Two recent Zippy strips on Maple Donuts in York PA:
(#1) From 5/11; note the sign “Drive Thru / God Bless / America”; Maple Donuts has 4 locations in the York PA area, and it’s not clear which one appears in any particular Zippy strip, or whether Bill Griffith has created cartoon amalgams of them; and note the title “Covfefe Break”
(#2) From 5/15, specifically on the noun toroid ‘geometric figure resembling a torus’
Today’s Zippy takes us us to diner of his religion, as described in its sacred text, the Book of Norman:
(#1)
As it happens, these same characters have struck these same poses in this very diner before, but they had different things to say to one another.
It’s about diners. It’s about cartoons. It’s about San Francisco. Obviously, it’s about Zippy the Pinhead (from 4/15):
(#1) Yes, some of us left our hearts in San Francisco, but Zippy left his pants
This being a Zippy strip, you are guaranteed that this is a real place; in fact, it’s a pretty famous one (though now closed down, of course). And not only is Zippy returning to 2801 24th St. in SF, we as cartoon readers are returning to this very scene, but with different dialogue.
Today’s Zippy toon, at Zip’s diner in Dayville CT, with Zippy spreading his love for taco sauce:
(#1)
At least the eighth appearance of Zip’s in Zippy.
Today’s Zippy is set in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk VA of a few years back, in a Do-Nut Dinette — whose name throws Zippy into a fit of onomatomania (aka repetitive phrase disorder) compounded with Spooner’s affliction (compulsive exchange of word elements in phrases):
(#1)
(Separately, there’s the use of dinette to refer to a diner, as a type of restaurant.)
Yesterday’s Zippy takes us to a historic diner in Albany NY and its notifications boards:
(#1) Note the parochial character of the messages: bulletins about the diner’s offerings
The real diner’s interior:
(#2) From the diner’s last day of service, posted 2/17/12 on the All Over Albany site
Today’s Zippy takes us to the banks of the Connecticut River in Chicopee MA, to a historic diner, and to the bizarre foods that Zippy fancies:
(#1) If you’re Zippy, everything goes better with a dollop of Valvoline on it — and, maybe, some canned beets:
(#2)
Zippy and Gladys are in Al’s Diner, a well-known feature of Chicopee, a northern industrial city that took advantage of the falls on the Connecticut to drive mills — which then entangled the place in the slave economy of the early 18th century.
Yesterday’s Zippy takes us to Littleton (NH, not the more famous CO — or, for that matter, IL, IA, KY, ME, MA, NC, or WV), where our Pinhead falls into an identity crisis:
(#1)
Everybody, including the counterman, is Zippy, or at least a Zippy. And the strip begins with a stretch that is both two panels, each with a Zippy in it, and one full-diner-view panel, with two Zippys in it. We’re in the nightmare world of clones — who am I?
Then there’s the observation in the last panel: No one brings small problems into a diner. Certainly, an interpretation of what happened in the strip before this, though as that it’s crucially ambiguous. But maybe also a moral that we should take away from those events, a piece of advice about what we should or should not do.
Today’s Zippy, set in the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights NJ (in Bergen County, in the NJ suburbs of NYC, near Passaic), celebrates grilled or fried ham and cheese sandwiches:
(#1)
Today’s Zippy, at the Main Street Diner in Plainville CT:
(#1)
takes us back to this 12/16/14 posting, “Telezippic communication”:
(#2)
The same artwork, slightly different coloring, entirely different text, but the same story line:
