The best comic book character that will not come back is, of course, Tintin.
One of my daughters lives in France now, and sent me a TinTin shirt. I’d never seen him, but he is cute, with the dog.
Give me back Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and The Far Side.
I have all the books. It doesn’t say much for the new strips when comics that I have read hundreds of times over the years make me laugh out loud and I bearly crack a smile over most of the new stuff.
Can we bring Edward Gorey back from the dead?
(It wouldn’t surprise me, actually. . .)
FannyMay, Tintin is not just cute. He’s been to the moon, has discovered a pirate’s sunken treasure, has been abducted by aliens, etc…
In general the comic book tradition in Europe is much more sophisticated than in the USA. Most comic books are book-length adventure stories, with each book being a complete story. Many of the books are intended for adults (by that I mean complex themes and stories, not necessarily sex or violence.)
For example, in my last trip, I brought back a couple of books relating the story of a frenchman hiding in the attic of a house after escaping from a german worker’s camp, and his life in hiding. A well-drawn and involved story, and not something that would necessarily interest a child.
Bah. We United Statesians have given to the world Hot Stuff, the Lil’ Devil. What say you to that?
This is something I did not know, but am more than happy to learn. I appreciate the tip!
Keep on dreamin’, little nemo.
By Dave Graue and Dale Messick? I haven’t seen either in Los Angeles area strips for moroe than ten years. Did Brenda ever see “St. John” again?
Once again Ukulele Ike’s sharp wit has deflated the pompous arrogance of the Eurotrash. :o
One of my favorites years ago when i was a paperboy was “the great atomic aftermath” Anybody remember it?
Re. “Nancy”:
A friend of mine in college would always include the a Nancy comic strip in his letters, but he would cut off the last frame. AAAARRRRGHHHH! maybe the only thing worse than reading the strip was not knowing the punch-line.
Try this tomorrow in your work lunchroom. Get out the comic page, read the first frames out loud describing the scenes. Then get the folks around you to guess what the punchline frame will be. You can even do this yourself. It’s surprising and a little sad how often you can guess where that last frame will go, especially in the comics so maligned in another current thread.
If any of you have access to old “Nancy” comics, you’ll appreciate how very difficult it was to figure where Bushmiller was going with that last frame, even though everything in the preceding frames would seem to lead directly there.
I’m sorry but as far as I’m concerned Nancy is a bad comic strip. Saying it takes a special kind of genius to make a joke that isn’t funny seems to me to be too much of a stretch. Maybe it’s like a “camp” thing of praising the virtues of something that’s bad, but as far as I’m concerned good is good, bad is bad, and there’s no such thing as “so bad it’s good”.
Oh yeah, and I never saw the appeal of Krazy Kat either.
I dunno. If a comic strip requires a “How to” manual to be understandable, it has felled. Not that a comic shouldn’t have a deeper lever, but there needs to be someone ot the front door.
bj0rn - nothing new, but have fun.
Life in Hell is still in the Phoenix New Times , the Tucson Weekly and last time I checked the Village Voice but it consists almost entirely of Akbar and Jeff insult fests. It’s extremely rare to see Binky or Bongo and I cannot remember the last time I saw Sheba in a strip. I’ve been following L.I.H. since the early eighties when I read in the San Diego Reader.
While The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes were my favourite all-time comics, Tintin was in a class of his own. Tintin is not a comic, Tintin is EPIC. It’s like comparing Laurel and Hardy with Ben Hur. Mark Twain with Dostoevsky. The Beatles with Bach.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes so much. . .
Arnold, I agree with you about European comics. I am an ENORMOUS Asterix fan, so when I was in Paris last year, I tracked down a comics shop in order to buy a few hardback copies in French (trying to learn the language, as you remember – Il sont fous, ces Romains!), and I was astounded at the variety of comics available. They were all in glossy hardback bindings, well printed, and a rather large proportion of them were pornographic. Asterix is still with us, and still pretty good, but never as good as his glory days with Cleopatra, Britain, and Rome.
I vote for Pogo to come back. I collect Pogo comics, and Walt Kelly’s drawings, situations, dialogue, characters and poetry are not to be equalled again. RIP, Walt.
Yet another vote for the big three - Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and The Far Side.
But… to echo sentiments stated earlier, it’s probably best that these were retired when they were. Better to go out as a legend than go out with a strip that has been dragged on too long.
Having said that, I still miss all three.
One I’d forgotten about is Little Iodine, the bratty girl, by (?)Hatlo. I remember the “Tip of the Hatlo Hat” to people who suggested ideas.
I believe he also drew “There Outta Be A Law!”