The newspaper in my home town finally did another much-needed revamping of the comics pages last summer – and they ran a couple weeks of strips on a trial basis and had readers vote. Boondocks was one of the “trial” ones – and based on the ones that were run, it looked rather boring. I’m glad it didn’t get chosen.
On the good side, they did finally add Fox Trot to the lineup – one that I hoped they would add since the previous time they did the reader surveys on comic pages (many years before).
Thankfully, one of the comics they replaced was the annoyingly ancient and drab Snuffy Smith.
I definitely miss Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes.
Anybody here old enough to remember when Dick Tracy started to go off the deep end? Little blurbs about how the nation that controlled magnetism would rule the Universe? I mean, his political persuasions were all pretty much goon-bait, but then he really sailed away!
Nothing against you, Neurotik, personally, believe me, but I just have to ask this in a hijack:
Why is it that the first criticism of leftist thinkers that comes to mind is “Communist,” as if: a) that person espoused Red ideology directly, which (s)he often does not, and b) the mere label of being a Communist atuomatically means that person is somehow terrible? I’ve never met many Commies in my lifetime, but they can’t ALL be like Stalin. And I thought it was agreed in places like GD that the philosophy itself wasn’t inherently evil? So why the “Communist” label?
Me? I think For Better or For Worse is the best thing out there today. In terms of characterization and continuing plotline there hasn’t been anything like it since the old Gasoline Alley days.
Beyond that I have my Washington Post set to give me:
Baby Blues (forgive me…I have a two year old)
Baldo
Boondocks
Dilbert (though it’s getting old)
FBOFW
Mutts
Non Sequitur
Piranha Club
Six Chix
Tank McNamara
Zippy the Pinhead
Zits
Doonesbury
Well, Chumpsky was a communist, and he did espouse Red ideology. And the mere lable of being a Communist does not automatically mean that person is somehow terrible, and I don’t see how I implied it does. I enjoy Olentzero’s posts immensely and think he is a pretty good guy from the times we have interacted.
Now then, if you are thinking I was directing the communist reference at Magruder, I wasn’t. I was directing it at Huey, his star, who is portrayed in the comic as a paranoid communist. Hence, my comment about communist lunatics - a bit hyperbole to be sure, but then, it’s the Pit and it’s my civic duty.
Oh my god, For Better or For Worse is just fucking painful! It’s so treacley sweet and weighed down with glurge that it makes Family Circus look like Sopranos! I hate all the plotlines, like “Oh isn’t April cute!” and “Oh, something tragic has happened!” and especially “Oh don’t we hate getting old!”
It is not even funny! It fails completely as a narrative because the characters are too Flanders-esque to establish and connection with, (quite frankly, I can see why whatshisface is cheating on whatshername) and I’m strongly of the opinion that they should all come to some horrific end, like zombies mauling Canada or… or… them all overdosing on the syrupy sweet pap that holds their world together.
In short, Boondocks good, For Better or For Worse bad.
The local paper (whom I work for, unfortunately) just moved Doonesbury to the editorial page. Not because of it’s political nature so much as because the new executive editor wanted to add his favorite strip, Zits. Unfunny shit about raising teenagers: they sleep all the time, they have loud stereos, crushes, moodiness, blah, blah, blah. A week’s worth of strips about the fucking kid’s asymetrical ears after the girl (who I guess he likes or something, it’s too dull for me to even remember their names) hit him with a snowball. Only if the swollen ear grew razor-sharp teeth, developed it’s own central nervous system, and ate every one of those unfunny bastards would that strip be interesting! Zits makes Born Loser look like a Harold Pinter play by comparison. Damn, how pathetic can you get?
Oh, wait, I know how pathetic you can get; they added Mallard Fillmore to the editorial page out of some kind of sense of fairness or equal time. Doonesbury has certainly lost its humorous edge over time, but was Mallard Fillmore ever funny? Did it ever have more than one punchline?
I read Boondocks and old Calvin and Hobbes strips online, and Classic Peanuts and Dilbert (mostly out of habit now) in the paper and that is pretty much it for the comics page.
Right now, Big Nate is the best strip in the Post. Boondocks can be funny, but a lot of its pop-culture references go over my head and lately its sheer number of strips devoted solely to knocking Bush has been getting boring.
I like Boondocks myself. I think the only reason Huey is going nuts is because he’s pretty much politically cut off from everything out there in the suburban boondocks. He isn’t old enough to get back to the city where stuff he wants to get involved in is happening.
That having been said, off on the earlier tangent (yes, I ego-surf):
Thank you kindly. It’s nice to know that even though we strongly disagree on a bunch of stuff, I’m not getting automatically dismissed for my point of view. Though I’m trying to remember when the hell we’ve ever met, since I don’t remember you coming to the Lunch Bunch at all.
I like the boondocks. Closest to Bloom County since Bloom County disappeared.
No one’s mentioned Get Fuzzy yet though. A quality cartoon. Commitment to excellence.
Well, the times we have interacted on the board. I keep trying to make it to lunch bunch, but since I’m a temp, that can be difficult. I was transferred down to Alexandria a few weeks ago which makes it pretty much impossible. Hopefully soon I will be back up at L and 13th with the Union, but that is looking less and less likely each day.
More power to Boondocks, Rose is a Rose and Mutts and a handful of others out there who use Sunday to do big, bold and colorful panels, strips, blocks whatever you want to call them. It truthfully approaches art sometimes as the cartoonist plays with color, perspective and form as well as humor.
While Dilbert makes good social commentary, the drawing is infantile and Adams isn’t doing anything on Sunday but dropping color into the holes of a weekday strip.
Considering the ever shrinking space that newspapers give to individual strips, I’m amazed at the quality of art that the artists behind the three strips I mentioned above are able to create.
If you don’t “get” a particular strip, move on to “Hi and Lois.”
I couldn’t believe it either. Get Fuzzy is the best thing to hit the comics page since Nomar bobbleheads.
I like the Boondocks. Most of the idiots that rant and rave about how it’s a bunch of far-left propaganda are too dumb to understand the concept of fictional characters, IME (Neurotik is excluded from this description, of course, since he specifically noted the difference between “Huey” and Aaron MacGruder).
