Straight from the Funny Pages

It's always been interesting when two comic strips by completely different people cover the same subject matter (or even make the same joke) on the exact same day. (And while I realize that many cartoonists are friends, I doubt they sit around swapping ideas every day, posting things on some big Facebook group, or anything like that.) It's even more interesting if the two strips happen to be right next to each other.

But today's comics section struck a chord (heh) with me: Two different strips revealed today that a major character in the strip has a love for jazz music. In Zits, teen protagonist Jeremy Duncan accidentally leaves his Facebook page open, and his parents discover it; besides the usual hair-raising details (literally, in his mom's case; this is the funnies, after all), they find out that he likes jazz. In Judge Parker, attorney Sam Driver (who has virtually replaced the namesake judge as the strip's protagonist) tells his wife, Abbey Spencer, that before he went into law school, he played the trumpet and wanted to be a music major in college until his parents forbade him from doing so. He also noted that while his friends liked rock music, he had his sights set on being a jazz musician.

It's funny--you spend a few minutes each day with these characters, but you never really know them; there's always something new to be discovered. Three cheers for two of these artists putting someone from their world into my world.