On Today's Alley Oop - 30 July 2020

Several months back, somewhere in Oakland, a giddy ex-male cartoonist sat back in an overstuffed chair. She had just convinced her syndicate to remove the comment board on the "Alley Oop" comic strip. This had been a thorn in her side since the first day her work had appeared. The idea of  "freedom of speech" was one she cherished, at least for people who criticized the police and government, she felt strongly felt that people who criticized her work should never be heard from. Removed from the hindrance of a bunch of whiney, old men who probably weren't smart enough to understand how great she was and how zany she had remade the strip, she began to plot her first story set in ancient Moo.  "Let's see. Jonathan says that Oop's best friend was a big nosed, bald-headed, goof who talked in rhyme. That sounds too difficult and besides, Garg has been his friend since he was a little kid! And everybody loves Garg! And I can expand on my brilliantly zany idea of having dinosaurs talk! Oooh, how about having Dinny write poetry? Genius! And he can have a girlfriend who he takes to "Inspiration Point" to make whoopee! And her name will be Francine and all of the dinosaurs talk to each other in their own language, which Alley Oop understands"

Satisfied with her creativeness she sat back, grabbed the fat, stubby cigarette sitting in the ashtray beside her and took a long drag, slowly letting the smoke out. But she needed to have some dramatic conflict as there hadn't been any in her 18 months on strip. Suddenly it came to her. She would have a dinosaur named Steve, owned by a guy named Gromp because what could be funnier than having dinosaurs with common names while the caveman had silly names just like V.T. Hamlin used. But Joey decided that Ooola would fight the dinosaur rather than the hero and that she would have the dinosaur chase her until he knocked himself silly! That sounded possible her addled brain told herself Her cleverness sent tingles to her toes and she reached for another puff.And then, like a bolt of lightning, the idea hit her. I'll have Steve be an exploding dinosaur because nothing is zanier than an exploding dinosaur. "God am I good," she thought to herself. Suddenly, she sat upright,, and said "Watson! The pipe!" With her story writing session over, it was time to do some really serious smoking. Who knows what great ideas might come from that?