The Comics Curmudgeon

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Metapost: Sign in the LA Times

Hey, everybody! In yet another case of “online ranter” suddenly becoming “quasi-respectable pundit,” the Los Angeles Times was good enough to print a piece I wrote about newspaper comics sections today. Check it out, won’t you?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 27, 2006 at 12:14 pm and is filed under metaposts.

121 responses to “Metapost: Sign in the LA Times”

Kevin!
November 27th, 2006 at 12:25 pm [Reply]

Well done, and an interesting read.

However, they seem to have your contact info incorrect in the head paragraph.

K
AhClem
November 27th, 2006 at 12:29 pm [Reply]

I heartily agree with the idea of the comics having their own separate section. When I lived in eastern Wisconsin 22 years ago, the Milwaukee Journal published comics and a few other features in a special 4-page insert called the “Green Sheet” (so named because it was printed on green-tinted newsprint). I have no idea if they still do it, or if the Journal even still exists as a separate entity, but it was a great way to present the comics.

And I still have a large number of green-tinted “Tumbleweeds” strips pasted into several scrapbooks.
MonkeyHawk
November 27th, 2006 at 12:36 pm [Reply]

Good piece, Josh.

I used the Times’ e-mail function to forward it to my local dead tree fishwrapper.
Poteet
November 27th, 2006 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

Nice work, Josh. Thank you. As a newspaper addict, I think it would be wonderful if comics helped to save the medium from going under.
Dr. Baltar
November 27th, 2006 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

Nice piece. Very well written and funny!
HBGlord
November 27th, 2006 at 12:41 pm [Reply]

Well said, Josh. I’ve come to expect nothing less. You spoil us, you do.

For those of you who live in NYC, there’s the New York Daily News, which prints four pages of comics (31 strips and one-panels), and it even has two strips “in the well” — i.e., they run in the classified section and can be deputized to stand in for a “vacationing” (usually meaning too politically charged) strip.
dimestore lipstick
November 27th, 2006 at 12:52 pm [Reply]

Carried over from the previous post:

Great article, Joshâ€“
â€œAnything interesting invariably annoys somebodyâ€ is deserving of its own T-shirt.
banana
November 27th, 2006 at 12:54 pm [Reply]

kudos josh! and you know we all love your mad blogging skillz.
Leslee
November 27th, 2006 at 12:58 pm [Reply]

No question the comics are the bait with which papers could reel a new generation of readers in. After becoming a fan of this ‘mad blog’, I nearly spew my cereal each morning as my six yr old asks me to explain dialogue from the likes of MW and Mark Trail.

Of course, if he ever discovers the Curmudgeon, he may become jaded long before his time!
Concerned Citizen
November 27th, 2006 at 1:09 pm [Reply]

Well done! Newspapers killing their comics pages is yet another example of corporations sacrificing long term profitability for the quick buck. I can understand the advantage of being nimble and trying to respond to market forces, but the comics are the first point of contact for most people starting out in life. Before I could read I enjoyed looking at the comics. As I grew older, I started to enjoy other sections of the paper with my breakfast or afternoon snack, but I have never stopped reading the comics, even the ones that I can’t stand! And while I’m ranting, I would also like to address the shrinking page size. It is becoming more difficult to construct a decent paper hat. Really, is nothing sacred?
dimestore lipstick
November 27th, 2006 at 1:11 pm [Reply]

AhClemâ€”
Unfortunately, the Greensheet died about the same time the Milwaukee Sentinel (the morning paper) and the Milwaukee Journal (afternoons) morphed into one paper (The Journal-Sentinel, what else?) back in 1995.

But I remember it well. In the eighties, the Greensheet included Sniglets, and Jan Harold Brunvandâ€™s Urban Legends column among those other features. Plus gossip, crosswords, and a bunch of other miscellaneous short features.

