Well, shit, I’d read that.
If you want to talk partisanship, keep in mind two things: 1, Trudeau took not a few swipes at Clinton as well, and 2, geez, ever read The Boondocks? I can’t remember seeing a Boondocks strip that wasn’t “Bush is a dope” or “This black entertainer makes other blacks look bad”. Which is a shame, because at times, the strip is really funny (My favorite ones ever were when the little kid and his grandfather were playing Grand Theft Auto 3).
I hope Gary Larson had a good day today. I miss the Far Side.
From the official Peanuts website FAQ:
Was it ever? Okay, yeah, maybe the first year or two was amusing (anyone else remember Lyman?), but 98% of Garfield’s life has been factory-produced stuff designed for low offensibility and easy merchandising. The scary thought is that enough people like that strip to sustain it.
I think that’s one of the strengths of The Boondocks, myself, where it’s willing to take a strong stand on issues. It gives the characters depth to have them passionately believing in something, instead of being generically non-offensive for the audience. The fact that outspoken Huey is often made the butt of the jokes certainly adds to the humor. 
It’s not even that it takes that many people to keep a strip in a paper. Every so often papers will either try out a replacement strip (pulling a current one) or run surveys for favorite and least favorite strips. Most people couldn’t care less IMHO but any time a strip gets pulled the cranks who’ve read it every day for the last umpteen years write angry letters howling in protest and demanding the strip be restored. Since no one who either doesn’t like the strip or doesn’t care bothers to write in, the editors put the shitty strip back in. God forbid a paper should have more than one page of comics (some do, most don’t) or not run the fucking Jumble on the comics page or otherwise cosume comic strip space with non-strip material. So the cranks win and the Zombie Strips continue.
It’s Cherry.
One of the funniest/most oddly disturbing things I ever witnessed concerned Mark Trail and the Washington Post. The Post, which takes its comics very seriously, dropped Mark Trail from its roster at one point in the early 90s.
Strangely, the Post got protest letters.
Stranglier, the Post got enough protest letters that they actually reversed the decision and reinstated Mark Trail.
Strangliest, they got enough protest letters that the Post actually printed a special section, in which they re-printed all 40-odd Mark Trail episodes that had been missed while the Post had removed it from their roster.
I have had few stranger experiences in my life than reading 40-odd Mark Trail episodes at one sitting. Better than acid, I tells ya.
Sua
But, friend SuaS., the pressing, no the critical, question of the moment is: If the virginal Cherry is no longer virginal, has the damn’d dog died? For the love of all that’s holy, that fly bitten old St. Bernard must be 70 years old.
Also, anybody from Ohio—what ever happened to Dan’l Hale? Is it still going (it must be up to the construction of the National Road by now) or did it just peter out. I think it was started as part of the Sesquicentennial celebration in ’53 but it was still going strong in ’58.
Yes, I agree somewhat. Trudeau is certainly very liberal- but he is foremost a comedian. Thus, when the Dems do something damn foolish, Trudeau can see the humour in it, and lampoon them in Doonesberry. Mallard is simply not funny, and always supposrt the GOP/Right. I think Boondocks is too damn mean to be funny. They guy is just plain mean.
Flush 'em all, I say, and just rerun a page full of the Kat! (Krazy, that is)
Hey Kaspar – I have recently been introduced to the genius of Krazy Kat. On a whim, I picked up one of Fantagraphics’ new cleaned-up, chronologically complete collections, and while it took a bit to get into the idiosyncratic rhythms, it gradually dawned on me just how amazing what I was reading really was. I got to the end of the collection and immediately turned back to the first page to read it again. I completely understand why it’s Bill Watterson’s favorite work of comic art ever.
Oh yes. He hasn’t entirely disappeared. You can find him in here.
Spoiler to help you find him: Go right and get the front door key from the chest on the porch. Open the front door and go back through two doors, then right, to get to the kitchen. Go all the way into the kitchen and click on the cupboard door the mice do not point to - that’s the flashlight. Now retrace your steps to the red room, which is the library. Go right one frame and click on the bookcase. Put the books in alphabetical order. The bookcase will slide open. Go down the stairs, then to the left - poor Lyman is in the dungeon!
[Doonesbury hijack]
Does anyone remember the (ancient!) Doonesbury cartoon where one of Joanie’s daycare kids says: “It’s a baby woman!” I remember seeing it on a t-shirt several years ago. Now that I’m pregnant with a little girl, I’d sure like to get that shirt. Any ideas?
[/hijack]
It’s quite astounding, isn’t it? Krazy’s not an easy strip at first, especially to modern sensibilities (not that anyone “got it” when it was first published), but it’s so rewarding when it finally clicks. Strip fans, go pick up a Krazy Kat kollection and marvel at it!
P.S. Nancy rules.
Oh, on a non-hijack topic…Garfield has not been funny since I was in second grade. I will write a week of Garfield right now:
- Spider comes to chat, cat kills spider with rolled up newspaper.
- Mouse walks by with party gear, cat doesn’t kill mouse.
- Cat steps on scale and is insulted for being fat.
- Jon is a dork and can’t get a date, even though he calls every woman in the phone book.
- Odie is stupid, and falls off the edge of a table.
See, I can be a cartoonist too!
“Week”?! You just wrote a YEAR!
But what happens on Saturday? And what about the big color Sunday strip? You’ll have to work harder than that to be part of the Jim Davis Garfield Production Sweatshop Team!
You could check out Doonesbury’s website for merchandise. I think they can put any strip on a shirt at this point but you’ll have to find the strip; the search engine used to be pretty good but I haven’t tried it since the strip moved to Slate’s site.
I love Krazy Kat and have one of the Fantagraphic collections plus a postcard book. Nice to know I’m not alone. I plan on picking up the full run as soon as I have two bricks to rub together.
Bastard. I played the entire game.
Funny they should include Lyman (and I, for one, remember him - Odie’s original owner and Jon’s roommate, and they never explained where he went) and not Odie.
Now, does anyone remember Nermal, the world’s cutest kitten? Or the vet that Jon wanted to date? Or the cranky old man next door? 
Esprix
Krazy Kat the comic = INCREDIBLY WONDERISHIOUS
Krazy Kat the novel = er, depends on how you like your post modernismsss
[/end hijinks]
Thanks, flodnak, for the link. I’m not usually a big Flash fan, but that was nice.
Too bad you couldn’t talk to Lyman, though!