zombie comic strips

Cafe Society
1

There are far too many zombie strips. I don’t mean comic strips that just ain’t funny, but ones that should have been retired. I don’t understand how some of them continue to be in the comics pages when they aren’t even relvant or funny anymore. Don’t get me wrong, some strips had their heyday, but now they’re just taking up space and keeping it from any new fresh comic strip that could be out there. (I don’t mean that for my own benefit either as an aspiring cartoonist, some of these strips boggle my mind)

I realize this is only my opinion, but if I had to pick a few to be cut I’d have this list

Peanuts: Yes, I know, everyone loves Peanuts. I love Peanuts. Shulz created more than a strip in that, it became a national icon. But he retired the strip just before his death. Why now do we see “Classic Peanuts” still on the comics page? I mean, yeah, its hard to see Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the others go, but if I were an editor I’d wonder if there wasn’t another, newer fresher strip that could replace it.

Blondie: Is anyone actually reading it? I’m not trying to be a dickweed, I just really don’t get it. I can’t recall ever laughing at it and for Pete’s sake, Blondie is how old? Wasn’t this strip created in the 30’s? Dagwood eating big sandwiches and running into the mailman were probably great gags, 30 or 40 years ago.

Calvin and Hobbes: I know I’ll take some heat for mentioning it, but C+H has been discontinued by its creator years ago. I wish it wasn’t, because it was an awesome strip. I have all of the books. Why are we rerunning all of Clavin’s misadventures now?

BC: I thought BC was pretty funny in the 70’s when you could buy the old Fawcett paperbacks of the strips…but Johnny Hart has passed now. I know his family has picked up the torch for the strip, (reusing Hart’s drawings with new dialogue I believe.) Jeez, we can’t let it go, can we? Same for the ***Wizard of Id ***which stopped being funny about 20 years ago.

**Beetle Bailey: ** I suppose it just irks me because I’m in the army and Beetle Bailey is nothing like in any sense the army, even in a comic strip sense……no, its’ cuz it just really isn’t that funny. Now 30 or 40 years ago? Well, maybe then. Meh.

Wee pals: Jeez! This strip is still in print!? I thought it disappeared in the 80s!

Strips I just plain can’t stand:

Mallard Fillmore: Tinsley wouldn’t have a job if not for Doonesbury, which while old, is at least still amusing and relevant. MF is so bad that yes, it is in syndication to offer a conservative view compared to Doonesbury’s more liberal view. Affirmative action! Geez, they couldn’t find you know, a funny, well written strip to do that?

9 Chickweed Lane: I started of kinda liking it, but it quickly became tiresome.

Snuffy Smith: Should be included in the zombie section here, but I really can’t stand that strip. All I can think of is tongues every time I see it.

There are probably more but I have to get back to work. Aw well, these are just my opinions anyway. I don’t mean to offend anyone who might actually like the strips I mentioned.

2

Are you a 'Mudge, Jolly Roger? Because if you’re not, you really should be.

One of us one of us one of us one of us…

3

Peanuts and Calvin&Hobbes are timeless.
Issues are raised that are faced by every kid.

4

Indeed. The Noodles Incident.

5

Agreed. For a newspaper to run “Classic Peanuts” prominently on its comics page is like a network running old episodes of, say, The Dick Van Dyke Show or Cheers in prime time.

Sorry, can’t agree with you here. For some reason “Blondie” strikes me as the least dated and most amusing of the old strips that have outlived their original creators. And Dagwood’s sandwiches will never go out of style. Kill off “Hi and Lois,” “Beetle Bailey,” “Dennis the Menace,” and “The Family Circus,” but keep “Blondie” around.

Really? Some papers are still rerunning C&H? See my comments under “Peanuts.”

(On second look: “Clavin’s misadventures”? Now that I would read! A mailman and his tiger…)

Thank the comics gods, my paper retired “B.C.” when Hart died.

“Mallard Fillmore” and “Doonesbury” are nothing alike (except that I don’t particularly care for either): “Doonesbury” has characters has characters and plotlines. “Mallard Fillmore” has a conservative cheap shot accompanied by a drawing of a duck, and is way more of an editorial cartoon than a comic strip.

6

Fruhlinger has convinced me that Beetle Bailey should always remain with us as long as each strip can be interpreted in the context of Beetle’s and Sarge’s unspoken and unconsummated love for each other. It’s a brilliant, tragic tale.

7

Nobody can prove that!

8

Who cares what newspapers do? In five years, there will only be about five newspapers left in the US, and the comicless New York Times,* Wall Street Journal* and *USA Today *are three of them. Newspaper strips are zombies because newspaper readers are zombies.

9

Two reasons: Old people and money. Actually there’s a third: Editors who consider the comics page a hassle.

Frustrated Cartoonist Rant:

It doesn’t matter that the zombie strips are no longer fresh or funny. They’re familiar. And that makes them favorites of the older demographic, the one demographic newspapers are trying to cling on to. New comics with fresh ideas or perspectives have limited opportunities to see print and are usually the first ones to get the chop, usually because the didn’t click with their older demographic. Never mind attracting a younger one.

And most comic editors rather not deal with angry old people. Not only do they not want to sour their base, but they don’t consider the comic section worthy of the effort. Unlike the early days, when comic were viewed as a means of increasing readership, they’re now looked upon as being beneath the business of serious journalism. So instead of devoting effort and discernment to the content of the section, most editors stick with what works for their dwindling readership and toss up a poll every now and then to feign interest. No other section’s content is decided that way, especially when the results are skewed in favor of those with the time and inclination to participate.

10

I don’t know, B.C. has actually been a lot funnier since Hart’s family took it over. Towards the end, there, the strip was nothing but an endless succession of religious polemics, with nary a joke in sight, but now, there are jokes again. It’s still far from the top tier of strips, but it’s not terrible.

11

And some pretty risque jokes, too, from a pre-death Hart standard. Which means they’re about as risque as a 1970s celebrity-panel game show, but still…

12

I thought we agreed not to mention the Noodle Incident.

13

I’d like to say I’m very disappointed to find that not one - not one - of the comic strips in question prominently feature zombies. Terribly misleading.

14

I think you have to go to webcomics for that.

15

Calvin grew up and became a mailman? I thought it was all up when Lio found the sled and stuffed tiger in the snow…

16

Not necessarily–there’s always Lio.
ETA: Dadgum carnivorousplant for sneaking in with a Lio reference while I was searching for a zombie strip!

17

Ah, the real reason Obama hasn’t repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

18

The hot gossip is that Calvin grew up and became Frazz, actually. Although the character is not named Calvin.

And the joke about the mailman was a reference to the typo “Clavin”…as in Cliff Clavern, from Cheers.

19

You know, if Beetle really gets jazzed by Sarge’s bodytype, you have to wonder what the sexual tension’s like when he visits his sister Lois and her Sarge-body-like husband, Hi…

20

Find the one in question and one up me. :slight_smile: