# Your worst comic in the newspaper. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125 "2016-03-06T16:47:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/61 "2016-03-08T01:34:02Z")
We don’t get _Sally Forth_, but it was in the _Washington Post_ when I was in DC in 1987-88. There was a funny one then. I clipped it, but I don’t know what became of it. It went something like, an omniscient narrator saying “Only half the population gets cramps. It’s not fair, but can you imagine the complaining if the other half got them?” in the final panel, the husband is looking at his hands and saying something like “This hangnail just won’t quit hurting.” I was 20, and I thought it was hilarious. I still think it’s kinda amusing. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/62 "2016-03-08T01:57:51Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I cannot say “Sally Forth” without [lisping the last part as if my jaw fell off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMs2AhVhru8&t=1m40s). This. Every…single…time I read the words “Sally Forth” in this thread, I thought that as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/63 "2016-03-08T05:02:09Z")
I don’t think I was reading Sally Forth before the change (or at least, not long enough before it to get used to the old writing). And I agree that I like the characters’ particular form of insanity. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/64 "2016-03-08T05:09:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think I was reading Sally Forth before the change (or at least, not long enough before it to get used to the old writing). And I agree that I like the characters’ particular form of insanity. I can’t remember if it was generally funny in 87-88, or just got lucky that one time. Maybe they printed it next to Cathy, and it was the soul of wit by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/65 "2016-03-08T05:21:01Z")
So, interesting note. There’s “Sally Forth, a comic about a humorously deranged suburban family.” And there’s “Sally Forth, a comic primarily featuring women who don’t wear clothes.” Something to keep in mind if this thread inspires you to do an image search. At work. (:smack:) ---
**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:** [March 8, 2016, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/66 "2016-03-08T06:00:37Z")
Heh…I was familiar with Wally Wood’s Sally Forth first…imagine my confusion when I found out about the newspaper strip… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/67 "2016-03-08T13:54:26Z")
True. It’s always weirded me out that the creator of the current “Sally Forth” had never heard of Wally Wood’s strip. Or that a friend didn’t tell him. Or that an editor didn’t point it out. “Say, I’ve got a great idea for a new wholesome suburban family strip featuring a wise Mom, a goofy Dad, and a precocious child! I’m going to call it **Deep Throat**!” ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/68 "2016-03-08T15:26:12Z")
All the comics in the Toronto Sun are a total waste of time. I read the Sun at the coffee shop last night and wanted my 15 seconds back from that page. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/69 "2016-03-08T15:30:58Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > True. It’s always weirded me out that the creator of the current “Sally Forth” had never heard of Wally Wood’s strip. Or that a friend didn’t tell him. Or that an editor didn’t point it out. > > “Say, I’ve got a great idea for a new wholesome suburban family strip featuring a wise Mom, a goofy Dad, and a precocious child! I’m going to call it **Deep Throat**!” I have the eight Sally Forth Wally Wood comics I ordered from a publishing company in Seattle. Would THAT ever create a sensation as a newspaper comic strip! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/70 "2016-03-08T15:37:23Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I have the eight Sally Forth Wally Wood comics I ordered from a publishing company in Seattle. Would THAT ever create a sensation as a newspaper comic strip! :eek: . Fantagraphics? Did they reprint them? Excellent! I wouldn’t want to live in a world that would let Wally Wood go out of print. I’ve had a softcover edition that contains the entire run of Sally Forths on my bookshelf for years, but I can’t remember the publisher. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/71 "2016-03-08T18:36:18Z")
For completely ideological reasons, probably Mary Worth or that duck that’s a Republican ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/72 "2016-03-08T18:40:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Something to keep in mind if this thread inspires you to do an image search. Wow! I \*knew \*about the Wally Wood comic, but I am amazed at how overwhelmingly it dominates the search results, compared to a long-lived and well-liked mainstream strip. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/73 "2016-03-08T20:48:40Z")
In previous threads on this topic, I always stick with _The Lockhorns_. Egad, what a dated, horrible strip. Even the worst newspaper should be embarrassed to have that on its pages. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/74 "2016-03-08T21:15:00Z")
Comics haters should check out [the Comics Curmudgeon](http://joshreads.com/). :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/75 "2016-03-08T22:57:36Z")
As long as we’re talking comics, can I ask what’s up with Dilbert lately. The jokes are still fairly funny, but the art looks _ **off** _, so I’m distracted from the humor. I never thought that art quality was its strength, but something seems very wrong. I never look at it anymore, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Nancy & Sluggo and similar juvenile comics, remembering when I was very small and Nancy was _ **the only one I understood** _. And there was this other one showing four panels of the same building and a wall of words. You’ve got to have comics for everyone. And they can’t ALL be your favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/76 "2016-03-08T23:05:11Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Egad, what a dated, horrible strip. I have noticed that – while they still do jokes about Leroy staggering home drunk and Loretta’s terrible cooking – the flirty eight-foot tall chicks with big hair and hot-pants have gradually disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/77 "2016-03-08T23:05:40Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > As long as we’re talking comics, can I ask what’s up with Dilbert lately. > > The jokes are still fairly funny, but the art looks _ **off** _, so I’m distracted from the humor. I never thought that art quality was its strength, but something seems very wrong. Look between the panels. The current guest artist is credited. ---
**Author:** ![jrbor76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9e8a1a/32.png) [@jrbor76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrbor76)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/78 "2016-03-09T16:18:36Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I love my daily funnies. But Jebus Kripes, the Milwaukee Urinal-Shitnal needs to make some replacements. Marvin, Between Friends, Ziggy, Family Circus, Hi & Lois, Beetle Baily. They all are unfunny, out of date, and need to go. > > But keep them all if they just get rid of one: **Mr. Boffo!** :smack::mad: > > It is sand in the mouth unfunny, uninteresting, dull, and outright stupid! > So, what is the 1 comic you’d have your paper delete if it were up to you. You get to pick just one. (Dishonorable mentions OK) I don’t know why **pkbites** is complaining. As far as I can tell, the Journal Sentinel isn’t publishing old issues of For Better or For Worse anymore, and the decision to not subject the good people of Milwaukee to the daily decades-old tirades of Screamy McFumington and family makes the MJS comics section about a gazillion times more tolerable than my local funnies. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/79 "2016-03-09T17:01:36Z")
I stopped reading the cartoon Pages years ago when I realized that they just weren’t really very funny. They’re a waste of time which I don’t have much of to waste. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125/80 "2016-03-09T19:10:38Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Just my opinion. But I think that newspapers are all wrong for comic strips. > > A comic book can be saved and it has value and that value increases in the future. > > But newsprint is a bad medium. If I’m not mistaken, comic strips tend to erode more quickly when printed on newsprint than they do when printed in a comic book. > > Besides, most comic strips in newspapers are black & white even though they are in color in comic books. Don’t the color versions have more value than the B&W versions? I agree that newspapers are the wrong medium for comic strips, but I don’t think everything needs to be a comic book. The best way to read newspaper comics, especially the soap opera strips, is online where you can read the comments. Ever since the Comics Curmudgeon got started the comments on the strips are consistently better than the strips themselves. And some of the writers/artists, like James Allen who does _Mark Trail_, read those comments and offer fanservice to his loyal mockers. (Any time someone in MT mentions a boat blowing up it’s directed to us internet commenters. 🆒) Back to the OP: \*Marvin \*needs to go. It’s nothing but an unending litany of poop jokes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-worst-comic-in-the-newspaper/748125.md?page=5)