The past couple of Cool Jerk strips featured the debut of a character I’m naming Typhoid Larry. He’s the owner of Lung Fung Donuts in Spittle Beach. We may or may not see more of him in the future.

Some readers have implied that I’m doing a parody/homage/slam against a local donut shop here in San Diego. Which is true, but Typhoid Larry is based on a shuttlevan driver Darlene and I saw in San Francisco last year. Right down to the flop sweat. Oh, if only I had the balls to take a photo of him. I swear I thought he was going to collapse behind the wheel. He really did look like Jeff Goldblum in the third reel of “The Fly.”

The name “Lung Fung Donuts” comes from my youth — House of Lung Fung was a Chinese restaurant in Reno, Nev. in the 1980s and 1990s. I wish I’d taken a photo of the sign. Apparently “Lung Fung” isn’t overly uncommon, as a Flickr search will reveal.

Lipstick = lips on a stick (sticking out of his mouth)