Can we talk about the Sunday Comics?

Cafe Society
1

This isn’t a rant rant so I am putting it in here not The Pit. Mods, feel free to push it over there, but it ain’t meant to be vitriolic.

I just read the comics. What is up with the state of the comics these days? What is up with the syndicates who insist upon finding poseurs who can replicate the look of dead artists instead of giving a chance to a new generation of artists?

It is not an old boys’/girls’ game. Garry Trudeau started “Bull Tales” while at Yale. This became Doonesbury. There are plenty of other artists out there who have chops, intelligence and a clear point of view. Or barring that, just a keen sense of humor. Why are we forced to endure the following list, when we could be enjoying new and varied artists?

The title of comics is now quite deceiving- it’s a bit like going to see The Beach Boys, only to realize you are watching kids none of whom were born when “Barbara Ann” was recorded, along with Mike Love. ( Whose voice, I can tell you from very personal experience, is completely shot ). The titles of comics are a bizarre thing defined by lawsuits and contracts. Read the last box at the end, to find out who truly draws the comic you just read. It’s awful.

Classic Peanuts: Charles Schultz. Dead, in perpetual reruns.

Garfield: Jim Davis. Very much alive.

For Better or Worse: Lynn Johnston. Alive.

Hagar The Horrible: Dik Browne. Alive AFAIK.

Doonesbury: Garry Trudeau. Alive.

The Wizard of Id: By Parker and Hart. Drawn by Parker.

Andy Capp: By Smythe. Drawn by Roger Mahoney and Roger Kettle.

Dilbert: By Scott Adams. Alive.

Mort Walker’s beetle bailey. Okay, at least this one is honest. The name of the strip reflects the originator’s name in a clear way. Drawn by Greg and Mort Walker.

The Family Circus: By Bill Keane. Drawn by Jeff and Bill Keane.

The Lockhorns: By Bunny Hoest and John Reiner. Bunny’s husband who originated the strip died years ago. I met her when I did a shoot at her rather palacial home on the North Shore of Long Island about 15 years back. He had just died and his assistant, John Reiner, was forging on.

Blondie: By Dean Young and John Marshall. It is signed Young & Marshall at the end. This strip is so long-lived it’s amazing but I do respect how up-front they are about who is doing the strip. Chic Young’s son Dean did it after Chic stopped, and now Dean and the head assistant John Marshall do it. Still, it ain’t the original by a long shot.

Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant: The Nancy Drew Mysteries of the comics. At least they name the originator IN the title. It is drawn by Gianni and Schultz

Hi and Lois: By Brian and Gret Walker, who I assume are related to orignator Mort Walker.

B.C.: By Johnny Hart. Signed at the end, Parker and Hart. Who?

Close To Home: By John McPherson. If I were this guy, I’d be using a pseudonym since he’s a sham artist ripping off The Far Side.

Zits: By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman. Alive.

Jeff MacNelly’s Shoe. By Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins. Fair, named the infamous MacNelly ( who died of lymphoma in 2000) in the strip title panel.

Foxtrot: By Bill Amend.Alive

Cathy: By Cathy Guiswite. Alive.

Sally Forth: By Francesco Marciuliano. Originated by Greg Howard. ( who is still alive )

Some strips are disingenuous, some are up front but very few seem to be done by fresh faces. It might be argued that the comic syndicates in this country are more conservative and less open-minded than the editorial page editors in this country.

It stinks like yesterday’s diapers, to quote that great line. Where are the kids? The current-day voices? The points of view that were germinated in the 1980’s adn 1990’s as kids? Hell, I’m almost 45 and I would LOVE to see well-done, well-written comics by 19-year olds and 24 year olds.

Seems like an awfully stagnant pool. If I want bland pseudo-journalism, I can flip past the comics to Parade magazine. Give me some real comics, with relevant artists !!

Cartooniverse

2

They’re on the internet, where it’s a cake walk to get your comic out there in comparison to a paper.

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Just, FYI, Dik Browne, creater of Hagar the Horrible and Hi and Lois, died in 1989.

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Minor hijack: Anybody know what’s up with Medium Large? It’s Marciuliano’s non-bland strip (which means it’s actually worth reading), but it hasn’t been updated in ages.

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Both Parker and Hart are dead now.

6

Useless trivia of the day:

In the early days of Beetle Bailey, Lois was introduced as the sister of Beetle Bailey.

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In fact not too long ago Beetle visited his sister and her family while on leave. He showed up dressed in his “civilian” clothes ala’ circa 1953 college student. Lois asked something like “Just how long have you been in the army?”

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I can’t tell from your post which comics are disingenuous about their authorship and in what way. Could you elaborate?

-FrL-

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What I gather from the now vanished Blog comments is that he had a falling out with his girlfriend, who helps run the “drink at work” site that hosted Medium Large. Also, their were an incredible number of highly entitled posters who berated Ces for not putting up a comic every day, and seemed to regard his romantic troubles as an affront to them. Since he wasn’t getting paid for ML, he may just have gotten sick of the shit, and not looked for a new website.

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According to Wikipedia (for what it’s worth), Marciuliano will be moving Medium Large to its own website, http://www.medium-large.com/

Currently, there’s nothing at that address right now.

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Hey it could be worse; there were zillions of old comic strips from the 1920s and 1930s that few people even remember today that could still be being cranked out. One or two were classics, a handful are at least remembered (Moon Mullins anyone?), and the vast majority are deservedly unknown to anyone but affecendios.

12

Well, comic variety varies from paper to paper, so while some may be clogged with old strips that are being continued by new artists, others have dropped some of the “legacy” strips and made way for new ones. Some of the more popular strips that weren’t mentioned in the OP include Baby Blues, Mutts, Rhymes with Orange, Bizarro, and Non Sequiter (sp?) - which have all gotten their start within the last 10 years or so. In particular, the latter three didn’t start, or at least didn’t become really popular, until The Far Side was retired, and seem to have drawn some influence from that strip. There is also a strip published in my local paper (and I would appreciate some help with the name…) that seems to draw some artistic influence from Calvin & Hobbes. Meanwhile, the old strips are perpetuated basically due to their popularity and their ability to retain their fanbases - which is why you still see the likes of Blondie in the paper.

So there are new strips out there that are being picked up, but as someone mentioned above, the web is the easiest place to publish now, and some webcomics have fostered quite a following - take for example 8-Bit Theater, which even has its own merchandise now.

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Online-only Funnies are much, much better than newspaper stuff, because there is no battalion of editors, worried about losing 2…YES! TWO…WHOLE…SUBSCRIPTIONS!…from liitle old ladies in Iowa, over a perfectly acceptable joke.

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Sure. Sorry to have appeared obtuse. When the name in the title card doesn’t match the names of the artist signing the last panel in the corner, that smacks of hypocrisy.

My complaint was obviously layered- I hate the fact that they slog on with oldies and make little room for fresh new strips. I also hate the name game as described in my O.P.

And yeah, when three of the four strips named are rip-offs of The Far Side, it makes me mourn the death of originality.

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There are reasons the only strip I read that is also printed in newspapers these days is Pearls Before Swine. It’s very close to a webcomic in a lot of ways.

16

Perhaps it’s my age showing, but in my opinion perpetual reruns of Peanuts still rank in the top three of the comics in my Sunday paper, following only Pearls before Swine and Doonesbury.

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You’re right. It’s your age showing. Might be the thin air you have to breathe in daily. Messes with the synapses, doncha know. :smiley:

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That would be Frazz which the N & O started publishing a while back. It looks shockingly like Calvin and Hobbes and Frazz looks like Calvin “all growed up”.