Round the Mountain

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Sometimes an idea pops into your head and you can't get it out, so you have to run 'round the mountain with it.
Which wouldn't bother me so much if it hadn't taken a week of my time or if I could draw horses. (I originally had three pairs of different horses instead of six of one.)

Another Pirate Joke

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Here's the initial sketch. I'll update it later and pretend this never happened.
It's either that or celebrate The-Day-After-Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day Day like some kind of scallywag!

UPDATE: Here's the finished comic strip. .

I did the original sketch on an iPad without the benefit of the Internet nor access to earlier comics. As a result, there were two mistakes in the initial sketch. Did you catch them both?

A Different Kind of Substitution, Part 2

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Semi-autobiographical. Pseudo-autobiographical.
Potato. Tomato.

A Different Kind of Substitution

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Watch out for depth charges.

Somber September 11 to You All

I didn't want to let this day to pass without making some note of it, and not necessarily another comic dedicated to it. I'll never forget the moment when I found out that the country had been attacked. I'd been standing in a courthouse just a few miles away, ignorant of the devastation already wrought. There was shock and panic as people ran to the pay phones to contact loved ones. Some broke down and wept at the lives lost. And many pulled together to console and to comfort and to keep each other company on a long walk home. Strangers were brought together in the wake of the worst attack in the country's history.

Remember those we lost that day, the innocent workers and the first responders.

So Subbing Starts Tomorrow

First day at a new school tomorrow. Never been there before. Never been by there. Never traveled to the area before. But bright and early tomorrow, I'll be riding the rails, heading for a month-long assignment at a school in Williamsburg. I may be off the blog for a few days while I get my bearings and figure out what's going on.

I Call Them "Ray" Because They Go One Direction

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Delta x is Oh! That's what makes you vertical!

Na¹⁶

You don't know you're vertical!

That's One Small Step ...

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

That's one small step off the couch, one giant leap over the coffee table, the television stand, the lamp, the bookcase . . .

I decided a long time ago that this comic strip (along with the blog that showcases it) could not become the Obit of the Week. I can't acknowledge every famous or historical person who may have influenced me in some way. I will try when I can -- when an idea occurs to me that fits and is something I'm capable of drawing.

That said, this is how I can pay tribute to both Neil Armstrong, a hero whose footsteps I would have loved to have followed in (and for once I can use the word literally!) and, at the same time, to my father.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Jerry Nelson, Puppeteer (1934 - 2012)

Over the past five years, I have likened my comic to Sesame Street in that I've mixed human characters with talking "monsters", which in this case are a bunch of numbers. Also, it was a standard to strive for as well as a way to share my own childhood memories.

Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer, was a part of those memories as the voice of Count von Count, who loves to count, and Sherlock Hemlock, the world's greatest detective.

I'd like to think that maybe it's not an accident that I have two characters that draw upon the same two sources for inspiration. (Granted, my Count could count on his fingers the number of times he has appeared -- er, if he had fingers, that is.)

His work will live on, and he won't be forgotten. And right now I have to wonder if he's not looking down to us and saying softly,
"That's one! One blog post memoriam! Ah, ah, ah!
Two! Two twitter tweets! Three! Three Facebook shares!"
... as he's counting the stairway to heaven.

This is Crazy

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

The chorus on the Law of Cosines is left as an exercise to the reader.

Time and Relativity

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

From real-life to comic: 8-10 days

Shark Week!

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Yes, that time has come full circle.



EDIT: My brother wanted to know, if this is Shark Week, does that make Wednesday "Jump Day"?