I kind of miss the old Journal.
stewart
November 27th, 2006 at 1:11 pm [Reply]

Ironically, the Boston Globe has created a new stand-alone section called Sidekick that’s mostly a place to put the comics, and everyone seems to hate it for some reason.
Von Zeppelin
November 27th, 2006 at 1:14 pm [Reply]

Good piece, Josh, but, I fear, a losing battle. It is clear from recent ownership and management decisions at, among other papers, the very LA Times in which you appear today. All these people see are dollar signs, and there aren’t enough of them in the comics.

I live in a state under the dark tyranny of “The Daily Oklahoman,” a hideous reactionary monopoly which, among its other sins, carries only a single page of comics which have been locally (and amateurishly) “colorized” since the 1960s. I used to buy the “Dallas Morning News” every day for, among other things, its four pages of comics, plus a couple on the op-ed page (Doonesbury, natch) and in other sections. The paper is no longer sold in Oklahoma. I, like you, turn my comics-deprived eyes to the Houston Chronicle and a few other sites.

Thanks for your good work on this site (mad skilz, indeed), Wonkette, and wherever you cause your name to dwell.
Dingo
November 27th, 2006 at 1:16 pm [Reply]

I dare say, Josh, when I read Mary Worth and titular heroine in the same sentence, all I can think of is that it must be a cold day in Santa Royale and Mary has gone for a walk without a shawl.

TITULAR HEROINES OF THE WORLD UNITE!
treedweller
November 27th, 2006 at 1:24 pm [Reply]

Ironically, Luann has the answer today. Product placement ads could make the funnies profitable. The papers could even sell sideline ads to draw us in after we see that our favorite characters have endorsed a brand.

I’m not saying I’d like it, but, god help us, this is the world we live in.

“Let’s rev up those “Stihl” chainsaws!”
The Curmudgeon
November 27th, 2006 at 1:24 pm [Reply]

And when the Tribune Co. sells the L.A. Times, perhaps the new owners will take your advice to heart….
Jen
November 27th, 2006 at 1:39 pm [Reply]

I gave up on print comics ages ago. When I moved here to Southern NH some 14 years ago, the local paper (The Telegraph) ran almost completely different strips than the paper back in Syracuse NY did. So I wound up missing many favorites.

Four or five years back, I discovered that three major comics syndicates have online subscription services that let you have all the strips you want delivered to your e-mail. Yes, I pay a total of about $45 per year to get these subscriptions. But in addition to all the standards that print papers can choose from, they offer many web-only strips; several offer reruns of vintage (sometimes decades-old) classics; and they always come regardless of snowstorms or paper carrier error.

Best of all, they offer security against my favorite strips being voted out when the newspaper decides it’s time to “tweak” the comics section – something that has happened in the local print newspaper several times in just the last few years.

Just discovered your blog recently – I forget who linked to it. But I love your commentary and opinions about the comics, even with strips that I don’t read myself. Keep it up, please!
Uncle Lumpy
November 27th, 2006 at 1:40 pm [Reply]

The Green sheet gave almost a third of its Page Four to Ione Quinby Griggs, an infuriatingly clueless “advice-giver” who endlessly chronicled the petty conflicts of “hoods” vs.“kalleeges”, the mortal peril of “heavy petting”, and on and on and on.

And since I’m constitutionally incapable of leaving anything in the funny pages unread, I read every f’n word.

Congratulations on the article, Josh – especially your observation that the sad little “let’s vote Zippy off the island” ritual is not the way to save American journalism.
Uncle Lumpy
November 27th, 2006 at 1:43 pm [Reply]

That said, let’s all do vote Zippy off the island.
AhClem
November 27th, 2006 at 1:46 pm [Reply]

I also remember the Green Sheet carrying a small one-panel feature called, I think, “Country Parson,” in which an Amish-looking character dispensed Bible-based snippets of wisdom.

