Cleats by Bill Hinds for October 02, 2023

I don’t know who he is, but I’m glad he’s here.

Today, the kids are gonna learn from the greatest swashbuckling swordsman ever, the amazing Zorro! However, learning to swing on a chandelier is an advanced level class. You’ll have to get a few years under your belt before you’re ready for that class.

I’m telling you, these would make great comedy sketches on the Cleats show. I can see it now, “Fencing Tips with Edith”.

My favorite part is his smile in the last panel. Fencing is a great sport, but it’s like a high-speed slap-fight, not the dramatic swashbuckling swordfight of the movies.

I remember this from the printed newspaper strips years ago. I’ve been waiting for this strip to show up ever since the kids started talking about taking fencing lessons. Zorro – my child hood hero!

Go on Edith, poke him with your foil to see if he´s real.

Que Milagro! El ZORRO! My childhood friend has returned! Man I lived for the ZORRO TV show each week! His horse was a beaut! Tornado! I always dressed as ZORRO for Halloween!Thanks for the big grin Mr Hinds!

Yay! Bernardo! lower the chandeliers!

Basil Rathbone is widely considered the best fencer in Hollywood history, but ironically always lost his fights – for example to Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro, Errol Flynn in both Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood, even Danny Kay in The Court Jester – because he tended to play villains. Ironically, the hero he played numerous times, Sherlock Holmes, was described in A Study in Scarlet as a superb fencer, but they never used that in those films. I first saw that skill when Nicol Williamson played Holmes in The Seven Per Cent Solution.

If I were taking fencing lessons and the instructor showed up dressed as Zorro you’d better believe I’d be paying rapt attention.