Happy Earth Day!
Sally Forth and the Chocolate Easter Bunny: The Thrilling Conclusion to a Multi-Decade Storyline
Through the years…
When I took over writing Sally Forth in 1997, I have to admit I never had read the comic before (something that proved quite obvious to anyone who saw my first several strips). That was simply because the comic did not run in Long Island newspapers (and this being before the Internet). So the syndicate sent me a giant package of every strip up to that moment (this also being before the Internet) and I quickly went to work…making Sally Forth satire strips that are best left unseen.
But with that out of the way I began my intense study of all things Forth family and determined that Sally was a very competent and caring individual, Hilary was either four or eight but almost certainly Cindy Brady, and Ted liked meatloaf and, uh…that was the extent of Ted as far as I could tell. But what I somehow inexplicably skipped in my panic reading (I had a few days from package to starting writing the strip) was that Sally and a long tradition of biting off the ears of Hilary’s chocolate Easter bunny.
This was brought to my attention in 1998 when—shortly after my first Easter Sunday strip (sans ear-sliced bunny)—I received an email from a very irate reader saying that he had bet his wife $100 that Sally would bite the ears off Hil’s chocolate bunny. Having learned my lesson I wrote back, thanking him for alerting me to a running gag and then informing that not only do I heartily approve of gambling on comic strip characters’ lives (I mentioned I had lost thousands betting on the king on Wizard of Id being dethroned and flayed in the public square) but also that it is always wise to bet within the family, since there is no net loss and you could then use that same $100 to bet as a couple on whether or not Hagar the Horrible will die on an ice floe.
The next day I received a call from my editor Jay Kennedy asking me to stop responding to readers’ emails.
But since then I have kept the Easter Bunny tradition alive, turning it from a loving example of parental boundary issues into an all-out psychological war between mother and daughter. And today that story ends on a peace accord. Because we could all use a little peace nowadays.
So if you would be so kind—or you just need a break from visiting relatives—lift your one-ear chocolate bunny in toast to the end of an era. Well, a running gag. Well, to chocolate. Thank you.
How to Turn an Easter Egg Hunt into an Action Movie
The Easter egg hunt. Quaint. Innocent. In need of a major adrenaline rush. To make sure your Easter Sunday is a true fun day here are few tips from the action movie genre to help turn any search for dyed Grade A’s around your house into a Grade-A-explosives adventure…
Sally Forth Sunday: The Beginning of the End of One Thing
As Jim Keefe and I prepare to enter “Phase Two” of the “Sally Forth Comic Strip Universe” this September (or “Phase 147,” depending on how many times you think I’ve altered/ruined the strip in my 22 years of writing it), we begin to say farewell to a few of the hallmark stories that made Sally Forth—in the words of one critical rave—”Available in print and online.” First up is “Sally Forth Eats the Ears off Her Own Child’s Chocolate Easter Bunny Every Year,” a long-ago inherited running gag that began what I assume as a touching tribute to poor boundary issues and in the last two decades has evolved into a loving tale of parental mind games and ensuing childhood mental breakdowns. So please join us today as we witness Hilary’s last plan to outwit her mom come Easter Sunday and be with us in September, when big changes will occur but, alas, none of them will involve a tiny, green space alien named Ozmodiar that only Ted can see.
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