Sunday, March 29, 2009

March 29: On Sunday Comics

Today's Kerouaction

It's a Sunday during Jack Kerouac Month (March being duly ordained as such by proclamation March 1, 2009 here in this blog), and of course any real beat is going to read the Sunday comics in the local newspaper, afterwards, in true beat fashion (the beats being green before green was cool), saving the colored comic pages for wrapping paper to be used later -- maybe for a birthday present or a "just-because" present.

Back to the topic. What comics would Kerouac read? We know he watched cartoons on TV, as a previous post about Krazy Kat pointed out. We can assume Jack read the comics because he mentions them in his novels.

For example, in Dr. Sax, he mentions "Maggie and Jiggs funnies."

I remember reading the comic strip, "Bringing Up Father" by George McManus, which featured Maggie and Jiggs. Wow! Jack and I might have been reading it at the same time, at least between 1962 (when I probably started reading the comics), and 1969 (when Jack died).

Here's a link to "Bringing Up Father."

Read the Sunday comics. It's a beat thing to do.

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