I hate the boondocks. Every Sunday I read the funnies and there they are just one big panel. It’s not really that funny and I find it wanting. And what the hell does today’s edition (2-2-03) mean? I hate the boondocks.
BLASPHEMY!
(Although I didn’t get today’s either)
Boondocks performs a vital function in my household. When confronted with a pop cultural reference, I refer to my resident Expert in pop culture, affording him the opportunity to indulge himself in condescension to the aged and woefully out-of-touch parental unit.
But what do I know? I still mourn the loss of Bloom County.
Hey, I like Boondocks.
Today’s edition is a reference to the groundhog predicting weather, and a slam against those who say African rituals are primitive.
At least, that’s how I read it. It’s my first stop on the comics page, too.
Boondocks is one of the best comic strips out there. These days, when the comics page is dominated by either generic pap or by dozens of strips that have now lived longer than their creators did, Boondocks is a breath of fresh air. Aaron Magruder (sp?) is bright, has something to say, and doesn’t hesitate to say it. I wish there were more strips like this.
For those who don’t like Boondocks: you still have your Garfield, Marvin, B.C., etc., so please allow the rest of us this one little indulgence. And maybe *Doonesbury, Zippy, * and… uh… Fox Trot. Is that so much to ask?
I like Boondocks. But I hate Dusenberry.
The only newspaper comic out there worth a damn right now is Fox Trot. Consistently makes me laugh. I used to like The Boondocks, but it’s just boring now. If I want to hear the ravings of some communist lunatic, I just scroll down and read some of Chumpsky’s old posts. Those make me laugh far more often than The Boondocks nowadays.
I suppose you long for the good old days when comic stirps like Calvin and Hobbes graced the funnypages?
Oh wait, practically no comic strip was more guilty of the One Big Panel on Sundays than Calvin and Hobbes.
Actually, I think Family Circus holds the title of One Big Panel champ.
If you wanted to discuss truly awful comics, that is.
Most “comic strips” continue to be constrained by the concept of a “strip”, that is, a series of smaller pictures, usually following a line, line, line, punch line! format. Given the space limitations of the daily comic, this is almost unavoidable. But a Sunday comic, given its larger space allowance and the use of color, allows an avant garde “block” approach, which daring young cartoonists find liberating. Naturally, this “block” approach is intimidating to some more conservative comics viewers, who find it daunting and, sometimes, incomprehensible.
Which is to say…
Its a “block” thing…you wouldn’t understand.
I think that virtually all of today’s newspaper comics suck. Boondocks is one of the better ones but it’s still not worth reading, IMO. About 10 years ago I was down to Far Side, Doonsbury and Calvin and Hobbes. Eventually it was just Doonsbury after the other two retired. Nowadays it’s just not worth it to me to open the comics page just for Doonsbury. A couple of times a year I read the comic pages to see if anything has changed but I’m always disappointed.
Haj
I like Boondocks. It’s edgy. For a despicably, egregiously bad Sunday comic strip, check out Non Sequitir. I could go on and on about the deviant sex acts this comic strip performs on monkeys, goats, Barbra, etc. but it’s just too obvious. It’d be like saying the sun is yellow.
Sunday strips have a much less forgiving deadline than weekday strips. Since The Boondocks tends to draw its humor from current events, the Sunday strip is at something of a disadvantage. It usually has to be kind of innocent and nonthreatening, so as not to disrupt any ongoing storyline in the weekday editions.
Every now and then, some strips (Calvin and Hobbes, for example) will plan storylines out so far in advance that they can incorporate the Sunday into the regular events, but for the most part it’s just its own entity.
And today’s Boondocks was about Groundhog Day.
I forgot about Non Sequiter! It’s right up there with Fox Trot, IMO. Frankly, it’s the satirical, insightful, clever comic that The Boondocks wishes it could be.
In the weekday paper I like the boondocks. The comic strips during the week don’t have a lot of room and if you can do something witty in one, two, or three blocks, then that’s good. But Sunday comics are BIG. You have more room to build. I guess my rant is that yes, boondocks is witty, but only one panel witty. Come on! On Sundays you have the opportunity to be 5 panels witty. Part of me feels that this is wasteful and that boondocks is wasting its resource and part of me is angry because I want my 5 panels of wittyness.
Boondocks? Taking up space? You philistine, it’s a retro throwback – all comics used to be the single block panel, not our jittery minature windowed dross. If you’re going to bitch do it right – what about the execrable, unfunny, and pointless Mallard Fillmore?
I miss The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes.
Thankfully, with the advent of web comics, the increasingly-misnamed ‘funny pages’ became irrelevant. Megatokyo, Penny Arcade, Sinfest, Errant Story, Eric Schwartz’s Sabrina, Kevin & Kell…even old User Friendly…
yes, for me it was these and also bloomcounty/outland those were the good old days. and although Calvin and Hobbes did do one panel sunday strips, it wasn’t every sunday. with Calvin and Hobbes i felt that the few times that he did it it helped him make the witty statement he was going for (the less is more thing). with boondocks i get the impression that he’s saying “ya i only did one block, so 
to you!”
Boondocks saves my life on a regular basis-- no one else seems to have the right reaction to Ashcroft, in particular.