Well, your old uncle Byron is not getting over this stupid ear infection any time soon. Seems I will now have to have some sort of outpatient procedure to clear the fluids in both my inner ears. Fun! To say the least, the constant dizzy spells and pain slows you down, and I’m slow enough being 65 years old. I will posts updates as I have it about my health. In the meantime, as I have a page sketched up enough to be presentable, I’ll post them here. They are being completed (just scroll back through if you haven’t lately) but I’m doing them as I am able to tolerate staring at a computer screen.

Lots of hints and nods in this one today. The “CafΓ© AmΓ©ricain” is the name of the bar in the film “Casablanca.” And Casablanca was a record company in the 1970’s that brought us a little old group called KISS. So I named the record label in New York after the bar in “Casablanca.” And a nice nod to the reason why Jarts (lawn darts) were banned as people were getting hurt or killed from being hit by the large, pointy, metal darts. And the pickle in a bag is straight from “Nick Danger,” as Rocky Rococo has a bag with a pickle in it. Why? The Firesign Theater was on cocaine or something when they wrote the bit, that’s why. 

So the gang is off to New York city to do untold damage. Stay tuned as the band will be hitting the road very soon.

How about a little Boston singing about how they got signed to their record contract? Sure, why not. 


Seems there are some questions about who Rocky Rococo is and why the reference to a pickle in this comic. To bring you up to speed, Rocky Rococo is a character from a comedy bit recorded by the Firesign Theater in 1969 called “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger” where the title character is a play on private detectives from movies in the ’40s and ’50s. Here is the portion of the script that I am referring to in today’s comic. It comes in rather early in the original recording at just past the one minute mark.

NICK: “Let’s get down to business… It all began innocently enough on Tuesday. I was sitting in my office on that drizzly afternoon listening to the monotonous staccato of rain on my desktop and reading my name on the glass of my office door. “Regnad Kcin.” My secretary lay snoring on the floor, her long, beautiful gams pinioned under the couch. I didn’t hear him enter, but my nostrils flared at the smell of his perfume… Pyramid Patchouli. There was only one joker in L.A. sensitive enough to wear that scent and I had to find out who he was.”

ROCKY: “Good afternoon, Mr. … Danger. I’m Rocky Rococo.”

NICK: “Thanks half-pint. You just saved me a lot of investigative work.”

ROCKY: “Maybe yes, maybe no… Do you know what (rustle of bag) this is?”

NICK: (thinking) “I had to think for a minute. What cool game was he playing?”

NICK: (speaking) “Uh, that’s a brown paper bag.”

ROCKY: “That’s correct, now look inside, Mr. Danger. What do you see?”

NICK: “That’s easy. That’s a pickle.”

ROCKY: “Very good…”

If you have 28 minutes… yes, 28 minutes… the complete bit is up on YouTube.