What do you consider to be the absolute best comic strip of all time? Is it a classic from the newspapers? Or is it one of the newer, online comic strips?
For me, it has to be Charles M. Schulz’s sublime, poignant Peanuts (though he famously hated that title). As good as Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County are, they are forever in Sparky’s debt, as he created the simplest, most achingly human comic strip ever.
Opinions?
My heart says Calvin in Hobbes, but my brain says the Far Side.
I went with the Far Side.
I have soft spots for Jane (NSFW!) and Tintin, but the best currently published one has got to be Alex.
Wot no Dilbert?
Blondie. Not even a contest so it’s understandable that you would forget.
I loved Bloom County back in the day, along with Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side. But I’ve gotta go with my heart on this one, and vote for Peanuts. It wasn’t the edgiest, most bizarre, or most controversial, but I still enjoy reading reruns of it in my newspaper to this very day, 10 years after Charles Shulz died.
And I know this question wasn’t asked, but my favorite currently running strip is Pearls Before Swine, no contest.
I’ll go with “Li’l Abner”; strips with a storyline are better than ones without, IMO. For ones that are currently published, I’d maybe go with “Tom the Dancing Bug”.
I voted for Bloom County.
Calvin and Hobbes. I voted for the winner. There must be some mistake. :rolleyes:
Calvin and Hobbes for me.
And much like carnivorousplant I am disturbed that my choice was the most popular.
My second choice was Far Side, and it appears to be number 2 in the standings as of 1020 on Wed 9 June 2010, so that is somewhat disturbing as well.
I fully expected Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side to be the top two when I first posted the poll, as those are arguably the most geek-friendly strips listed. And the SDMB is nothing if not populated primarily by geeks (and I say that with all love and respect, as I am one myself).
What’s kind of shocking me right now is that Peanuts is currently ahead of Bloom County.
Also interesting: that a site as geek-saturated and as in love with The Simpsons as this one has so far proffered no votes for Matt Groening’s Life in Hell.
(Mad Magazine tiny cartoonist) Sergio Aragones said of Charles Schulz, “In a couple of centuries when people talk about American [comic strip] artists, he’ll be the one of the very few remembered, and when they talk about comic strips, probably his will be the only one ever mentioned.”
I think that says it pretty well.
I’ve never seen a funny Peanuts. I find peoples love for it bizarre.
Torn between Doonesbury, Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Doonesbury is one of the only comics that has managed a long run without becoming just a mechanical repetiton of itself. And when I was ten, I learned everything I know about all the current events I’d missed by not being born by reading through my dads Doonesbury collections. My internal conception of the Vietnam war is probably a lot funnier then the actual war was.
Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes had much shorter runs then Doonesbury, but are also funnier. I’d give the edge to Calvin and Hobbes though, its funnier then Doonesbury but actually has characters and and story lines, as opposed to the Far Side.
That’s because it’s kinda crap IMO. Back in the heyday of the Simpsons, I eagerly grabbed up a book of Life in Hell, because hey, it’s Groening. It…didn’t grab me.
For me, honestly, there’s no contest. Calvin & Hobbes.
Life in Hell = Calvin and Hobbes > The Far Side = Doonesbury > The Boondocks = This Modern World
I voted Life in hell cause it had less votes then Calvin and Hobbes
Someone needs to add Foxtrot and the old Robotman (pre-monty)
I went with the two faves. In today’s mostly unfunny comics, I would vote for Bizarro, Pearls Before Swine, and Get Fuzzy.
I had to debate with myself between Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes, but finally went with the boy and his tiger. It was really a toss-up though, Peanuts is just simply iconic.
I know Watterson credits Peanuts and Krazy Kat for his inspiration, but I think he took the surrealism of the latter and combined it with the general feeling of childhood from the former (and not necessarily a joyous feeling) to create the best comic strip ever.
I’ll admit that it’s a tough choice between the two. A case can certainly be made that, in addition to everything else great about it, Calvin and Hobbes ended at its peak, while Peanuts lasted far past its sell-by date.
As for me, I like Peanuts just a hair more than I like C&H.