flook march 1953

These strips are from the Vancouver, BC Province, and I guess it's of mild interest to me that they were sourced from the US syndicate and not taken from the British original, but presumably this was the only easy way to get them. Usual weirdness - pounds turned to dollars, etc, though did Americans ever call five dollars 'a fiver'? And the whole boarding school thing, while not entirely alien to North America, is obviously much more famously a british trope. You know, it's fine, it doesn't matter that much.  

I really don't understand what Flook did to Bodger. I feel better knowing that Rufus doesn't get it either. 

I'm also perplexed about the state of Beebe's talks bubble in the last frame, I am imagining some kind of weird cut and paste (note Flook's talks bubble is compromised in that frame too, though that might just be a printing glitch). 

As if responding to my talks bubble ruminations, Trog has thrown in a little balloon gag of his own in the second frame. This whole thing has got to be a drugs/jazz reference. 

Note four strips ago - not even a week - Rufus was saying 'I'm glad I can stay here sir'. 

I imagine whatever poor sod whose job (amongst 25 other jobs that day) was to prep the Flooks for Americans just shrugged here and said well, I can change pounds to dollars alright, make it just tenable from day to day that this strip is taking place in the US and not England, but what the hell am I supposed to do with Glasgow/Scotland?! Sod probably had no way of knowing what was going to happen in the next week's batch of strips anyway, so just had to deal. What interests me the most is that Trog and/or whoever was writing the strip at this time (given that I gather these were published in North America a few years later than the UK probably still Robert Raymond, though he'd moved on by this time) felt no desire or for that matter pressure to make the Flook strip more global in appeal. But they didn't. (Or, what is perhaps more likely, they had no idea when they were doing these strips that they would be syndicated elsewhere later on). 

Note that Flook has no problem turning himself into a petrol (aka 'gas') pump, but he can't do something easy like create parents for himself and Rufus. 

Stay tuned for the snag!