# zombie comic strips **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491 "2009-06-02T16:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/21 "2009-06-02T19:59:22Z")
The champ: **Gasoline Alley**. Man, was that _ever_ funny? Even if it used to be, sometime during the Hoover administration, that’s no reason to keep it running; it’s just a bunch of nothing mixed with “gosh, we sure are old now!” for filler. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/22 "2009-06-02T20:20:59Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > **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? Hijack, because I was thinking about this the other day: Why is it that, by and large, conservatives have such a hard time being funny? There’s Mallard, that Fox News comedy show that lasted, what, 1 episode?, that spoof movie from last year with Chris Farley’s brother playing a Michael Moore character - what’s up? P.J. O’Rourke manages (managed? - haven’t read him since high school) to be funny, and I’m sure there must be some conservative stand-ups that are good, but broadly speaking, comedy seems to belong to the lefties. Maybe I should have just started a separate thread. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/23 "2009-06-02T20:44:25Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I think you have to go to webcomics for that. [OK](http://www.thezombiehunters.com/) Zombie Hunters is more of a drama than a comedy, though. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/24 "2009-06-02T20:50:05Z")
I rarely see it, but I freaking LOVE Mallard Fillmore. It is so woefully unfunny that it is hysterical. It strikes me as coming from a bunch of overweight, over 60 Republicans sitting around trying to be “cool.” ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/25 "2009-06-02T21:09:44Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > The hot gossip is that Calvin grew up and became [Frazz](http://comics.com/frazz/), actually. Although the character is not named Calvin… No, no. Calvin grew older (not “up”) and became [Sli](http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3064)[ck](http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3176). ---
**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:** [June 2, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/26 "2009-06-02T21:10:42Z")
Sluggy Freelance does [zombies.](http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971201) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/27 "2009-06-02T21:16:17Z")
> [@runcible\_spoon](#): > > 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. I know. It leaves me wishing that I could draw…at all. I now have the desire to use zombies in a webcomic to poke fun at music, much like the rarely updated, seemingly yet again defunct [Indie Tits](http://www.indietits.com/archive/2005_04_01_archive.html) strip. Alas, I have all the drawing skills of a promising 5th grader. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/28 "2009-06-02T21:48:41Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Hijack, because I was thinking about this the other day: Why is it that, by and large, conservatives have such a hard time being funny? There’s Mallard, that Fox News comedy show that lasted, what, 1 episode?, that spoof movie from last year with Chris Farley’s brother playing a Michael Moore character - what’s up? P.J. O’Rourke manages (managed? - haven’t read him since high school) to be funny, and I’m sure there must be some conservative stand-ups that are good, but broadly speaking, comedy seems to belong to the lefties. Maybe I should have just started a separate thread. Sorry. Good question. I’ve been wondering about that myself. Maybe I’ll have to go into stand-up just to make up the deficit. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/29 "2009-06-02T23:57:58Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > **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? Probably they couldn’t. I don’t know why, but there just don’t seem to be any funny American conservatives. Editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez is not funny. Wayne Stayskal is so lame it’s embarrassing. So is Dennis Miller ever since he left SNL. P.J. O’Rourke has his moments, but he has not been **very** funny since his _National Lampoon_ days. I haven’t heard a funny RW standup since Sam Kinnison died, if he even counts; I’ve heard some bits by “Christian comedians” and they’re not funny. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/30 "2009-06-03T00:05:55Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > 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. Can’t believe you left out **The Family Circus!** (The sole redeeming feature of which is that it mutation-spawned [**The Dysfunctional Family Circus.)**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysfunctional_Family_Circus) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/31 "2009-06-03T00:16:35Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Why is it that, by and large, conservatives have such a hard time being funny? Perhaps there’s a fine line between “look how silly those guys are!” and “look how morally superior we are!” and conservatives are more prone to cross it. The former has comic potential, the latter less so. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/32 "2009-06-03T00:43:29Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Why is it that, by and large, conservatives have such a hard time being funny? Sixteen years of Bushes and a lot of good subject material, particularly the last eight. Eight years of Clinton, and how many jokes can you make about fellatio? Maybe they’ll get some good jokes about Obama. Why doesn’t Keane go after Pastis? That arc where Rat was kidnapped at a FC convention was great. