Frazz
A daily comic strip by Jef Mallett about Edwin Frazier, nicknamed "Frazz" by the kids at Bryson Elementary School. He works there as a janitor, but is also very wealthy due to having written several hit songs.
Tropes used in Frazz include:
- Adults Are Useless: Mrs. Olsen is a perfect example of a poor teacher who underestimates her students. She is based on Jef Mallett's past teachers, as well as one of his wife's teachers.
- To be fair, she does have her moments. From time to time she manages to successfully manipulate Caulfield into actually living up to his potential.
- And she's shown to be surprisingly sharp underneath her grouchiness. She's more of a Stern Teacher.
- Almighty Janitor: Frazz
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: In one strip, Frazz claims to have "Attention Defi-Hey-Look-A-Squirrel."
- Author Filibuster: Frazz is so fanatical about bicycling, swimming, and running that he (and by extension, the cartoonist) sometimes seems contemptuous of any adult who doesn't regularly participate in triathlons and the like.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Frazz to Ms. Plainwell, for quite a long time.
- Embarrassing First Name: Why do you think he calls himself "Frazz" instead of "Edwin"?
- Halloween Episode: Every year there's a week of Halloween-themed strips in which Caufield dresses up as a character from literature, challenging the teachers to guess his identity.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Frazz and Caulfield. Also some traces with Frazz and the other students.
- Jerk Jock: Coach Hacker.
- Jossed: The persistent fan theory that Frazz is a grown-up Calvin.
- Little Professor Dialog
- Medium Awareness
- Official Couple: Frazz and Ms. Plainwell, once Frazz gets the courage to ask her out.
- Picture Day: One story arc where Caulfield draws a goatee on himself in permanent marker the day before picture day. Resolved when the photographer uses a computer program to cover the goatee.
- Shout-Out: Countless references to literature, art and music. Not mention that Bryson Elementary is named after author Bill Bryson. Then there's Caulfield's name.
- More than one strip has mentioned Giantway, a mid-Michigan grocery chain which went under in 1992. (Strangely, Jef is from Lansing, which was a little south of Giantway's operations.)
- One early (the first?) Sunday strip has Frazz painting the cafeteria in kid-friendly parodies of Night Hawks, Campbell's Soup Cans, Creation of Adam, Persistence of Memory, and The Last Supper (with the title panel featuring Frazz as the Vitruvian Man for a bonus).
- Spoiled by the Format: Frazz intends to avert this for his first novel.
- Sturgeon's Law: Featuring a real sturgeon!
- Too Dumb to Live: Coach Hacker, on at least one occasion.
