# Best/Worst comic strips. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2017, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273 "2017-05-10T12:07:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/61 "2017-05-11T15:43:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > But [Aunt Fritzi…](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qhaZyT4RxW0/Ty_ob0mNJ5I/AAAAAAAAAzY/cAKU4ajsWMo/s1600/328348_full.gif) [You’re not alone](http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/2005/11/fritzi-ritz-is-hottie.html). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/62 "2017-05-11T16:08:52Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Stopped following the latter a few years ago, it’s just so insufferably and cloyingly _dry_, makes the Sahara look like a thriving wetland… The idea of a comics page (printed or online) is that you include a mix of the ones you like, with the idea that even the best is going to have an off day, or week, but is worth a glance a day. I didn’t get the idea that this thread is “if you could only get one strip on your desert island, what would it be”… so while Frazz wouldn’t be mine, I find it amusing often enough to keep it in my daily list of 30 or so. Same for many of them. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/63 "2017-05-11T16:10:38Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > I just finished reading of a collection of **Pogo** strips from 1951-53 dealing with the McCarthy era. > A satirical political strip written and drawn before I or the cassette tape was born. > It was funny, drawn superbly and still holds up today. > > Great writing and great art can tackle any subject and hold up. Especially since mankind continues to make the same mistakes over and over again, a political comic strip can unintentionally be as relevant today as when it was first published. Definitely. And the “Simple J. Malarky” storyline was one of the best sequences in 20th century American comics. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/64 "2017-05-11T16:23:09Z")
For worst, I’s go with the aforementioned “Henry” and “Nancy”. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/65 "2017-05-11T17:27:37Z")
Of current strips, _Zits_ is consistently good. All Time Favorite is _The Far Side_. I don’t know if it is the worst, but every time I read _Zippy Pinhead_, I could not tell what was supposed to be funny about it. And the art work is downright ugly. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/66 "2017-05-11T18:11:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I don’t know if it is the worst, but every time I read _Zippy Pinhead_, I could not tell what was supposed to be funny about it. And the art work is downright ugly. I’ll tell Bill you said so. But then, I wouldn’t expect someone who chooses yet-another-dopey-family strip to appreciate Griffy’s last-of-the-breed comic art. OTOH, the art is hardly visible in today’s postage-stamp comics world, where it’s just sketchy or rubber-stamp illumination around the jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/67 "2017-05-11T18:48:29Z")
I would agree with that - the best thing about the art work in _Zippy Pinhead_ is that you can’t see it very well. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/68 "2017-05-11T18:55:52Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I don’t know if it is the worst, but every time I read _Zippy Pinhead_, I could not tell what was supposed to be funny about it. And the art work is downright ugly. Wow, I’m kind of surprised that comic even exists, given that “pinhead” [is a slur against people with microcephaly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=43719), who used to end up in “freak shows.” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/69 "2017-05-11T19:13:29Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Wow, I’m kind of surprised that comic even exists, given that “pinhead” [is a slur against people with microcephaly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=43719), who used to end up in “freak shows.” You clearly don’t know the history of the strip, its author or his frequent mentions of its inspirations and origins. Griffy is well aware of the sideshow history of pinheads and other freaks. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/70 "2017-05-11T19:20:45Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > You clearly don’t know the history of the strip, its author or his frequent mentions of its inspirations and origins. Griffy is well aware of the sideshow history of pinheads and other freaks. I wasn’t claiming that he wasn’t aware of it. Just (mildly) surprised that someone was still willing to do it, as I would be for comic strips named Manny the Mongaloid or Ricky the Retard. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/71 "2017-05-11T19:27:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I wasn’t claiming that he wasn’t aware of it. Just (mildly) surprised that someone was still willing to do it, as I would be for comic strips named Manny the Mongaloid or Ricky the Retard. Well, he’s been drawing it for over forty years. I’d say the term is better known as the comic character than the old sideshow figures. