Unfortunately, a lot of our all-time favorite comic strips (Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, Bloom County) are no longer running.
So, what are your favorite daily comic strips that are still running? I like Baby Blues.
Scary Gary and Pearls Before Swine are my favorites, if we’re talking about comics you would typically find in the newspaper.
There are a lot that I follow (including Baby Blues), but I’d say my favorites are:
Dilbert
F Minus
Frazz
Monty
Pearls Before Swine
Sally Forth
Sherman’s Lagoon
If you include non-daily webcomics, I’m a big fan of Girl Genius and xkcd.
Dailies not named yet:
Least I Could Do
Zits
Scenes From a Multiverse
In the Bleachers
Cleats
Tank McNamara
Couple of times a week:
Full Frontal Nerdity
Pixie Trix
Dork Tower
Whenever:
Order of the Stick
Are we including webcomics? If we’re including webcomics, then OOTS is my top pick as well, followed by Skin Horse.
I can’t be arsed to read dailies anymore since I had to stop my newspaper subscription*, but I’m currently devouring Pearls Before Swine in collection form.
*No, I didn’t care for the GoComics subscription service. Can’t really say why; I just didn’t cotton to it.
I linked to a bunch of my favorites in the July mini-rants thread. Three I didn’t include were:
Sluggy Freelance
Kevin & Kell (written by the same person who does On the Fastrack)
Two Lumps
Sluggy and K&K have been running for, literally, decades.
Sluggy’s ranges from every day (at the start) to 2 or 3 times a week, depending on how life and health are treating Pete Abrams.
Kevin and Kell has published a strip every day since 1995.
Two Lumps has been intermittent for a few years now since the two cats that inspired it both passed away, but they usually get out at least one strip a week.
Berke Breathed actually revived Bloom County a few years ago, though it’s online only (you can see it on Facebook, and on one of the syndicate sites). And, for me, it’s still a fun read.
The only still-in-the-newspaper comic strips I still enjoy is Pearls Before Swine.
There are a couple of webcomics which I read, both of which are very naughty (as well as being funny and very well-drawn), so links to them will be in spoiler boxes.
Oglaf (updates weekly, more or less):
I Roved Out in Search of Truth and Love (updates every few weeks, though with a half-dozen or more pages at a time):
For web comics, try Schlock Mercenary, which has run for 19 years without a miss, except when the author melted the servers. Even then he only missed a day or two.
For newspaper strips:
Breaking Cat News.
For webcomics:
Girl Genius
Gunnerkrigg Court
Haven’t seen “Non Sequitur” yet. I can totally relate to Danae.
Even though the Washington Post has more comics in its dead tree version than most the only ones I read are:
Brewster Rockit
Zits
Frazz
Candorville
Barney & Clyde
Baby Blues
Pearls Before Swine
Dilbert
Bizaarro
Rhymes With Orange
Pearls Before Swine
Carpe Diem has its moments.
Assuming we’re referring to newspaper strips, the ones in the Plain Dealer I particularly enjoy are:
Frazz
Pearls before Swine
Zits
Non Sequitur
Sally Forth
The Pajama Diaries
Note that the latter two of these are more story and character driven: It takes a while to become familiar with the characters and get into them.
Others that aren’t as high on my list, but still generally good:
Jump Start
Crankshaft
Pickles
Red and Rover
Flo and Friends
EDIT: Bizarro and Rhymes with Orange are inconsistent: Sometimes they’re great, but sometimes they just fall flat.
Name a gag a day strip that doesn’t sometime fall flat. Apart from Calvin & Hobbes.
When I gave up my newspaper subscription, the only comic I continued to follow (online) was Luann. I have no idea why I enjoy it, but I do.
Uh…Bloom County is running, with new strips, albeit not daily.
My current favorite: Lio
Also on my “favorites” list, among those running new strips:
FoxTrot
Eyebeam (yes, it still has new strips - well, panels, anyway)
Too Much Coffee Man
9 Chickweed Lane
Pearls Before Swine (bad pun strips notwithstanding)
Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!
one with an asterisk: Get Fuzzy - new strips are very few, and very far between
Bizarro is sometimes done by a guest artist, and some of those are clunkers. Today’s, however, done by a guest, was pretty funny. It took me a few seconds to get it, however.
Those are the GOOD ones! 