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/33 "2009-06-03T00:44:03Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > The champ: **Gasoline Alley**. Man, was that _ever_ funny? Even if it used to be, sometime during the Hoover administration, that’s no reason to keep it running; it’s just a bunch of nothing mixed with “gosh, we sure are old now!” for filler. It really stopped being a humor strip with the arrival of Skeezix in 1921. Then it became something of a soap opera/adventure strip with humorous sidelights – the formula for its success. Nearly all continuity strips are zombies, killed by the necessities of plotting around a newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/34 "2009-06-03T00:46:52Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Hijack, because I was thinking about this the other day: Why is it that, by and large, conservatives have such a hard time being funny? There’s Mallard, that Fox News comedy show that lasted, what, 1 episode?, that spoof movie from last year with Chris Farley’s brother playing a Michael Moore character - what’s up? P.J. O’Rourke manages (managed? - haven’t read him since high school) to be funny, and I’m sure there must be some conservative stand-ups that are good, but broadly speaking, comedy seems to belong to the lefties. Maybe I should have just started a separate thread. Sorry. P.J.'s first couple of books were very funny, and then he went downhill, and I gave up. He wasn’t funny at all on **Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me** - a bit unfunnier than Amy Dickinson, IMO. When I read National Review in the late '60s, early '70s it had some (intentionally) funny bits. But Tinsley can’t be funny even when liberals do something stupid that could legitimately be made fun of. Pretty sad. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/35 "2009-06-03T00:50:28Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > **Wee pals:** Jeez! This strip is still in print!? I thought it disappeared in the 80s! My paper carries this because it is a sister paper of the Oakland Tribune, and the artist lives in Oakland. More stereotypes in this one than in the rest of the comic section combined. Blondie has updated to the more or less present, but I’m for keeping it as long as they keep drawing her as hot as they have been. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/36 "2009-06-03T01:12:43Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > **Peanuts** and **Calvin&Hobbes** are timeless. > Issues are raised that are faced by every kid. I never meant to say they weren’t great strips…I have a bookshelf full of \*\*\*Peanuts \*\*\*and _ **Calvin and Hobbes** _. But neither strip is being continued. Peanuts, because Shulz is obviously gone, and C+H because Watterson retired it. Its only my opinion, but I think the limited space of the comic pages could be better used if it were devoted to newer strips. Just sayin’. **Jayjay** , yep, I frequent the Comics Curmudgeon site at times. Which actually reminds me of some strips I forgot to mention that I really wish would go away. I knowthey won’t, but their sole entertainment value is only found at places like the Curmudgeon site: **Crock** : Ok, even as a kid when I first saw Crock I trhought it was lame. Really lame. Its badly drawn and the jokes are horrible. I would be really shocked to find that anyone actually enjoys it. **Cathy** : ACK! Or as I’ve seen it said on the CC site “Cathy must die”. As for **Family Circus** , I’m sure that someone out there is a big fan of it. Deranged soccer mom or something. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/37 "2009-06-03T01:48:19Z")
\*\* I still love Peanuts, it’s in the top 5 of my favorite comic strips. Though some are better than others. And though I’ve read it for years, there are some that are new to me, though they’re 30 years old. I’d like to read new, funny, cutting edge comic strips, where are they??? Online, I suppose. Gil Thorp and Gasoline Alley can’t be budged from the newspaper… ---
**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:** [June 3, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/38 "2009-06-03T01:50:59Z")
Daily Ink has “vintage” comics. I like Buzz Sawyer, the last year or so I read on Sundays visiting my Grandmother, and Flash Gordon, but I guess the web is much different from taking up space in the newspaper. Our Conservative paper here ran Doonesbury as the only comic in the business section. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/39 "2009-06-03T01:58:13Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > **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? [1930.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(comic_strip)) Blondie started out as a flapper named Blondie Boopadoop; Dagwood was a wealthy scion who gave up the Bumstead family fortune to marry her. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491/40 "2009-06-03T02:14:10Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Blondie has updated to the more or less present, but I’m for keeping it as long as they keep drawing her as hot as they have been. Check out Nancy’s [aunt Fritzi](http://images.google.com/images?q=aunt%20fritzi&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi)sometime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zombie-comic-strips/498491.md?page=3)