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Today is Lammas, or hlāfmæsse ("loaf-mass") as it was known in Old English. It falls midway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. We’re always happy to find a holiday to use as an excuse to make a special dinner at home, and Lammas is one we’ve borrowed from ancient Christian and neo-Pagans.

Today’s also a Saturday, which means six new Bizarro panels, with commentary from the cartoonist, are posted over on the blogspot.

Since we work well ahead of publication, I’m now into October, and have begun to write a few Halloween gags.

Our preview image is a clip from an upcoming gag based on a familiar fable, with text and Secret Symbols expunged.

San Diego Comic-Con took place last weekend, and I’ve heard from friends who attended that it was bigger, sweatier, and more expensive than ever, with comics taking a back seat to Hollywood blockbusters and streaming TV.

I was a regular attendee from the late 1980s through the early 2000s, and in 1990 I was invited to design a badge for volunteers.

“Design” is probably too generous a word for this early effort. The large hand lettering in the center isn’t bad, but the linework on the two illustrations should have been much heavier.

This sketch came from the flood of crash test dummy gags I wrote one day in April. It didn’t make the cut for publication, but maybe you’ll get a microchuckle from it.

The strip layouts of a few recent gags were different enough to share here, for those who like to compare and contrast.