I don’t know the background of the characters in Frazz (paper just started carrying it) but I would have hoped Calvin had grown up to get a more creative job - engineer? artist? inventor? than school janitor, having been a clever kid with a great imagination. I say that not to disparage custodians, because I actually know a school janitor. Not only does he love the job and gets great benefits, he says a fat lot of good his degree in English Literature previously did him in the job market. So if Frazz is Calvin, maybe he’s doing inventing at home at night.
The premise of Frazz is that he is a successful songwriter, he originally took the custodian job to make ends meet, and now he continues with it because the kids inspire him.
I note that, at this moment, 79% of people who have replied to the poll in this thread (including myself) disagree that Frazz is a rip-off of C&H. We’ve noted that, while there are some similarities in art style, that doesn’t constitute a “rip-off”, in our eyes.
Another difference that just occurred to me: Calvin is (overtly, at least) disgusted with both romance and with girls. Caulfield, though he’s never shown any romantic interest himself, has no more problem with girls than with anyone else, and is in fact the one who played matchmaker between Frazz and Miss Plainwell.
The strongest similarity I see between the two strips is that they’re both just really good comic strips. But that’s hardly something to criticize.
They aren’t even in the same league. I read Frazz daily, but it has never been anywhere close to the quality of C&H.
It wouldn’t matter all that much to me if Frazz ended, while I still miss new C&H.
Compared to C&H, Frazz isn’t great, but then, what is? Compared to almost any other comic strip, though, Frazz is one of the best. I don’t think there are any currently-running strips that are better.
Ok. I guess I have to admit it’s not a rip off. Nobody* else seems to see what I see, then maybe I’m the one seeing things askew.
*well, not nobody, but the poll numbers are pretty much a landslide.
I don’t think it’s that we’re not seeing what you’re seeing, it could just be that your line between homage and rip-off is drawn more restrictively than most.
Zits, Baby Blues, Barney & Clyde, and Pearls Before Swine are better, IMHO.
Hmm. You may be right about that, Bosstone. Growing up in the hip hop community, “biting” was a big deal. You could pay homage to another artist, and you could record a tribute (giving full credit by ‘shouting out’ the rapper you wished to pay homage to) but one thing you couldn’t do was take someone’s style.
I look at those two linked comics in the OP and I see Watterson’s style being ‘bit’. I’m hearing that some others don’t even see a resemblance. So, my perception is starting to feel just like a childish holdover from my days as a chubby free-styling 10 year old standing in a circle with my friends, trying my hardest to come up with the most original rhyme style I could muster. Sigh. Good times.
Zits I’ll agree is a strong contender. Baby Blues and Pearls Before Swine both have their great moments, but I wouldn’t say they’re consistently as great (I’d also put Non Sequitur in this category). Barney and Clyde I don’t know.
Enjoy
FWIW, Nzinga, I would agree with you — or rather, I’ve always seen Frazz as a failed attempt to rip of Calvin and Hobbes. Then again, maybe it’s improved in the last couple years —since that’s how I feel about it, I don’t read it anymore.
I’m another one who doesn’t see Frazz as a grown Calvin. Not sure why so many do.
Zits & Baby Blues? Very mediocre.
[quote=“straight_man, post:33, topic:597504”]
FWIW, Nzinga, I would agree with you
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WTF?! I was trying to quote straight man and my post got fucked up both times. I’m posting using Tapatalk for iPhone, if that means anything. I’ve never had any problems before.
I was trying to say that the author of Frazz was obviously going for a grown up Calvin, but came up short. By the drawing style, he was going for an homage, at the very least. I don’t think Frazz is bad, but it ain’t no Calvin and Hobbes.
They just started running Frazz in our local paper, The GR PRess. I don’t know what took them so long to run this comic. For Og’s sake they are still carry on w/that p.o.s. beetle bailey.
Anyway I love the Michigan references - Ms Plainwell, There really is a Plainwell Mi (My first Michigan home, small town, historic neighborhoods, with a great place to eat, The London Grille)
Frazz is cool, very funny imo. But now that it is mentioned, it does remind just a bit of C&H.
But no, not a rip off.
Frazz is a professional songwriter who makes good money writing hits (country music, I think). He donates the money to the school and works as a janitor because it is so fulfilling.
I’d never heard of Frazz but this thread prompted me to read all of the ones that are on gocomics, and really liked them. Is there anywhere with an archive longer than June?