Today’s (1/2/21) Zippy strip, set in a diner tucked away in a corner of the small rural town of Hillsville VA:
(#1) Virgil is the counterman at the Hillsville Diner; the other speaker is an unnamed (and flatly drawn) Dingburger customer
Note that Bill Griffith’s drawing of the Hillsville Diner is perspectival, as his drawings generally are. The shift to a flat line drawing half-way though the strip is jarring.
Today’s Zippy takes us to the 29 Diner in Fairfax VA, where a Twilight Zone wrinkle has apparently established itself:
(#1)
It seems that Ned lives in that liminal world, where there are no coffee breaks (and presumably no bathroom breaks either). The place is open 24 hours, so maybe no sleep either.
Today’s Zippy strip (here) is about a diner called the Self-Aware Diner:
(#1) This appears to be about the idea of a self-aware diner, rather than about any specific diner
We get, from the 50s: James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, tailfins, the 50s slang daddio. Then, from a later era (but very much self-aware), Fonzie. From Wikipedia:
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as “Fonzie” or “The Fonz”, is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984).
Today’s Zippy takes us to a perished donut shop (in Niceville FL), which gives him play for his well-known fascination with the sheer sounds of words:
(#1)
In panel 1, it’s alliteration with /d/: defunct donut dispensary with dismay. In the other two panels, with /ɛks/ (or with a more reduced vowel): examined the extent of extinguished excretions … not exasperated but exuberant. (In the latter case, the choice of vocabuary items is seriously strained, to get alliterative words.)
Following up on NO PENGUINS (my 12/4/19 posting here), another adventure in food signage, also initially presented almost entirely without context. This one takes us into the mysteries of punctuation, t/d-deletion in English, and the food practices of modern America.
The impetus:
(#1)
This is available as a symbol conveying NO PENGUINS, meaning that penguins are not allowed in the signed area or will not be admitted to the signed area (under a penalty of some sort). The slash is the slash of exclusion.
Today’s Zippy, set in Zippy’s fantasy-fulfillment dream diner, Zippy Food, which serves all his favorite foods, in combinations that especially appeal to him:
(#1)
Two things: the food combos; food establishments called Zippy or Zippy’s. We will end up in Honolulu.
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.
