Suspended Animation Classic #256 Originally published November 21, 1993 (#48) (Dates are approximate) Zippy Quarterly By Michael Vance “Zippy Quarterly” #4/$3.50, 34 pages from Fantagraphics Books/available in comics shops. Bill Griffith is a split personality on paper. He’s a long-nosed yuppie in button-down collar. He’s a pin-headed, spaced-out ‘60s throwback in a polka-dotted nightshirt. Bill is square pegs and round holes and he isn’t trying to make either fit in his comic strip, “Zippy”. Griffy is Griffith’s yuppie half, in perpetual angst. Zippy is the cartoonist’s hippie side, lost in psychedelic limbo. Their relationship is ying, yang, and (Carl) Jung. A simple taste. You are abducted by aliens only to endure the torture of their … time-share pitch for a condo. Another sip. Griffy: “Is space infinite? Is time relative?” Zippy: “Do I love what Toyota does for me?” Griffy: “Is there a form of matter we haven’t yet detected?” Zippy: “Is Macy’s really a part of my life?” Griffy: “Is the uncertainty principle an inescapable reality?” Zippy: “Am I zestfully clean?” Yes, Zippy, you are zestfully clean … and decaffeinated. If “Zippy” art is rooted in the underground commix of the ‘60s, Zippy’s life is firmly planted in the grounds of today … in coffee grounds, to be precise. “The coffee Cult” is the cream of the fourth “Zippy” issue. Griffy and clown are sucked into a coffee tasting club and the world of Jamocha Lattes, Mocha Marobi French and Arabian Mocha Sanani. But coffee is only a facade for a religious cult that quickly boils over into satire and laughter. Second best-of-issue and more poignant than punny is Griffy’s surrealistic search for another job and a more fulfilling life. “I want to be someone else” is a quote universally understood, saying volumes about how brief is life and how narrow its focus. Life is too brief and narrow to miss “Zippy”. He does a great job of answering his own trademark question, “Are we having fun yet?” The answer is yes. Highly recommended.

STOP 101 Built in the late 1790s, this inn, considered Jonesborough’s oldest frame structure, has hosted U.S. Presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson. It was here that Jackson was threatened with tarring and feathering. Nearby, he fought a fire while wearing only his nightshirt. Now owned by the state, it serves as headquarters for trail point 100.