Little Nemo. So beautiful, ambitious and weird. And early. But I think that Nemo is a bit different from the others with the large format and all. For proper 3-frame-strips I think Calvin and Hobbes should take the prize.
I almost went with Little Nemo to give it some love, but then I realized Calvin & Hobbes just did everything exceedingly well. It had a human touch like Peanuts. It was painfully funny like Far Side. And it did the surreal and imaginative like Little Nemo.
It might not have been number one in each category, but placing 2nd or 3rd in all categories makes it #1 overall.
No love for Zippy the Pinhead?
Peanuts, Pogo, The Far Side, Doonesbury, and Calvin and Hobbes will all be remembered a century after their ending. I give the edge to C & H because Watterson folded the tent and left us yearning for more. (Yes, so did Far Side, but I didn’t yearn quite as badly for more Far Side as for C & H.)
Calvin and Hobbes is my clear winner here, with Far Side and Peanuts as runner-ups.
Probably the funniest comic strip today is Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!
If it were predicated on the hotness of the title character, Blondie would run away with it. Choosing instead to base my choice on wit and humor, I had to go with The Far Side.
The Order of the Stick - it’s not just a comic strip, it’s an adventure.
Sinfest - i don’t know why i chose Sinfest over Charlie Brown, perhaps it’s simply that it has been a long time since i read Snoopy.
Peanuts - not fun to read online at all as it’s limited to a few strips and the website presentation isn’t as good as the others. (i don’t want to click 3 times just to view one strip!)
are any of the poll choices newer online strips? i’m not familiar with most of them, i am guessing they’re on American newspapers.
None of them are webcomics, I believe, and many of them are very old. Like, decades old. Krazy Kat and Little Nemo alone were comic strips from the 1920s, IIRC.
You, Sir, have obviously not seen Aunt Fritzi lately.
If Tintin’s allowed I’d add Asterix - utter genius, especially the english translations.
But Calvin and Hobbes wins it for newspaper strips.
Krazy Kat, an assessment that is either blindingly obvious or completely unfathomable.
Next would be Pogo.
Little Nemo was even earlier than that: 1905-1914 with a brief revival in the '20s.
Krazy Kat was from 1913-44.
Thimble Theater more popularly known as Popeye, was started in 1919 and still has new strips on Sundays.
Not bad, considering she is around 100 years old!
(she was in her 20s in 1922)
Orcenio, after hearing about Life in Hell all my life, since I was a kid, I’m gonna go ahead and finally try to track that down and check it out.
My list is:
Calvin and Hobbes at the top, naturally.
Far Side, naturally.
Peanuts, naturally.
Boondocks is a* distant *4th.
I have always really liked Andy Capp. I used to love Doonesbury, too.
Fritzi is one hot mama to be sure and I’ve said as much on this veryboard. However, her rather unsightly niece has been the title character of the strip for some time now.
Aww. I always dug Nany’s fro.
It’s not the hair. It’s that hydrocephalic skull. Or maybe that horizontal dash instead of a nose.
GAH!! I have to decide between Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County?? You might as well have asked me which of my children I love more.
I went with Bloom County but now I’m having voter’s remorse.
Pearls Before Swine - especially days where the characters are talking to the cartoonist and plots involving the crocs.
Crocs rock. Me happy when dey is feechure.