Berkely Breathed interview

[Ben_Hecht]

Hi and Lois is Al Capplinesque, compared to Family Circus.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

And Pogo's third, in a multi-way photo.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Hi and Lois is Al Capplinesque, compared to Family Circus.

At least Family Circus is easily manipulated with better captions.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Hi and Lois is Al Capplinesque, compared to Family Circus.

At least Family Circus is easily manipulated with better captions.

To our eternal delight.

 

[BYH]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

I would say Hobbes is less whimsical than Snoopy. but I see your general point.

I don't think Peanuts ever got as serious as C&H. That story arc where Calvin brings home the dying bird was something else. And I loved Watterson's random serious Sunday strips.

The only strip in the picture with Peanuts for great sustained achievement in the last half of the 20th century is C&H. Everyone else is running for third.

And I'll be the first to admit: Peanuts fell off -- MARKEDLY -- after 1980.

Apples and oranges. High whimsical quotent? Snoopy. Occasional gut-wrenching bathos? Hobbes. Both part of remarkable wholes.

Agree on all counts. And Peanuts' ability to sustain itself for decades, even at a lesser level down the stretch, is a huge tiebreaker in its favor.

Though I also respect Watterson getting out when he felt it was necessary to do so. I miss the comic, but I admire his reasons for bolting.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Just another example of the hazards of word-related art . . . nobody's great, all the time, not even the greatest in their fields. Just have to keep doing the best you can.

But what Schulz put out there in the twenty-year stretch which began in the late
50's was knockdown, flat-out unbelievable. The strip affected my verbal
phraseology to a great extent . . . the epitome of gentle humor.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

I would say Hobbes is less whimsical than Snoopy. but I see your general point.

I don't think Peanuts ever got as serious as C&H. That story arc where Calvin brings home the dying bird was something else. And I loved Watterson's random serious Sunday strips.

The only strip in the picture with Peanuts for great sustained achievement in the last half of the 20th century is C&H. Everyone else is running for third.

And I'll be the first to admit: Peanuts fell off -- MARKEDLY -- after 1980.

Apples and oranges. High whimsical quotent? Snoopy. Occasional gut-wrenching bathos? Hobbes. Both part of remarkable wholes.

Agree on all counts. And Peanuts' ability to sustain itself for decades, even at a lesser level down the stretch, is a huge tiebreaker in its favor.

Though I also respect Watterson getting out when he felt it was necessary to do so. I miss the comic, but I admire his reasons for bolting.

Watterson left us wanting more.

Always a neat trick.