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/72 "2017-05-11T19:28:16Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Lil’ Abner** (1934-1977) was the only comic strip able to sustain months-long, suspenseful plots with extremely funny joke-a-day stuff\*. It also introduced characters vital to the popular culture (well, pretty much limited to us comics nerds these days): The Shmoos; Fearless Fosdick; Evil-Eye Fleegle, Master of the “Whammy;” etc. Also invented the concept of “Sadie Hawkins Day.” > > So that would be my choice. **Pogo** second. > > \*(you know who else could do this? Alison Bechdel, with her late, lamented **Dykes to Watch Out For**. Which doesn’t count because it didn’t run in the squares’ newspapers.) > [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Best ever, by far: _Calvin & Hobbes_. > > Worst: going way back, I’d nominate _Henry_. Yup. My list of favorites would include _L’il Abner_, DTWOF, _Calvin & Hobbes_, and _Get Fuzzy_. _Henry_ would be on my list of worst. For hardest fall, I nominate _Garfield_. The first couple of years of that strip were side-splittingly funny, and then the well ran dry, but Jim Davis kept cranking out _Nancy_-level humor for decades. It seems that basically, he drew a real cat, with cat problems, for a while, drawn from observing cats, but then decided to anthropomorphize Garfield, and make lots of nerd jokes about Jon. So this strip ends up on both my best and worst lists. Year one was brilliant, year two, pretty funny, but current _Garfield_ is so bad it’s embarrassing. I also agree with everything said about _The Lockhorns_. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/73 "2017-05-11T19:58:53Z")
“Best” and “Worst” when judging entertainment work, are always terms that are difficult to universally define. As I read through many choices on this thread I’m guessing I define Best & Worst much differently. Example, the strip _ **Henry** _ has been brought up quite a few times here as Worst, but is it? The artwork is pretty professionally done (in a simplistic way) and the writing, well, it’s a “silent” strip, so all the writing is pantomime and tells a silly story. But that’s okay, because **it’s not for us.** _Henry_, along with strips like _Ferdinand_ and _Lio_ are all pantomime strips and serves very young readers (or readers who can’t speak English) as an intro comic strip. I can recall as a very young kid looking at the daily and Sunday comics pages and being overwhelmed with all the artwork of the different strips. I’d be frustrated, unless there was someone there to read me the strips, but _Henry_ and _Ferdinand_ were there for **me**. I could enjoy the goofy punchline because it was all visual and wasn’t deep. Yes, as an adult, those strips don’t do anything for me, but the basis of the newspaper comics page was, **not every strip would be for you**. Why’s _Family Circus_ there? For grandma to smile, clip and hang on her refrigerator. When it comes to Best & Worst I prefer to judge it on the quality of the work. If it’s so poorly draw, poorly written that even a very young or old person wouldn’t like it, then it makes the Worst list for me. If someone calls themselves a professional cartoonist and they can’t draw or write, then their strip makes my Worst List ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/74 "2017-05-11T20:04:57Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Yup. My list of favorites would include _L’il Abner_, I recall J. Edgar Hoover in Pogo using spiders to replace the stars on printed paper, to use them as “bugs”. He had to cut off two of their legs. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/75 "2017-05-11T20:20:52Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Example, the strip _ **Henry** _ has been brought up quite a few times here as Worst, but is it? The artwork is pretty professionally done (in a simplistic way) and the writing, well, it’s a “silent” strip, so all the writing is pantomime and tells a silly story. But that’s okay, because **it’s not for us.** I’m looking at tpoday’s “Henry” and I have to agree. It’s a perfectly functional comic strip. The joke is very simple, but it does convey a clear little story ending in a joke. The use of four panels to convey the story is very well done, and the artwork is quite competent. It’s not really very funny or insightful, but it’s perfectly competent. It isn’t aggressively irritating, like “Cathy,” or poorly drawn, like that “Reply To All” monstrosity. It’s not politically in your face, and it’s too simple to be genuinely saccharine. It’s a comic strip for young children. What’s wrong with that? It would be like saying “The Wiggles” sucks because it’s not “Breaking Bad.” Well, of course it isn’t; it’s for four-year-olds. If you’re four, “The Wiggles” was awesome. I agree with your point about Family Circus, too. I hate Family Circus and the sites that lampoon it are great, but I cannot say it’s a terrible comic strip because it’s perfect for its target audience: really, really old people. Old people LIKE simplicity, repetition, and non-threatening humor, and struggle with irony and depth of message. For a fogey, “Family Circus” is ideal. [QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Most obscure, and hilarious: Overboard by Chip Dunham. A pirate ship portrayed as if a modern office: incompetent employees, idiot boss, office politics. [/QUOTE] I loved “Overboard.” It could have been 10% better drawn, but the humor was often outstanding. It’s still around. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/76 "2017-05-11T21:52:17Z")
