The Lockhorns is still published in the Sunday issue of the Chicago Tribune - I have no idea why. Perhaps they’re forced to run it as part of a package deal to get other comic strips.
I loathe Cathy. I’m a woman in her 30s and have always disliked it ever since I first saw it published; I try to just skim past it on the comics page but occasionally it catches my eye, and so I check to see if it’s improved at all. (Considering the short amount of time required to do this, I don’t care, but I’d much prefer the space be filled with a better comic strip. Heck, they’re still running Dick Tracy…) It’s the same old tired stuff - major freakout over inability to find good clothing (replace with “good Christmas presents” during December), on-again-off-again relationship with Irving in which they are unable to communicate and fall into the same tired stereotypes, passive-aggressive codependent relationship with her mom, ineffectual dad who stands back, inability to comprehend technology, and so on.
There are several comics that I not only don’t find funny, I cannot even understand what the joke is supposed to *be].
Zippy the Pinhead is a major example. Another is called no exit, by Andy somebody-or-other. Once in a while, I go back and read them to see if I am mistaken, and they are really subtle and clever.
I go Pogo. Sadly, Mr. Kelly’s wit and artistry no longer graces the funnies, but I’ve rediscovered Pogo in book form-something all comic appreciators should do.
Bloom County, Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, Mr. Boffo, and (I think) Ernie (with the Piranha Club), Mutts, and Pickles are my choices.
You have to abmit that Blondie has a great rack and looks fabulous for being ~90. (Blondie started 15 September 1930)
I’d also like to see Jin Wicked’s Asylum on 5th Street in the Sunday paper, but she only does it a few times a week.
Your Right BTW, it was DTM now that I recall, it’s been some time since I read it, the caption from the Far Side was a Gypsy fortune teller looking into a crystal ball, doing a reading for some guy all dressed up in a safari outfit (“I see your disembodied head on a stick”). The DTM one I forget, something stupid, but when placed under the Far Side it was very amusing – Maybe you could look it up if you have the book on hand, mine is long gone.
Zippy is SUPPOSED to be surreal! But turning it into a mainstream daily seems to have blunted its edge. Probably why Groening hasn’t done that with “Life in Hell.” It’s not like he needs the money.
I actually think Garfield has gotten funnier the last year or two than it was for quite a while, but that it’s a different kind of funny than it used to be back in the day. I’m pretty sure that I’m the only one who feels this way.
They’re still making it. You must not have seen it in the last, oh…ten years or so. It’s gone downhill like an extreme skiier. But with a little more pain involved. Garfield has gone from a witty feline to a droning, abusive one-trick-pony, while Jon (his owner) has gone from a mildly hapless adult to a poor caricature of a brain-damaged geek. The joke (yes, joke: singular) got very old a long time ago, but there’s no evidence that it will be changed in the near future.
I think this thread could be pretty endless…there are precious few comics out there that are funny. I remember when the first page I’d turn to in the local paper was the comics page, and it would make me smile. I still turn to it first thing, but now it makes me shake my head in dismay. And the Sunday comics were like a cartoon show–entertaining, and took a half hour to read. Now I can skim through them in two minutes, and I feel like it was a waste of time.
Fortunately, I still have a complete collection of Calvin & Hobbes and about 3/4 of the (now, sadly, out-of-print) Bloom County books piled up in the Porcelain Library.
I once read the first collection of Cathy comics at the library. Wow, that was a pretty good strip when it first came out. Cathy was this young wallflower type who was always being pushed one way by her feminist best friend and another by her misogynist boyfriend. It was very fresh and inventive. I was shocked to read it since I knew what it had become.
B.C. was funny before Johnny Hart started using it as a pulpit. I’ve always hated Garfield. Is Dick Tracy still running? That strip should have died when Gould did. The Wizard of Id ran out of even marginally funny material years ago. The Family Circus is simply boring.
The strips and spots I liked best, Li’l Abner, Calvin and Hobbes, Shoe, and The Far Side, are all gone. But at least there’s still Non Sequitur and Zits.
Has Prince Valiant ever come out in a comic book format? That might be a more interesting read, all at once. I like the artwork and the history of it.
Brenda Starr use to be a favorite of mine, but I am surprised to see her still around.
As I said in the other thread, I haven’t read the comics in nearly ten years. so it is a surprise to see many of them still alive that frankly, should be taken off life support.
No, it’s a pre-historic fortune teller and a caveman. The caption was something along the lines of: “I see your little, petrified skull labeled and resting on a shelf somewhere.”
Wow, danceswithcats is harsh. That by hating all the comics that I love. Really, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Mutts, etc. Maybe you should go back and tell us what comics you love afterwards.
I saw this thread and immediately thought Garfield. I have no idea why it is funny. I remember the cartoon as well and that wasn’t funny either.
I’d have to say my least favorite is One Big Happy. I don’t recall it ever being funny. The Boondocks stopped being funny a long time ago, and just started being a vehicle for Magruder to complain about politics and the state of black leadership. I like Foxtrot, Pickles (Even though it has the same set-up as One Big Happy (multigenerational family w/ a cute kid), it’s usually quiet funny (besides, the grandma’s name is Opal :))), Non Sequiteur and Zits (if it’s not one where Jeremy is being “typically” :rolleyes: rude to his parents. Most of us would have had privliges yanked away for that behavior.)
actually I haven’t read it since high school (about 7 years) so that isn’t far off. If what you are saying is true, then there are no funny comics left. It’s not a huge blow to me seeing as I don’t really read them anymore (not that there’s anything wrong with reading the comics, I just don’t find them funny).
B.C. - Hart found God and lost his talent. Cathy - Whiney string of stereotypes. Ziggy - What a load of crap, should have been canned years ago. Peanuts - Yeah, I know, a cultural icon. But Schulz had lost his edge years before he passed away. When he died, the strip should have been retired instead of going into reruns. Shoe and The Lockhorns are perfect examples of how comic strips suck when they’re drawn by committee. At least Shoe wasn’t bad when MacNelly was alive. Garfield, Heathcliffe, and Marmaduke are all crappy as well. In fact, if it weren’t for Get Fuzzy (which rocks) I’d say that strips about pets are probably the lamest ones out there. Boondocks - I loved it when it first started, but lately it’s been shrill and unfunny. Momma - Mel Lazarus has milked the hell out of one joke long enough. Time to cap the ink bottle and fade to white.
I could probably think of others but I don’t wanna hog the whole thread.
