Sassy:
Ooooh! Ooooh! Ooooh! Thank you for the link! I am ALSO a huge Dan O’Neill fan! Pass the magic cookies!
Uke
Two words: Citizen Dog.
All this talk about great comic strips and still no mention of Little Nemo in Slumberland? For shame. It’s right up there after Krazy Katas one of the best ever.
Will Dilbertbe remembered fifty, or even ten years after it’s gone? I think not.
I could never sleep my way to the top/'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up.
The guy with the pet ferret is (if this is the same strip), Free For All
Then again, the Chicago Tribune just started a new strip (new to me, anyway) with artwork very similar to Bloom County, called Get Fuzzy I believe the guy has a pet cat and dog in that one. I’m not on this one yet.
There is a pannel strip, Committed, again, drawn similarly to Bloom County. Very funny. Other favorites: Piranna Club (formerly Ernie), Non Sequitor, Rhymes with Orange.
I like For Better Or For Worse, because it deals with real topics, the characters are not characitures, and has the gonads to be serious from time to time. C’mon, regular readers. How many of you didn’t cry when Farley died after saving April from the river? I guess the artist has gotten a lot of grief over the years because one of the regular characters is gasp GAY, and he hasn’t had the finger of God shoot him down. Again, a real person, not a charactatured swish.
“The large print givith, and the small print taketh away.”
Tom Waites, “Step Right Up”
RealityChuck, such a well reasoned and a great post about great comic strips through the years. But, then ya gotta ruin it all by including Dilber in that list. 
Ha. I like Dilbert, when the jokes aren’t office related. The non-office ones are off the wall and really funny. But, lately he has done more and more office ones. In the past even some of the office ones were great. But, the group project jokes, they get boring. And they read like desperate attempts to be posted on cubicle walls. (Much like Family Circus is a desperate attempt get on Fridges across the world)
Old Peanuts, I thought were really well done, and funny. As time wears on, his humor has lost its edge. But, every once in a while, I will enjoy the strip.
The Christmas Special with its excellent Vince Guarladi(sp?) music is one of the best ever. The same goes for the Halloween special.
My favorite all time comics would be:
- Krazy Kat
- Calvin and Hobbes
- The Far Side
- Mutts
- This Modern World
Uke-
You’re more than welcome. Magic cookies for all – but I wish he would bring back Norton and Werechicken. BTW, my SO took a drawing class from O’Neill and has some hysterical stories. I wish I could remember… hmmm… more cookies, that’s the ticket…
My favorites (in no particular order):
The Far Side
Speed Bump
For Better Or For Worse
Dilbert
Red Meat (Check it out at www.redmeat.com )
Truly worthless comics:
Henry
Rex Morgan, MD
Kit n’ Carlysle (sp?)
Mallard Fillmore
Snuffy Smith
Cathy
Spider Man (Move the stories, dammit!)
Wee Pals
Of course there are many other titles that could be added to either list.
I used to really like the early “Peanuts” comic strips (I’m only 34, but I did have some of the paperbacks when I was but a lad), but for the last couple of decades it hasn’t really done anything.
“Nancy” used to be among my most-hated, but it has a modern feel to it now that I kind of like. They tend to throw more pop culture references into the strip now, and they have definitely redrawn Fritzy Ritz to appeal more to the male audience. They also point out the familiar “three rocks” once and awhile, sort of like what Bill Griffith does when Zippy the Pinhead ventures into “Bushmiller Country”.
With few exceptions, I don’t think that comic strips should remain in syndication for more than a few years. It seems like the artists and readers are in agreement that new ideas and story lines are harder to come by and of lesser quality as time goes on. I still hope that Gary Larson gives “The Far Side” another go…
Guy,
Denis Kitchen, the underground comix artist and publisher of Kitchen Sink Press, was a HUGE fan of NANCY, constantly lauding the Zen qualities. He thought of it as the Uber-Comic, and loved to point out that a NANCY strip was included in Webster’s Unabridged as an example of the concept of “comic strip.”
