The Funnies

[OscarMadison]

I'm talking about comic strips. Which ones still resonate and which haven't aged well?

 

[Songbird]

Snoopy's confoundment is one of the funniest things I've always loved about Peanuts.

 

[OscarMadison]

The background: I'm replacing some shelves and going through what was on the old ones. One included a stack of perusal copies and old standbys that made for diversional comfort reading. In looking through the first few, I find my allegiances have switched from Bloom County to Calvin and Hobbes. I loved both, but used to feel more at home in the world of Bloom County. Rereading it now, I find it off-putting. Calvin and Hobbes feels like a window into a place I'd rather visit.

 

[sgreenwell]

I still buy the yearly collection of Pearls Before Swine - I love Pastis' commentary on his own work. I also know the author of Wallace the Brave - he's from Rhode Island and has a heck of a jumper - so I check that one out from time to time too. Kind of like a mellower Calvin and Hobbes.

 

[OscarMadison]

Snoopy is a modern-day Puck. "What fools these mortals be." His Mitty-like adventures as a flying ace were little masterpieces.

 

[sgreenwell]

The background: I'm replacing some shelves and going through what was on the old ones. One included a stack of perusal copies and old standbys that made for diversional comfort reading. In looking through the first few, I find my allegiances have switched from Bloom County to Calvin and Hobbes. I loved both, but used to feel more at home in the world of Bloom County. Rereading it now, I find it off-putting. Calvin and Hobbes feels like a window into a place I'd rather visit.

Calvin and Hobbes are pretty much perfectly timeless cartoons. I got the whole collection one year for Christmas, and it's great. The Far Side also holds up pretty well.

 

[OscarMadison]

The dad jokes in Pearls are dependably so bad they're good. And how can anyone read it for very long and not say, "Aw, Pig..."

 

[justgladtobehere]

Listen to the comics section of Sunday Papers with Greg Fitzsimmons and Mike Gibbons. They joke about the awful comics like Hagar, Andy Capp, and Family Circus. Greg loves Blondie, though.

I grew up reading Doonesbury books. I learned American history from them. I also read hand me down Andy Capp books. The strip I loved and bought all the books of was Bloom County.

 

[swingline]

Oh, Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk!

— HJ Simpson

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Loved Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes. Agree that Calvin & Hobbes has aged better.

My more recent favorite was Get Fuzzy. The guy who drew it, Darby Conley, just slowly quit over a few years with no explanation. It's strange -- even the newspapers never got an reason why it eventually became all reruns. He just sort of disappeared.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Welcome to my world.

— I still read Gil Thorp daily.
— Mark Trail recently changed artists and has a more comic direction.
— Judge Parker has been great for the past few years as the main family has suffered numerous public insults and calamities.
— I don’t understand The Phantom.
— Rex Morgan is hit or miss.

 

[outofplace]

Star Wars and Calvin & Hobbes is the perfect combination in these fantastic cartoons

I always enjoyed the regular Calvin and Hobbes, too.

 

[OscarMadison]

Listen to the comics section of Sunday Papers with Greg Fitzsimmons and Mike Gibbons. They joke about the awful comics like Hagar, Andy Capp, and Family Circus. Greg loves Blondie, though.

I grew up reading Doonesbury books. I learned American history from them. I also read hand me down Andy Capp books. The strip I loved and bought all the books of was Bloom County.

Just looked through the two Pogo collections on the shelves here. It definitely speaks to the political climate of the times. Not a fan of Doug Marlette, but I have to agree with his view that one of the best things about Walt Kelly's work was his use of typography.

Loved Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes. Agree that Calvin & Hobbes has aged better.

My more recent favorite was Get Fuzzy. The guy who drew it, Darby Conley, just slowly quit over a few years with no explanation. It's strange -- even the newspapers never got an reason why it eventually became all reruns. He just sort of disappeared.

I loved Get Fuzzy. Wonder if Conley suffered from the same kind of depression Allie Brosh wrote about in Hyperbole and a Half. Sometimes it seemed like his self-insert was awfully solitary. Maybe it's the perfect strip for the shelter in place crowd.

 

[User 150927]

Baby Blues and Non Sequitur of the currents


Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Far Side.

 

[Driftwood]

Count me among the Get Fuzzy fans.

 

[OscarMadison]

Baby Blues and Non Sequitur of the currents


Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Far Side.

It's been years since I read Baby Blues. I like Scott and Kirkman's visual style. (Looked it up. Wow! It's still running!)

This has to be a high point in the history of American comics:

 

[dixiehack]

Welcome to my world.

— I still read Gil Thorp daily.
— Mark Trail recently changed artists and has a more comic direction.
— Judge Parker has been great for the past few years as the main family has suffered numerous public insults and calamities.
— I don’t understand The Phantom.
— Rex Morgan is hit or miss.

I feel like we’re having a seance with spnited.

 

[Wenders]

Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Get Fuzzy and Pickles were always my favs.

My granddad LOVED The Lockhorns. He would cut them out and paste them in the back of the kitchen cabinets. We all had a great laugh as we attempted to remove them when we remodeled their kitchen.

 

[Batman]

The Far Side and Fox Trot were always my favorites. Along with Calvin and Hobbes, early Dilbert, Robotman/Monty, Doonesbury and some others, every newspaper in the country in the late 80s and early 90s had a murderer's row of great comic strips. Then all of the artists seemed to bail on it or scale way back right around the same time. The collapse of newspapers a few years later didn't help the medium.
Our paper has a token comics page now. We run the classics like Hi and Lois, Dennis the Menace, Beetle Bailey and Family Circus and that's it. I assume they're all part of the cheapest syndication package.

 

[Vombatus]

I'm talking about comic strips. Which ones still resonate and which haven't aged well?

Chester the Molester /crossthread Flynt