I’d probably put “BC” at the top of the list.
Sometime in the early 60s was my favorite of the BC strips:
BC walks along the seashore and sees a clam suddenly get up on legs and walk.
At first BC is dumbfounded. Then he yells,
** I SEEN HIM!!! CLAMS GOT LEGS!!!" * ** Then the clam says, “Now I have to kill him.”
The most delightful comic-strip character these days is Edda Burber, the larger-than-life lovely blonde genius in “9 Chickweed Lane.” She deals deftly with her mother, her grandmother, her boyfriend Amos, and the formidable “Sister Caligula,” a teacher at the parochial school she attends. No question about it–Edda is someone to be reckoned with.
This Modern World (quote: “Oh my God! That youth is really at risk!” “What are you talking about? All I see is that little white kid in front of that speeding car…oh”)
Troubletown (quote: “Lots of children come into this liquor store. Gay employees would be a bad influence”)
Zippy (sometimes)
-Ryan
" ‘Ideas on Earth were badges of friendship or enmity. Their content did not matter.’ " -Kurt Vonnegut, * Breakfast of Champions *
Dougie, I’m so thrilled that someone else likes 9 Chickweed! My mom and I just hooted at every strip, then they eliminated it from local papers. When I got mom a computer, I put the website on her Fav list and showed her how to use it. The Grandmother’s scowling grimace is the funniest sight!
My favorites would be Fox Trot, Mutts, Doonesbury, and I enjoy Rhymes With Orange on its good days. In my opinion, Dilbert stopped being funny about a year ago and now it feels like Scott Adams is just going through the motions. The Far Side had its good strips (panels?) but I think people look at it with rose colored glasses. Reading the old collections, I can’t help but notice that I only laugh at about one in 10 cartoons. Most of the rest just make me go “Umm… I get it, it’s just not really funny.” Oh well.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Now, I gotta say this. I do not understand the popularity of Dilbert among intelligent people. It was kinda funny at first, but it’s just the same jokes over and over.
Why is it that we continue to read Nancy and Peanuts even though we stopped liking them when we were 10? I don’t know, but we do.
The creators of Garfield and Marvin (which are really the same strip) should be severely clawed, vomited upon, dragged through baby shit, and buried alive in a giant litter box.
I’d forgotten about Mutts and Rose is Rose (Maharishi Peekaboo!). I don’t get to read some of these strips very often because they’re only in the Portland paper which I don’t take. (I don’t take the Salem paper, either, so really I don’t see ANY strips very often.) Another one that I like that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned yet is Over the Hedge, about a Raccoon and Turle (I’ve forgotten their names.) It kind of reminds me of Mutts (but maybe just because it features animals and was added to the Portland paper at the same time as Mutts).
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I used to LOVE Bloom County. It folded (::sigh: and he brought out, for a while, some other lame take off. Personally, I thought it’s follow-up was not good. Calvin & Hobbes was a long time favorite too.
Favs:
Fox Trot
Dilbert
I don’t get the paper so I can’t think of others. I do buy all the Fox Trot books though.
And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss
of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so
wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth
of vast eternity can fill it up!
-Charles Dickens “Dombey and Son”
It’s good that others of the Teeming Millions like 9 Chickweed Lane. I even e-mailed Ms. McEldowney to ask her to proposoe that my local paper–the South Bay * Daily Breeze *in Torrance, CA–pick the strip up. She sent me a nice reply saying she contacted her strip’s syndicate.
Am I the only male who finds some of the depictions of the teenage daughter and her mom in 9 Chickweed Lane to be…uh…shall we say arousing? The fact that one of them is supposedly 15 is just as disturbing as the fact that they are comic strip characters!
I haven’t seen anyone mention Arlo 'n Janis, which is way up there on my list. The best run of it I’ve seen is when Janis thought Arlo was flirting with women online, so she got her friend to chat with him online under a fake name.
Oh, favorite character, Arlo: “You can go to Saddam Hussein’s house if you’ll study.”
Calvin and Hobbes
Zippy
Robotman
Dilbert (until a couple of years ago – Adams has lost his edge since giving up his day job, not that I blame him)
Bloom County
Doonesbury
The Fabulous, Furry Freak Brothers
Wonder Warthog
Mr. Natural
Hate
Doofus
Trashman, Agent of the 6th Int’l
And the two greatest of all, by far …
Flaming Carrot, man of mystery, and Reid Fleming, world’s toughest milkman.
Oh my God, how could I leave out “Life in Hell”, and “Reid Fleming”? Just last night, cleaning out a drawer, I found a Reid Fleming pinback from about 16 years ago, with our hero saying “78 cents or I piss on your flowers!”
cmkeller: did you see the Duke compilation about 9 years ago called “action figure”? It came with an actual Duke action figure, complete with Uzi and martini glass. Brilliant!
Best current newspaper strip–For Better or For Worse
Best Classic newspaper strip—Pogo
Best on line strip—Kevin & Kell
Worst comic book publishing firm–Marvel Comics