Man, those were the days.
AhClem
November 27th, 2006 at 1:50 pm [Reply]

Praise be to Google! More information on “Country Parson” can be found you-know-where:

http://www.comicstripfan.com/newspaper/c/countryparson.htm
blacknosugar
November 27th, 2006 at 1:52 pm [Reply]

Is the newspaper really still printed? Oh, how gloriously horrible! I suppose some people still don’t mind getting ink on their hands. Personally, I like getting the news without having to go out in the cold to get it. However, I really could go for some larger sized graphics from the online comics.
benro
November 27th, 2006 at 1:57 pm [Reply]

I gave up print newspapers for environmental reasons. I found that every Sunday when I got the Newsday the first thing I do is gut it like a fish and end up with 10 pounds of circulars and various crap, and 1 pound of actual readable newspaper. My wife preferred the NY Times, which as we all know, has NO COMICS, and is therefor unacceptable as a newspaper. I have thus discovered online comics, which are more environmentally friendly, and I don’t have to continue complaining about the strips that are not being carried by the paper. Now all I need to do is rig up a laptop desk in the bathroom, and I’ll be set.

Anyway, it was a great article, and this is a great site, thanks to the whole snarkin’ comics community. As I said to myself when I first came across this site (shout out to http://ambernight.org for linking here), “OMFG, it’s MST3K for the comics!!!”
captainswift
November 27th, 2006 at 1:58 pm [Reply]

Bravo, Josh. An excellent article. I’m pleased, at least, that my local paper has a lovely two-page spread (well, one an two-thirds. That second page has to share space with the horoscope, Billy Graham, and whatever Ann Landers has become). But when I go to visit my Mom, the ever-shrinking comics section just makes me sad.
yellojkt
November 27th, 2006 at 2:00 pm [Reply]

When the newspapers finally die, how will we know which mall department stores are having a sale on lingerie?

And I ‘titular heroine’ is a phrase I use every chance I get, even in reference to Sally Forth.
Gabe
November 27th, 2006 at 2:01 pm [Reply]

I pretty much stopped by to comment on how incredibly dirty I found today’s Garfield, and saw this. Pretty cool article, Josh.
bup
November 27th, 2006 at 2:03 pm [Reply]

Holy Cow! “The Country Parson” wasn’t just in the Birmingham paper! “Straight trees, like people, usually start out straight.”

Josh, I’m bitterly jealous of your burgeoning success.
Derelict
November 27th, 2006 at 2:05 pm [Reply]

My local paper carries only a handful of comics: Peanuts, FBOW, Garfield, Hagar, Foxtrot, Doonesbury, and Blondie. Management is threatening to downsize the selection even more, perhaps cutting back to just Doonesbury.

We need more pro-comics rants, and here’s hoping Josh’s breaking into the LAT is just the first of many!
altoids
November 27th, 2006 at 2:19 pm [Reply]

RE: moving the location of the funnies:

Not the sports section!!! Anywhere but the sports section!

I’ll never see the comics again.

Now we have a fair and equitable division of the paper: my husband gets the sports section, and I get everything else.
benro
November 27th, 2006 at 2:35 pm [Reply]

Oh, and one more thing.. Johnny Walker Gold Label is not “cheap hooch”. I am sure that Celeste would agree.
MonkeyHawk
November 27th, 2006 at 2:42 pm [Reply]

One of my earliest memories is sitting on my Mom’s lap at the breakfast table, reading the funnies. Nearly a half century later, her nickname for me is “Bumstead.” I guess I was a fan.

I’ve long believed one of the greatest blessings in my life has been the morning paper on the front porch just about every day of my life. I started to learn to read with the comics, I got interested in sports and batting averages and math (well, I wasn’t *all* that interested in math, but I became aware of stuff like the Magic Number and stuff) from the sports section. Before I could understand issues, the editorial cartoons put abstract concepts into images I could relate to. The editorial cartoonist for the Kansas City Star (I think he later went to Milwaukee) drew a worldess panel the day after JFK was murdered: the Statue of Liberty brought to her knees, weeping.) I got laid in high school obeying the “one-foot-on-the-floor” rule advocated by Ann Landers. My Mom still has yellowed clipping of recipes everyone in the family now knows by heart. My Dad used to do the crossword puzzle with his fountain pen. I never had interest in crosswords until he died. All of a sudden it’s a morning ritual for me; in ink, of course.

