March 2003 FRESCO-LE-RAYE DAY! Fresco-Le-Raye Lives - OK! Dear Pete, This week's surprise bonus item is... another Fresco strip! Brand new, drawn today. Thank you very much for inspiring me. Who'd have thought I'd still be drawing Fresco after all these years? I'm sending it to you in the same format as usual, though I drew it smaller to save time. I'm sending it to everyone else on my greetings card list as a tiny monitor display file. Hope it works, Happy Commonwealth Day, Jack H'lo, Pete! Here, at last, is the final Fresco. For the sake of completeness, I thought I should send you this do-it-yourself episode: write your own word balloons! If the idea appeals to you, feel free to run it as a competition. I would happily award an antique plastic warthog to the sender of the saddest script! NEXT WEEK: And now for something completely different. The start of a never-before-seen (and surprisingly short) series! Keep watching your inbox! ~ Jack. Of course, this isn't really the final Fresco at all: merely the last of those that I originally INTENDED to send you. As you will have doubtless noticed, I've already sent you a further five. You have only yourself to blame! I distinctly remember you suggesting that, when the Frescos run out, I could draw some more. And, at the crucial moment, you inspired the inspiration for the new 'Birthday' sequence. There are more to come - I know what happens next! I had a minor brainwave that helped me to produce the latest episodes. Each of the previous 'sample' strips took the best part of a day to draw (thus leaving me only the worst part). I have now reverted to the simple device of drawing them SMALLER! None of this week's cartoons took longer than an hour and a half! Thank you for your support: I'll wear it always. Sorry about the delay in continuing the Fresco-Le-Raye saga. I'm allowing plenty of time for stragglers to respond. In the meantime, here is a bonus episode. The story will resume shortly. Remember where we got to! Feel free to forward the Frescos to anyone you think might be interested, or get them to e-mail me if they'd like to be added to the list of subscribers. It's all FREE (mainly because I can't think of a way of charging!). I must admit that originally I intended to send out the strip five times a week but there have been rumbles of mutiny. I'm currently considering just one or possibly two episodes a week: I don't want people to tire of it, and not everyone checks their e-mails every day (ahem!). And, of course, not everyone has broadband. I don't really want to deal with two different e-mailing schedules. At the moment, I have five new strips in hand (which makes it difficult to type). Although Jack claims to have sent the “final” Fresco strip, he continued for the best part of four more years. He had produced about 35 by this point. Jack continued to send things through the post. One was the letter (which is hard to read) and blue card below. The idea was to produce an ‘honest’ menu card for a certain well- known brand of chocolates.