I agree with _Pogo_ and _Doonesbury_ being great and important strips. I agree that _Calvin and Hobbes_ was great, on the condition that we all agree that _Bloom County_ was not (and that it’s successors have been increasingly suck-sessors). I agree that _The Far Side_ has a lot of great comics, even if in my heart I still resent Larson for ripping off B. Kliban’s style. I agree that _Get Fuzzy_ is one of the greatest strips ever and that it’s a shame Conley has stalled on the daily strips. And I’m saddened that no one has yet mentioned the greatest comic strip of the last 40 years: _Cul de Sac_ by the late, great Richard Thompson. I will never stop singing this strip’s praises nor showering Mr. Thompson with accolades. The man was a fantastic artist and a genius writer. [Here’s a strip picked at random](http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/2008/03/26); this came up the first time I hit the button. ETA: Oh yeah, _Mallard Fillmore_ is the worst. It’s like an anti-comic: it destroys fun and funny. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/77 "2017-05-11T22:24:27Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > But that’s okay, because **it’s not for us.** That’s my reaction to _Zippy the Pinhead._ Several friends of mine think it’s the greatest strip ever made. I don’t get it. I believe I understand what he’s trying to say. I just don’t think it’s funny. I am rather fond of old adventure strips. _Steve Canyon_, _Buck Rogers_, _Prince Valiant_, _Don Winslow of the Navy_. My parents taught me to read partly with _Flash Gordon_ in the Sunday papers, so Flash has always been my favorite. Someone upthread opined that single-panel cartoons don’t count. Pity, because Burr Shafer’s _J. Wesley Smith_ is one of the funniest series ever. A couple that haven’t been mentioned yet: _University [sup]2[/sup]_ and _Liberty Meadows_, by Frank Cho. He wrote _University [sup]2[/sup]_ for his college newspaper, then wrote _Liberty Meadows_ after he graduated. The college strips were funnier. He had to water it down for syndication. But both were good. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/78 "2017-05-11T22:41:07Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m looking at tpoday’s “Henry” and I have to agree. It’s a perfectly functional comic strip. The joke is very simple, but it does convey a clear little story ending in a joke. The use of four panels to convey the story is very well done, and the artwork is quite competent. . . . > . [http://comicskingdom.com/henry-1/2017-05-11](http://comicskingdom.com/henry-1/2017-05-11) I think it’s charming. A window into a world that exists no more. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/79 "2017-05-11T22:52:32Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I am rather fond of old adventure strips. _Steve Canyon_, _Buck Rogers_, _Prince Valiant_, _Don Winslow of the Navy_. Buzz Sawyer. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273/80 "2017-05-11T23:06:00Z")
I’ve been reading funnies in the papers for longer than I can remember (literally; I cannot recall what I was reading in the mid-60s, but I know I was reading them, because it was quite habitual in my family). I’ve seen a lot of good strips, a few great strips, and wayyyyyy too many poor strips to count. Some were just awful. I’ve collected a fair number of strips in book form over the years, starting with books of Peanuts strips bought back in the 70s. But there is only one comic strip I have ever wanted to have the complete collected works of (and I do have that). For me, that strip was the all-time best-ever, for the multiple different ways it entertained me in the ten years it ran. _Calvin and Hobbes_ Even today, just thinking about one of the Sunday snowman strips is enough to get me giggling uncontrollably. 😃 Honorable mentions: _For Better or For Worse_ (before she rebooted the strip) _The Wizard of Id_ (back before Brant Parker stopped working on it) (I actually always preferred it to _B.C._ _Doonesbury_ (back before he got way too full of himself; I stopped collecting his books about the time Duke was managing the Redskins) _Prince Valiant_ I always looked for this on Sunday! _xkcd_ Sometimes he’s a bit too abstruse, but often I love how he hits the spot As for _Pogo_ and _Li’l Abner_, I cannot judge. I’ve gone back and read the works (_Gasoline Alley_, too. But it’s not fair to compare something you’ve only read in collected works form to something you had to wait each and every day for the next installment of. It’s like going back now and binge-watching _M_A_S_H\* - it’s just not the same as having to wait a week to see the next installment of craziness. Clearly, they were excellent comics. I wouldn’t know what the worst comic is. I don’t bother to read bad comics. They are literally blank spots on the page for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-comic-strips/786273.md?page=5)