Several years ago, a survey of Kansas City schoolchildren revealed that something like 80% of their homes had *no* printed material other than, perhaps, the phone book, TV Guide, or a Bible.

If I were a billionaire, I’d see to it that *every* home of elementary school students got a newspaper every day. It might achieve nothing more than bring back the fine art of paper mache, but I remember reading the odd story that caught my eye even as I was shredding newsprint and dipping it into wallpaper paste. I read more newspapers’ content via the Intertubes, but if it weren’t for a portable chunk of dead tree to take to the toilet, I’d probably miss out on something.

Saving the daily newspaper is an important cause.

(Maybe we could chisel the pince-nez glasses off of Mt. Rushmore and transform Teddy Roosevelt into Aldo Kelrast!)
Dennis Jimenez
November 27th, 2006 at 2:44 pm [Reply]

Blondie will remain my titular heroine. I’ve always had a fondness for the titular position.
dan b
November 27th, 2006 at 2:48 pm [Reply]

I grew up with arguably the worst comics page of all time in Schenectady, NY. Outside of Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, The Far Side and Peanuts, there was little worth reading.

The sad part of that assessment is that it has only gotten worse. The quality of, erm, “stripping”, is so lackluster lately that I can appreciate why some papers might be cutting down. Poorly drawn and poorly written mainly, and without any of the innovation or imagination that grabbed me with the better strips of my youth. I was glad to find this webpage and the Chron just to enjoy reading my daily comics again. But I think the webcomic market will continue to flourish while the printed stuff will continue to drift thru mediocrity. Gonna leave it to the old standards to keep me happy.

That said, thank you Jack Elrod. I can always count on you for hillbilly-punching action.
Roadside Sarah
November 27th, 2006 at 2:50 pm [Reply]

Bravo! Of course, we wouldn’t expect anything less!
Gabe
November 27th, 2006 at 3:06 pm [Reply]

#30: He’s been corrected on this several times, but he insists on it, probably for comic effect. Or Josh have access to the really good stuff, and frowns at those who actually buy liquor off of a shelf.
banannie
November 27th, 2006 at 3:19 pm [Reply]

The only reason I still buy a newspaper is because my kids read the comics over breakfast (then I read them over lunch.) I chose the paper I subscribe to because it’s rival has about half a page of comics, an outrage!

Great article!
yellojkt
November 27th, 2006 at 3:32 pm [Reply]

I started a subscription to the Washington Post a few months before the Baltimore Sun did the purge Josh described in the article. Not only did they drop a net of 10 strips, they crammed them all onto two pages and now compress the height of the strips to make them fit. It gives me a headache to read them. About the only two strips the Sun has that WaPo doesn’t are Rex Morgan and Luann, and I can get both of those from the Chron.

My Sun subscription is now down to 4 days a week (cheaper than Sunday-only) and I’m about to scratch it altogether.
Forthillrox
November 27th, 2006 at 3:35 pm [Reply]

To Stewart/ # 12, the reason that people hate the Boston Globe’s Sidekick is because it just plain sucks. It is poorly formatted, the fold almost always cuts into the first panels of the strips on the right page requiring the reader to unfold and refold at the proper spot (and then there are two folds). Also, the info in the first few pages is better suited for the Living/Arts section. Part of the reason I have read the Globe from front to back every day since 1986, when I was 12, is because the comics were the big attraction which morphed into an interest in the news and current affairs. The Sidekick removes the comics from the paper and vice-versa. I don’t predict any new readers to the Globe as long as the comics are seen as part of a throwaway section.
MossMoses
November 27th, 2006 at 3:40 pm [Reply]

I much prefer the print medium for comics. Having said that, it sucks that my paper delivery person is late every morning and I absolutely cannot leave my Charterstone-like condo complex without first reading every comic in the Washington Post.

