Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 31, 2024

There’s the scream!

Food for thought

No, “The Scream” isn’t literature. It’s a painting. And so what? Can’t people dress up for Halloween like paintings?

For those that never heard of the book, like me: A boy dreams that he’s watching three chefs make a cake. But he accidentally falls into the batter and gets put in the oven.

The facial expression may either be the boy’s surprise or the controversy about the fact that the boy is naked through the entire dream.

He escapes and gets milk for the bakers. My son was 4 and asked waaay too many questions.LOL

I was 16 when “In the Night Kitchen” was published and have no children so I was unfarmilart with that book.

This is probably really funny if you know that book.

That book remains on the top 100 list of “most challenged books.” God forbid people should see an unclothed toddler…

If Caulfield really is thinking of going as Maurice Sendak’s Mickey, I hope he means before he gets into the milk bottle…

…because if he wants to do this, with or without having to rely on whiteface, that’s going to involve one heck of a zentai (Japanese full-body leotard, for the angrezi or non-otaku on this page), while something on the lines of a mascot suit would work better for the initial version of Mickey that’s all covered in batter…

Milk! Milk! For the morning cake!

So, no costume, then?

And I thought he was the kid from Home Alone after using the aftershave.

Thing are getting wild!

Thanks, Jef and Frazz. Without today’s cartoon, I would never have known. Thanks for more great Frazz enlightenment.“In the Night Kitchen is the classic story of Mickey’s adventures in the bakers’ kitchen as they prepare our morning cake. “Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter! We bake cake and nothing’s the matter!” the bakers sing."

No, Pearls Before Swine did the scream and yet didn’t

Not literature but has likely inspired more commentary than many novels.

Love how Mrs. Olsen’s hairbun manages to separate from her head when she’s really surprised. Unless she always wears a hat that looks like a bun … ;-)

In the bear suit or the bare suit?

Kind of overdressed for that, aren’t you, Caulfield?

Very funny today and great image for Mrs. Olsen. That bun make the trip a lot because of Caulfield. Think the possibility of Caulfield appearing naked blew her mind.

I’m literally surprised that so many people are unfamiliar with the book

I remember when Caulfield said he was going as the man in the tree in “Catch-22”. Frazz had to point to to people that there were two men in the tree, one in uniform and one “out of uniform”. Just like the kid in the book was not always “out of uniform”.

Oh, there’s a classic!

Heck, Huckleberry Finn and Jim spend most of their travel naked.

Never heard of it. Not a fan of Sendak anyway.

I saw the movie a few years ago, I thought it was for made for pedophiles. I just learned this;

“Is In the Night Kitchen about the Holocaust?According to Wikipedia, Sendak told NPR: “[The] depiction of the cooks in In the Night Kitchen (with their Hitler-esque mustaches) and the fact that they tried to cook the boy in their ovens were references to the Holocaust, a subject high in his thoughts especially due to his Jewish heritage.”

Amazes me how that youngster always comes up with some obscure character from literature.

Still not understanding why he’s been making that face all week.

It’s Halloween. Why is he “thinking of going” as something?

I notice that Mrs. Olsen is the only one who questioned Caulfield seemingly dressing up as a piece of art, rather than literature. I’m not slapping my forehead, because I never would have guessed that one.

If I can be a painting for Halloween I would be The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso.

Okay – that was suitably obscure. Bravo!

Longtime readers obviously know of Caulfield’s annual tradition. However, if you’ve been reading the comic for at least 4 days, you likely could have “intuited” it from that strip.

Just as long as you don’t recreate the milk dunk

In the Night Kitchen. I’m sure that is on a banned book list for nudity!

I found a narrated version of the book on YouTube but didn’t see any scream. And Caulfield is drawn more to resemble Munch’s image than Micky’s.