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What little boy in the last hundred years didn’t grow up wanting to own or even build his own robot? And a robot dog? Zoinks! What a great idea! Jonathan Mahood knows what I’m talking about. He may not have built his own 3-D robot, but he used his particular talents to accomplish the next best thing: he created “Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog,” a comic strip you can now find online and in daily newspapers worldwide. JONATHAN MAHOOD audio excerpt: "With newspaper comics, it's got to be easy for the reader to get on board. I got my first iPod and I was sitting outside with my dog. I was thinking about how these two things follow me around. I started working with Skip and a brother, but it didn't work out. Then it was a dog that looked like a battery."  Bleeker – along with his boy owner, Skip – is billed as the next step in the evolution of daily comics going back to Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and on through Calvin and Hobbes. In “Peanuts,” of course, the dog was the dreamer, fighting the Red Baron in aerial dogfights. In “Calvin,” the boy took us all with him on his outer space adventures as he restlessly daydreams in elementary school. But “Bleeker” is what technology has wrought: a fully realized, loyal and allergy-free pet with built-in iPod, cell phone, camera, printer and GPS. Oh, and he has a built-in jetpack, too. And an airbag. (Parents, don’t even ask.) Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog started life as an online strip and today is distributed to newspapers, websites and mobile applications by King Features Syndicate. It can be read daily on more than 100 newspaper sites, DailyINK.com and Bleekercomics.com. Jonathan Mahood • • •