Strips 125-129 of the popular comic Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, take on reality shows, beer from China and even parietals.
125. These cartoons were designed for people in their 20s whose eyes could read the fine print. The TV is featuring dialogue from Charlie’s Angels. Headline in The Observer was about Patti Hearst being granted executive clemency by President Carter.
126. This Observer headline was “Carroll Hall abolishes parietals; plan protest,” which was an unsanctioned action on their part. It was essentially meaningless. This cartoon was inspired by a conversation with classmate Rich Role, now deceased, who is hailed in the last panel. I probably should have used the tag “1/3 the calories for 1/3 the people” but at the time is made more sense this way. Not sure why.
127. It has been so long since I needed shampoo. Do they still make Breck? The TV is featuring dialogue from Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
128. Here’s another innocuous cartoon, meanwhile the headline is that Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran. The sports headlined Moose Krause (then athletic director) celebrating his 66th birthday. That seemed so old back then.
129. This cartoon was quickly drawn so respond to the timely news. I frequently made cartoon series for four days only, so I could throw in an impromptu cartoon at the beginning or end of the week. Back then I would try to work a week in advance in case school work or the fencing team interfered with my cartooning. BUT the printer ran the cartoon panels in the wrong order!!!!!!
See the first five classic strips. Check back monthly for more classic Molarity strips. Molarity Redux, the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends, also is posted monthly. For those new strips, check out the cartoon archives.