Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for June 20, 2008

Oh my!

What have we here?

A little village along our morning walk….

We’re on our way, of course, to post our comments on

the June 20th  2018 “CLEO and COMPANY”

Which you can read on Sherpa

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy

I’ve done Gloria Sweeny’s hair a dozen times or more….

she’s never mentioned living next door to another civilization.

Where are they from?

They seem to live (or camp) in what resembles a cross between a Navajo hogan and a Hobbit house….

but dress like… hmmm…. perhaps some sort of 14th century Polish warriors.

Are those Phrygian caps? Is this a settlement of freed warriors from some mythical country?

Or yet another Ballard Street club…. perhaps one focused on not-quite-historical reenactment.

Maybe even a Ballard branch of the S.C.A.

Ahoy, my good sir… er… I mean good morning!

Do you speak English?

Well…ok…. prithee Sir…. canst thou …um….. tell me whence comest thee?

Parlez vous Francais?

Oh! Yes… hello!

We’re going to my pie shop, to discuss Cleo and Company.

You do?

Well… would you like to come along and join us?

It’s next door to the Tiki Bar.

The Solstice, eh? Tomorrow night?

Well, yes, Thursday morning….. before dawn.

I do understand that it takes time to get ready.

Maybe next week?

I’ll come back another day, and let you know where we’ll be.

Happy Longest Day to you, too. In advance.

Whatever you do, don’t turn right leaving the Sweeney’s.

Cleo, you just know there’s going to be payback. In spades.

Cleo has, naturally, drawn the only logical conclusion one COULD draw from her little “experiment.”

How do those big guys get into those tiny huts?

Cleo, I wonder if your discovery could be applied to high-speed trains. They are blowing their horns all the time anyway. Claude, thank you for your contribution to science. Of course an experiment has to be replicated several times…

Such colorful language.

People in grass houses.

Grog… you beat me to remarking on Claude’s colorful language.

Cleo is lucky to be doing that experiment in cartoonland.

Not only is gravity easier to suspend… so is disbelief.

And the sound effects come in beautiful bright colors… and often, like that “HONK!”, in big ballooony letters.

Why do toon scientists always wear glasses?

I wore glasses at seven…. unusual then, though very common now….

When I was teased I told my taunters that my glasses gave me special powers… but I didn’t actually believe it.

Still… glasses in comics seem to represent intelligence.

Wish it worked!

I seem to be having trouble posting tonight…. once again, the comment box won’t expand, and I can only see one line at a time.

They fixed that months ago…. hope it’s just a glitch tonight.

BTW…. the warrior(?) people were pretty friendly, actually… no need to worry about passing along the sidewalk in front.

According to the fellow I spoke to, they all read Cleo and Company, and they might want to come to one of our get-togethers.

I hope everybody will welcome them.

They offered to bring some refreshments but I said it really wouldn’t be necessary.

One more thing….. I know it’s very late… and I see things strangely at this hour….

but I need help identifying whatever is on the ground, between the two closest huts(?).

At first I thought it was some sort of mechanical object… or maybe a saddle sitting on the ground.

But now it looks like… OK, this is nuts…. a miniature person, on all fours.

it could be wearing a mini version of the cape worn by the fellow atop the hut on the right…. but I don’t see a face.

What I do see is what looks like a tiny hand, on the grass, at the end of one arm….

and on the other hand … I swear it looks like a miniature baseball glove.

You’re right… it’s way past my bedtime…. but if not a hand, what is that?

My favorite part was star G pound tornado exclamation point exclamation point

C’mon, Claude. Don’t stand in the way of scientific experimentation. We learn so much this way. Your heart will start beating again soon.

You mean Claude can hear the sound of that airhorn over the sound of his snoring?!???? Maybe that’s why Cleo had to use the bullhorn too.

That must be some of that fancy load-bearing thatch.