[homer voice]
mmmmm . . . comics
[/homer voice]
Liberty Meadows Frank Cho draws the best-looking women in comics, hands down. They even have personalities. Some of the jokes are pretty funny, too.
For Better or For Worse is still a pretty good comic, and it’s one of the few in which the characters age and go through some changes. I do regret that she doesn’t push the envelope a little more closer to real life. Why shouldn’t Michael get blitzed, or even blow a deadline for a writing project? Or Elizabeth shack up with her boyfriend? As it stands now, they’re all so perfect that the strip’s getting bland.
I vote for Zits and Fox Trot as well. They both read like they were drawn in this year, unlike some of the older warhorses.
Mallard Fillmore has always failed to realize that stereotypical political humor is not funny. It’s not funny or original to show Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton in a car drinking and looking for broads. It’s not funny to always attack liberals and anyone who doesn’t share your blinkered viewpoints. Trudeau may or may not be a liberal, but “Doonesbury” goes after whoever is in office, and in an original way. That’s funny.
This Modern World is fantastic and deserves to be in the newspaper. I’ll also back Boondocks, if only to fulfill Matt Howarth’s[sup]1[/sup] dictum to “support something you don’t understand.” At least the strip is interesting enough to raise a fuss over, and in this media-saturated climate, that’s not a bad thing.
[sup]1[/sup][sub]Matt Howarth is a Philadelphia-based cartoonist who self-publishes books, usually about the Post Brothers. Very edgy cartoonist in very bad, very funny taste.[/sub]
B.C. on the other hand, is depressingly cranky, either about religion or politics (in the same vein as Mallard Fillmore). Joking about politics requires some admission that a lot of what goes on today is absurd and needs to be poked at with a sharp stick in that spirit. B.C. comes off as an old ill-informed crank who thinks he’s discovered the One Truth.
Mary Worth and Rex Morgan I’m reading just because I can’t believe they’re so badly drawn. The Worth artist doesn’t know how to draw women’s hair, so they’re all wearing page-boy cuts that mold to the skull. Morgan’s artist has terrible problems with perspective.
Funky Winkerbean was recently reintroduced to our newspaper. I remember it from the '70s, so it’s interesting to see it’s still cooking. The recent thread with the French woman left me up in the air, however. The strip went through all this mystery about who he was going to date, then pulled out a character I had never seen before. (Obviously, since I haven’t been reading it for years).
Jump Start is pretty good, too. I like the interracial by-play, and the kids are cute as well.
Dilbert is good at times. The best panel recently was the one that – after a series of shit hits Dilbert, says to Ratbert: “Lately, the only thing keeping me from being a serial killer is my distaste for manual labor.”
Comics Worth Killing
Real Life Adventures is a retread from older strips like “They’ll Do It Every Time,” only not as funny. Badly drawn: all the mouths look like small beaks.
Cathy Don’t even read. Might as well recycle the strips.
Mark Trail Best argument for global warming and the destruction of the environment.
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad For currently being drawn with felt-tip on paper towels.
Fusco Brothers Rips off B.Kliban’s art style, attempts to be hip and fails.