SAVE THE STYLE INVITATIONAL!

Do you believe in The Style Invitational?

Do you want it to come back?

Do you want it to come back NEXT WEEK???

If you clap real hard, maybe it will.

Are you clapping?

Obviously, you're not clapping hard enough.

That's better! You're doing great!

Now hop into the front yard with your pants down around your ankles, flapping your elbows like a chicken. For all the good it will do you.

Face it, Sunday Style's humor contest remains on a six-month vacation, and there isn't anything you can do about it. But we're still accepting entries for the Style Invitational Cartoonz contest, in which we are trying to create the world's first reader-written comic strip. Your challenge is to write a three- or four-panel script for one of three strips:

Diogenes Gump, about a man who wanders Washington and introduces himself to people. Anyone who shakes his hand is compelled to tell the truth for 24 hours. Or:

Bryan Winter, Scumball, the story of an insensitive cad in Washington. Or:

The Dead Presidents Society, in which ghosts of ex-presidents wander the nation's capital, interacting with people and commenting on public events.

Why should you do this?

Ask yourself this: Why did the early explorers come to America? To seek glory, riches, religious freedom, and raw materials such as "sorghum." We hereby promise that every winner of the Cartoon Contest, in addition to receiving fame and valuable prizes and religious freedom, will also get a cup of sorghum.

Send your comic scripts* to

Cartoonz,
c/o The Style Invitational
The Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW,
Washington, D.C. 20071
or fax them to 202-334-4312
or e-mail them to losers@washpost.com.
Deadline for entries is Nov. 15.

*No need to draw anything. You come up with the scripts, we draw it.