SPIDER-MAN. What WAS the deal with SPIDER-MAN? It ran in the NY DAILY NEWS for over ten years, and he never had a fight with ANY super-villain in all that time. I never saw such a blue-ballsed narrative.
Sassy,
I’D like to see Fred and Hugh match wits with General Injuns and Mister Spanky once again…remember them? The General was preparing Earth for a full-scale Martian invasion (the atmosphere of Mars is fifty percent gasoline), and Spanky could tell if you were a communist agent by the flavor of your thumb…
Uke
Agree on the excellence of:
The Far Side
Bloom County / Outland
Calvin & Hobbes
For Better or Worse
Pickles
to which I would add (no one mentioned it yet!):
Stone Soup
…and yes, better that the cartoonists retire than plummet through mediocrity into chronic crappiness. If you have never enjoyed Peanuts, go to the library and look for a copy of Peanuts, More Peanuts, Good Grief More Peanuts, or ** Good Grief, Charlie Brown** from circa 1957. Likewise for B.C., find ** Hey, B.C.!** or B.C. Strikes Back. I haven’t read their new stuff in years, though.
Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post
Only one vote for Robotman? That’s surprising. I think it’s the best overall strip since the demise of Far Side.
I used to love Peanuts. But it’s the same stuff I read when I was a kid. I don’t even bother with it anymore.
Mother Goose and Grimm is usually pretty funny, as is FoxTrot.
I also really like Pidgeon Man, by GuanoLad.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
I tend to buy my comic strips in bulk via magazines like Comic Relief, Strips, Storyline Strips, and Funny Times. I’d recommend all these fine publications. Anyway here’s my two cents:
All serious story line comics now suck: Dick Tracy, Mary Worth, Spiderman, The Phantom, Brenda Starr, Annie, Apartment 3G, Gasoline Alley, Prince Valient, and all the rest. Some of them were good in the past, some always sucked, but none of them are readable now.
I do like some of the current funny storyline comics: Doonesbury, For Better or Worse, Crankshaft/Funky Winkerbean, On the Fast Track/Safe Havens, Jump Start, Luann, and 9 Chickweed Lane (the official comic strip of leg fetishists). I also like Dilbert, Ernie, Foxtrot, and Rose is a Rose.
Comics that other people claim are great but I apparently fail to get the point of: Zippy Pinhead, Ernie Pook, Sylvia, Nancy (I apparently missed whatever the irony was here) and yes Krazy Kat. Mallard Fillmore as far as I can see is “Rush Limbaugh draws a comic strip.” Of course to balance it there are liberal comics like This Modern World and Ted Rall’s work which can be just as dim-witted.
I agree that Breathed, Larsen, and Watterson were probably wise to quit when they were ahead. Comics like Peanuts, Garfield, Family Circus, Blondie, BC/Wizard of Id and Dennis the Menace show what happens when you run out of inspiration but refuse to stop working. Other comics like Beetle Bailey, Shoe, Mother Goose and Grimm, and Hagar the Horrible are still okay but all have declined.
And finally, Winsor McCay was a genius and Little Nemo in Slumberland was proof of this. So was Gertie the Dinosaur but that’s another subject.
My favorite daily strip is “Citizen Dog” with “The Fusco Brothers” second, although I don’t read TFB regularly since moving from San Diego.
Although it only comes out once a week, “Story Minute” by Carol Lay is my favorite comic of all time. It’s the only reason to pick up the L.A. Weekly most of the time. Check it out at www.waylay.com
<<9 CHICKWEED LANE (the official comic strip of leg fetishists).>>
Explain. This one doesn’t appear in NYC papers. And leg fetishists want to know. (I have seen it during travels, and vaguely remember some storyline about leopard-print leotards.)
Uke
Peanuts - a waste of space?
Please, please tell me what in the world would you put in its place? Rhymes with Orange?! Mary Worth?
Would you rather have your kids grow up watching a Garfield Christmas or A Charlie Brown Christmas?
