Did they get a new artist or something? Like, in the middle of this week?
Suddenly, Amelia Santiago has PUPILS in her eyes. Will Annie have pupils when she comes back into the storyline? Annie hasn’t had pupils since 1924.
I consider this, in many ways, a big aesthetic improvement…the old artist was getting worse by the day. Santiago was beginning to look like a linebacker, even in the demure little skirted suit and pearls she’s been wearing since she got to Washington to testify against Benton.
The writing still sucks, unfortunately…I’ve always liked Jay Maeder’s essays and articles, but the strain of creating a continuing strip seems to be beyond his powers.
I think I’ll speak for a lot of people when I say: “Mooore braiiins!”
In other words, is the strip still alive? I know they kicked Peanuts into rerun mode after Charles died, but I don’t imagine they’d be running any strip on an 80-year loop.
And it looks like the strip is just ‘Annie’, sans ‘Little Orphan’. Did her parents spring back to life or something? (Yes, “Mooore braiiins!” again, I guess)
Oh, Harold Gray’s been dead for a million years. I think the strip was defunct for a while, too, but the 1977 Broadway musical whomped up enough interest that someone (Leonard Starr, I think) decided to re-vamp it and drop the “Lil Orphan” part.
About three years ago, Maeder…a NY DAILY NEWS pop culture feature writer and author of a really wonderful “biography” of Dick Tracy…took over as the writer, and the NEWS started carrying it. This was the first time I ever read the thing.
Jay put Annie in blue jeans and hoodies instead of that yucky red dress, and provided her with a grownup hot babe sidekick, Amelia Santiago the Girl Pilot.
That Santiago lady character looks appealingly like Maggie Gyllenhaal, particularly in the center panel of this strip.
Aside from that, I have no comment, since I believe this is the first time I’ve ever read Little Orphan Annie. I did see the movie with Albert Finney and that insanely annoying song, though.
Oh my gosh, she’s wearing pants now! I’m so glad my paper doesn’t carry this! If you’re going to change a classic that much, just start a new character and a new strip…leave Annie alone! You don’t see Charlie Brown changing his shirt (and yes, I know they are re-runs.)
