Benny & Sid presents Chapter 4 of the serialized graphic novel The Truant Officer

The latest edition in Salem's only original cartoon series.

By Glen Bledsoe

(Your City, USA) - Nobody likes to be made a fool of. Sometimes you see it coming. Sometimes you've just got to clench your teeth and take it in the gut because it's your job.

I'm not sure what consolation it is to know that Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger," or that Arnold Schwarzenegger said much the same thing in "Conan the Barbarian," but the jobs real men do take more than just swinging a pick or driving a long haul truck.

Which is to say that men who swing picks or drive eighteen-wheelers do more than pick and drive or pick and grin, for that matter. There's always more to what a man does than meets the eye.

Yet when we're small we're told to mind our manners. We're told to respect women and our elders. We're taught to be afraid of our bosses and--yes--maybe even our truant officers. When it comes right down to it we know we can ultimately only trust ourselves.

When you're doing the right thing it doesn't really matter what other people think. It only matters what you think of yourself.

In this chapter of The Truant Officer you'll discover another thread to the Eddy Burbank story. What you knew or what you thought you knew may not be the whole story. Chapter by chapter, layer by layer like an onion, the story unfolds.

Frame 1 | Frame 2 | Frame 3 | Frame 4

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Leonardo (Glen L. Bledsoe), Salem-News.com cartoonist, was born and raised in Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelors of Art in Fine Arts and was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for several years. Glen made his home in Oregon in the early 80's where he continues to enjoy the mild climate and lack of sales tax.

He and his wife Karen have published seventeen books together for the school library market. Glen has written extensively on the issues of technology and education for the National Education Association and other publications. When he is not creating this unique cartoon series, Glen is either teaching, writing a novel, composing music, or reading.