Lio by Mark Tatulli for November 02, 2010

Love the alarm clock!

I would buy one.

Awwww…Lio’s so thoughtful of the little birds…

Don’t you have enough to do with feeding Frank, Ishmael, Fido, Mittens, Cybill

Those must be “early birds”.

The Early Bird gets the Earlier (and sleepy) Lio!

Where are the early velociraptors?

Bet those are nightcrawlers…

The small businessman never rests.

Awwwwwwwwwwww…so gud of u lio!!

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

And the early spammer gets flipped the bird!

1/3 of the posts are spam bots? Ugh.

Poor Lio…these early birds need to get their own @#$! worms, heh

Reminds me of that old commercial: TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS.

You know, I did some googling for “skeleton alarm clock” and, believe it or not, there actually was such a thing.

http://watchismo.blogspot.com/2007/10/wake-up-time-to-die-victorian-19th.html

Apparently this was manufactured in the 19th century, and it actually did ring and all that. It’s not quite the same as Lio’s model - it’s actually a skeleton reclining on a coffin - but the heritage is clearly there.

There are other links on that post, including one to an antique screaming skull clock (with snakes for eyes) and another skull that tells the time by rotating its eyes in the sockets. When it’s wall-eyed, for instance, it’s 9:15.

I honestly had no idea such things existed. Suddenly I’m forced to re-evaluate my entire perspective on pre-20th century European civilization. And culture that has a screaming skull clock is okay by me.

I hope those wigglers are fresh, Lio; you wouldn’t want people to say you have a bad case of worms.

Give a bird a worm and you’ll feed him once. Teach a bird to worm and you’ll feed him forever.

DATS TWEET

I love how Mark always puts so much detail into things–like the alarm clock today. Things like that just add so much to the flavor of Lio’s own little world.

Now, THAT’s dedication.

Panel two is so cute. I love Lio and all his wildness.

“early bird gets the worm” is taken too literally