations I received from a few angry Catholics after a strip I drew a couple of Sundays ago about Galileo and leisurely apologies. Oops. Didn't mean to offend. I should apologize now, before some nerd does a strip about me in another 400 years. I probably won't have as many fans around to defend me.

In less controversial correspondence, Chas asks why Frazz strips are showing up truncated at the top of the blog page. That would be because somehow the strips don't fit into the way I've got the page laid out, and the format just chops them off instead of resizing them. Until I get this figured out and fixed, you can click on a strip and see the whole thing.

Reed writes in to say that my earlier comment in The Peter Principle, Oct. 29, regarding Peter Sagal's and my inability to nail down modeling contracts while running, is dead on. At least about me. I'm not sure if he's seen Peter run or not, though he might Sunday, since the New York Marathon passes not too far from his home. Reed, I'll interrupt myself to say, is my editor at United Media, which is to say Frazz Central. It's his job to make sure my strips get where they're going on time (no small feat with me these days), with no errors, and offensive to as few Catholics and Anabaptists as possible. Let me say right here that Reed is to editing what Rich is to swim coaching. And that Reed's comics eye and his running-photo eye are equally keen. I'll show you those photos later when I write about my Grand Rapids Marathon adventure. You'll see enough scary images Halloween weekend anyway.

And speaking of my swim coach, "Anonymous" asks if Rich has a Web site. He does not. I've seen him and his sons swim, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if they all have webbed fingers and toes, if that counts. And who is "Anonymous" today? Why, it's none other than the director of one of Rich's favorite movies. Which Rich was honoring today by wearing a Humboldt Water Dogs sweatshirt, which is still a good 7 hours from Salinas, but they look close enough together from Michigan.