There is no more Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes nor Bloom County and Doonesbury is relegated to the Op/Ed pages. When “Sparky” dies (it might not be too long, he was just diagnosed with colon cancer) and Peanuts is laid to rest with him only THEN will there be no reason to read the comics.
Sure, I’m not to keen on Rerun but the strip is a reflection of all of us. We all have been Charlie Brown in our lives - didn’t get an invite or strike out with runners in scoring position. We have our crabby days (Lucy). Everyone has a touch of Sally in them (my fair share, wants the easy way out). I could go on and on.
I collect Peanuts memorabilia and if my wife ever decide to have kids, you can bet they will learn to read by these same panels, I grew up with. It sure beats the hell out of what they try to teach in school these days.
“Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”
E A Poe
Did anyone read that Charles Schulz has been hospitalized with colon cancer?
Peanuts isn’t all things to all people nor should it be. I will be sad when it’s gone. I don’t like mean spirited comics in my daily newspaper and I think Peanuts fits the bill despite a crabby character. Anyone remember when Lucy was called a “fussbudget?”
There is a place for mean spirited comics and that’s why I like free urban weeklies like the New Times in Phoenix. I need my dose of Life in Hell, Red Meat, The Book of Sick etc.
There was also a report on the local TV news here in Raleigh-Durham that he was being treated for colon cancer.
Standard news report too–at the opening of the newscast, the announcer teases with “One of America’s most beloved cartoonists is sick with cancer”, then, about 20 minutes later, gave about a fifteen-second report saying only that he had been diagnosed and they hadn’t decided on treatment yet.
Re: 9 Chickweed Lane.
I think Charles Schulz should (and may already have) draw a Peanuts comic where Charlie Brown finally kicks the football. And not have it published until he dies. That’s what I would do.
Since this thread has turned into sort of “What’s your favorite comic?”, here are my favorites:
- Calvin & Hobbes - The best, but it’s no longer syndicated.
- FoxTrot - The best one still running. What Bill Amend lacks in artwork, he makes up for in humor. Great comic.
- Dilbert - it’s just funny. What can I say?
BTW, Homer: The cartoon about the woman and the cats is Sylvia. And the artwork is awful. And the one with the raccoon & turtle is Over The Hedge.
The worst comic strips:
-
Family Circus: BLEHH Reading this comic makes me wonder how the hell this guy got syndicated. (Maybe it’s because earlier episodes which I have not read are good, but right now, it’s total crap.) I could go on and on and on listing reasons why this comic sucks, but I’ll just say that I could (and maybe will) make a much better comic strip than Family Circus.
-
Marmaduke - crap. Don’t read it. It looks like it was written by Bob Saget. I read the comics every day, and I’ve probably only seen 1 or 2 slightly funny Marmaduke comics.
-
Simpsons - lately, in my newspaper, they’ve been printing a Simpsons comic, based on the show. Oh my god. It’s total crap. All it is is an advertisement for the TV show, and it takes up half the f**** page!** Once again, this is one of the comics where I could definately do better.
(I do have a Simpsons comic book thing by the same company, but I only keep it because it’s in Spanish, which is kind of cool.)
How these people ever get syndicated is beyond me. I think now I’ll go and write to my newspaper and say that I do not like those comics, in hope that they will maybe stop printing them.
BTW, I like Peanuts, but it doesn’t make me laugh as much as some other comics.
Hey Wowsers! I got a vote and I din’t even have to provoke it! I’m truly honoured! Thanks Sealemon!
I haven’t ever seen most of the strips you guys have been referring to - we aren’t big comic strip consumers down this part of the universe. But the ones I enjoy are:
Calvin and Hobbes (unequalled on every level), Foxtrot, Peanuts (especially the totally off the wall stuff that comes from left field), Far Side (when it wasn’t forced), and there was a New Zealand strip called Footrot Flats that became legendary during its 15 year run.
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Maybe Tom the Dancing Bug is more of an editorial cartoon than a comic, but I really like “God-Man” and “Super Fun-Pak Comix”.