# If you could take one comic strip outta the paper forever... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366 "2003-06-17T02:40:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/41 "2003-06-17T13:12:54Z")
“Prince Valiant, Mark Trail, Family Circus (bring back The Far Side if you need to fill in the space for a 1-framer), BC, and Hagar the Horrible.” Prince Valiant? Those are fighting words. The Sunday Prince Valiant is the best looking comic ever, not to mention the inventive stories. Mark Trail, Mary Worth, Judge Parker - any of those that move at glacial speed and are soap-opera in style - have got to go. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/42 "2003-06-17T13:23:26Z")
Hey, **plnr** , you want a pretty comic, go get a comic book. Leave the comic pages for, you know, funny stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/43 "2003-06-17T13:23:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ricepad \* > \*\*The most offensively racist strip in the English-speaking world, Wee Pals. \*\* YESSS! I remember reading this piece of crap years ago. It was so painfully PC in its efforts to avoid offending anybody that it managed to offend everybody! ---
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/44 "2003-06-17T13:40:53Z")
Funky Winkerbean. Formerly funny a couple of decades ago, with the air-guitar band and such. Lately, it’s a soap opera, and not a very interesting one: Funky likes to drink. Wally returns from the war, then tells his story for about two weeks. Zippety-freaking-doo. Sadly, it’d be better if they focused on Les and his students. And even that’s not that interesting. I couldn’t agree more about “Cathy” and “For Better or Worse.” I still torture myself daily with reading them, though I am male and clearly not the target audience. I must be a masochist, as I read every comic in my local paper daily, except for “Spider-Man” and “Apartment 3G.” I even read “Gil Thorpe.” Thankfully, the paper moved “Doonsbury” to the op-ed page where it belongs. I miss “Robotman.” Not this “Monty” crap. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/45 "2003-06-17T14:34:31Z")
Beetle Bailey ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/46 "2003-06-17T14:48:30Z")
another vote for the Family Circus. There’s a great scene in the movie _Go_ that deals with this horrifying excuse for a comic. > [@](#): > > WOMAN: So what do you have against a Family Circus? > Todd: Okay. You sit down to read your paper, and you’re enjoying your entire two-page comic spread, right? And, you know, then there’s the Family Circus – bottom right hand corner, just waiting to suck. And that’s the last thing you read, so-- it spoils everything you read before! I hate it, yet I’m uncontrollably drawn to it. I think that sums it up ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/47 "2003-06-17T14:49:23Z")
**Mirror Image egamI rorriM** , _how_ can you badmouth Brenda Starr?! Sjhe is my idol: she lives at ther Lovely Arms Apts., has a butch friend named Hank O’ Hare, and is always chasing after some guy who, “ummm, can’t get married right now, I have to find that Black Orchid Serum!” I went into mourning when my papers stopped carrying it 20-some years ago; you mean it’s _still running_ somewhere!?! ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/48 "2003-06-17T14:51:50Z")
and now I just noticed that I was badly beaten to the _Go_ reference. must be slipping in my old age. oh well, still a good quote. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/49 "2003-06-17T15:00:27Z")
You would think that Brooke Shields making a **Brenda Starr** would have served as the strip’s death knell… ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/50 "2003-06-17T15:06:10Z")
Ever since Bill Watterson quit **Calvin and Hobbs** , I just can’t get worked up about the the funny pages any more. As for Family Circus, I understand its popularity about as well as I understand people who never miss a book by Danielle Steel. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/51 "2003-06-17T15:15:10Z")
Beetle Bailey, Hagar, Hi and Lois, Cathy, Fox Trot, Fred Bassett, Brenda Starr, Frank and Earnest… Can all burn in HELL!!! ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/52 "2003-06-17T15:26:31Z")
As a Brit I must insist that the USA version of Denis The Menace must be destroyed, and all artwork and artist involved need to be incinerated. To understand these feelings you need know that Denis The Menace is a long running well loved UK cartoon character, and the USA version is as blasphemous as this imagined scenario would be: Imagine a UK paper running a cartoon called Snoopy in which a true to life drawn dog called Snoopy and his owner called Charlie Brown have Lassie style adventures in the English countryside. Blasphemy, I tell you, someone needs to be burnt at the stake for this outrage! ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/53 "2003-06-17T15:41:24Z")
I didn’t know Dennis the Menace was a British creation. Have I been misinformed? ---
**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/54 "2003-06-17T16:18:18Z")
Hey! I like Foxtrot, it’s one of the only strips I’ve seen that are actually living in this decade. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/55 "2003-06-17T16:25:53Z")
I stopped reading the comics about two years ago. I find none of them funny. Now, if Calvin and Hobbes were to return… ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/56 "2003-06-17T16:42:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*I didn’t know Dennis the Menace was a British creation. Have I been misinformed? \*\* No, you haven’t. The US version actually predates the first appearance of the famous Beano character by around a year. However, the UK version is infinitely better. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/57 "2003-06-17T16:45:33Z")
How can there be two versions of the same strip? Does Hank know about this? The first US one was in 1950. A cursory search didn’t give me more info about the British one. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/58 "2003-06-17T16:55:50Z")
Please, can we kill **Mallard Fillmore**? I’ve got a good reason, honest. Then there will be a void, and someone else will take a stab at being the “conservative answer to Doonesbury”. We might get lucky, it could be someone with talent. As it is now, we have conservatives desperately trying to defend this steaming compost heap because they consider it _the_ right-wing voice on the comics pages, even though it’s pathetic, and I just feel embarrassed for them. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/59 "2003-06-17T17:02:15Z")
My list of comic strips/panels that must go: “Cathy”: Never any good. “Garfield”: Jim Davis had three years’ worth of material that he’s been repeating for the last 25 years. “Beetle Bailey”, “Family Circus”, “BC”: These all fit in the same family: Comic Strips By Comic Strip Legends Who, Unfortunatley, Have No Friends Willing To Tell Them That It’s Time To Retire. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366/60 "2003-06-17T17:37:10Z")
The following are the only comics I read anymore, and even some of them are getting old: Foxtrot, Dillbert, Garfield (more out of loyalty than anything else,) Non-Sequitur, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, and Boondocks. The following NEEDS to go: Cathy, Family Circus, For Better or Worse (half the time it’s not even trying to make joke, and when it is, it’s always about the dog or rabbit,) Marmaduke, Hagar, Andy Capp, Broomhilda, BC, Mother Goose and Grimm, Shoe, Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, Hi and Lois, Beetle Bailey, and pretty much anything else over ten years old, because all of it’s ideas are used up and no longer funny. Also, any non-funny comics? Gone. The following can stay, cause apparatly some people like them: Doonsbury, Baby Blues, Close to Home (it’sd like an unfunny Far Side,) Monty (wasn’t it Robotman before?,) Committed, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-take-one-comic-strip-outta-the-paper-forever/182366.md?page=4)