# Worst comic strips, past or present **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920 "2018-05-10T14:35:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/1 "2018-05-10T14:35:34Z")
We’ve got two “worst” threads going right now, one on animated cartoons, seems a natural to focus the spotlight on comic strips. We’ve got Mallard Fillmore and born-again Johnny Hart era B.C., for starters. Zombie strips like Beetle Bailey & Blondie which just repeat the same few gags, over, and over… What you got? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/2 "2018-05-10T14:40:03Z")
“Reply All” – lame “office humor” jokes with hideous artwork ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/3 "2018-05-10T14:50:27Z")
Doonesbury ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/4 "2018-05-10T14:54:22Z")
[Phoebe and Her Unicorn](http://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2018/05/10) was added to our paper last year and is insufferable. Oh look, another joke about a narcissistic unicorn. But there’s a special place in hell for [Rose is Rose](http://www.gocomics.com/roseisrose/2018/05/10). Terrible artwork (WTF is with the eyes?), smarmy pap, and the same three jokes over and over. I want to gouge my eyes out when they mistakenly drift over it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/5 "2018-05-10T14:54:47Z")
Family Circus. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/6 "2018-05-10T15:03:57Z")
Gil Thorp. I tried following this strip for a month, and I couldn’t begin to tell you what the plotline was, and it was so dull that it made the _Sunday_ Mark Trail strip look like _Raiders Of The Lost Ark_ in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/7 "2018-05-10T16:00:58Z")
I don’t subscribe to a daily newspaper any more, and rarely look at comic strips online. The worst strips are the dramatic serials that still hang on (like “Mary Worth,” “Rex Morgan,” et al.)) and the ones that try (but fail) to be relevant and heart warming. I LOATHE “Funky Winkerbean.” Never funny when it’s trying to be funny, never profound when it’s trying to be profound. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/8 "2018-05-10T16:09:32Z")
Rex Morgan has hideous awful artwork, as does Mark Trail. I hate when such badly drawn characters try to act and talk like ‘real’ humans. They look like warped department store dummies talking about cell phones and the internet. Mary Worth, however, has in the last years vastly improved artwork. I have a current love/hate relationship with Mary Worth, which moves along (as it always has) at a snail’s pace. The current storyline gets hundreds of snarky mean comments on comics kingdom every day! It’s fun fun fun to hate hate hate and mock mock mock. Mallard Fillmore deserves to die. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/9 "2018-05-10T16:27:41Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Rex Morgan has hideous awful artwork, as does Mark Trail. I hate when such badly drawn characters try to act and talk like ‘real’ humans. They look like warped department store dummies talking about cell phones and the internet. Unintentionally hilarious when they put an animal in the foreground with a speech bubble, makes it look like the animal is talking… ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/10 "2018-05-10T16:35:09Z")
WuMo. This got added to our paper a few years ago as a replacement for something else that went away. (According to Wikipedia, it replaced the daily “Get Fuzzy” in some papers, so maybe that was it.) I don’t know, maybe you have to be Danish to get it but I don’t find it funny at all. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/11 "2018-05-10T16:41:26Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > …Mary Worth, however, has in the last years vastly improved artwork. I have a current love/hate relationship with Mary Worth, which moves along (as it always has) at a snail’s pace. The current storyline gets hundreds of snarky mean comments on comics kingdom every day! It’s fun fun fun to hate hate hate and mock mock mock… Wilbur is Everyman, and we each fear that tiny part of ourselves that may be found therein. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/12 "2018-05-10T17:48:09Z")
Have you seen [Nancy](https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2018/04/09) lately? Taken over by a woman at month ago (link goes to her first strip) and now a bunch of trolls & White Knights are saying it’s the Best Thing Ever. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/13 "2018-05-10T18:38:21Z")
\>Sob\< So long, Aunt Fritzi! ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/14 "2018-05-10T18:44:27Z")
Ernie Bushmiller’s _Nancy_ is one of my favorite all-time strips. Sadly the parade of cartoonists doing the comic after EB have not been able to match his work. Comics should probably be allowed to die with their creators. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/15 "2018-05-10T18:52:22Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Have you seen [Nancy](https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2018/04/09) lately? Taken over by a woman at month ago (link goes to her first strip) and now a bunch of trolls & White Knights are saying it’s the Best Thing Ever. No, the trolls are saying ‘bring back my G-rated porn!’ The people saying it’s the best thing ever are the ones who’ve _actually read the strip._ ---
**Author:** ![golffan1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@golffan1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/golffan1963)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/16 "2018-05-10T18:53:10Z")
Funky Winkerbean after the first time jump. Agree with the poster about strips dying with their creator. That was the genius of Charles M. Schulz. As sad as his death was and as difficult as it was for me as a fan to let the strip go, his was the right call. Class all the way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/17 "2018-05-10T18:55:41Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > No, the trolls are saying ‘bring back my G-rated porn!’ > > The people saying it’s the best thing ever are the ones who’ve _actually read the strip._ Read? There is more than pictures of Aunt Fritzi? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/18 "2018-05-10T18:59:38Z")
The Fusco Brothers sucked so much it made the comics around it suck. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/19 "2018-05-10T19:11:37Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I LOATHE “Funky Winkerbean.” Never funny when it’s trying to be funny, never profound when it’s trying to be profound. [You are not alone.](https://sonofstuckfunky.com) Speaking of FW, Summer should be finishing up her sixth year at Kent State. Ever notice that the strip never showed her playing in a college game? Meanwhile, I have a feeling she’s going to return to “regular” status in September…when she makes a “surprise announcement” that, with her Masters Degree in PE in hand, she’s Bull’s replacement as Westview High’s new athletic director. (One look at Bull, and her first order of business will be to cancel the football program.) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920/20 "2018-05-10T19:13:27Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > The people saying it’s the best thing ever are the ones who’ve _actually read the strip._ They must be using a very low bar for the strip because I just read all the ones from the linked April 8th comic to today’s and they’re awful. It probably doesn’t help that half of them are about how the strip is different. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comic-strips-past-or-present/813920.md?page=2)