Mutts is the treacliest, sappy crappy hallmark card kinda junk that really should be on shmaltzy greeting cards rather than as a comic strip in the newspaper. How do they justify over a week of “If the only prayer you say today is thank you” tripe?
Da Scrodfather
November 27th, 2006 at 3:43 pm [Reply]

Finally discovering the Houston Chronicle site through Josh, I let out a loud whoop of joy. No longer would I be subject to Cathy and Marvin here in the Land of the Bland. But when I eat breakfast out, dammit, I DO want to read a paper instead of focussing on a spot on the wall for 15 minutes. So let’s bring the funnies back!
hogenmogen
November 27th, 2006 at 3:57 pm [Reply]

Josh,

Thanks for posting. Enquiring minds wanted to know.
curieâ€™s daughter
November 27th, 2006 at 4:22 pm [Reply]

This is great, Josh! I feel so proud to be a part of this really strange and time-wasting phenomenon.
AppleGirl
November 27th, 2006 at 4:22 pm [Reply]

I also learned to read from the comics pages of the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times and the Chicago American. As I got older, I read Dear Abby and anything written about the Cubs. As a teen, I moved on to Mike Royko and the editorial pages just in time for the awakening of my poilitical awareness. In college, I was into the business section and tracking my favorite stocks. But throughout my life and wherever I live, I always read the comics.

Thank you, Josh, for writing an important article.
mon-ma-tron
November 27th, 2006 at 4:23 pm [Reply]

After moving out west, we were happy to discover that, Monday thru Saturday, the Santa Fe New Mexican runs a pretty good comic section (Get Fuzzy, Fox Trot, Dilbert, la Cucaracha, Retail, old Peanuts). It is only onepage though, and does have a few duds (Blondie, Garfield, Hagar, Cathy). (Doonesbury and Mallard Filmore run in the op-ed pages.)

But what’s weird is the Sunday funnies. I’m pretty sure it’s a generic color insert — nothing that identifies the paper, and the worst comics ever: Hagar, Blondie + Garfield, again, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Wizard of Id and BC, Frank + Ernest, Family Circus, and the Born Loser. It’s craptacular!

Does anyone else’s local paper use this same (presumably) cost-cutting Sunday comics insert?
Gabe
November 27th, 2006 at 4:27 pm [Reply]

Hey, Frank and Earnest has its moments.
britbike
November 27th, 2006 at 4:29 pm [Reply]

#31 Monkeyhawk,

I’m with you. I have always had the paper delivered. When I was a kid it was the afternoon Bridgeport Post (the Telegraph was the morning paper–both long gone at this point) and now it is the famous Houston Chronicle. Even though I read most of it online, I can’t part with the physical paper. I’ve thought about it a lot, but the thought makes me too sad. Someone on my block HAS to READ THE PAPER, dammit! And if it is only going to be one person under 80 years old, it shall be me!
I just wish it was a better paper–seriously, the comics page is the best written part most of the time. *sigh*
Bobdog
November 27th, 2006 at 4:34 pm [Reply]

Don’t worry Josh, you’ll always be an “online ranter” in our minds!

Okay, okay, I kid. Just don’t let “quasi-respectability” go to your head.

In an unrelated note, “Get Fuzzy” seems to be taking “Bucky Points” to a whole new level. Perhaps not as a definitive a shout out as the reference to the whereabouts of further information on licorice, but still worth counting, I say.
Trainman
November 27th, 2006 at 4:36 pm [Reply]

The L.A. Times actually does have a pull-out daily comics insert on Thursday — the 3 pages on which their comics appear, plus the TV listings page — although it’s because they do their entertainment section as a tabloid on Thursday, and the comics page layouts definitely wouldn’t fit into that format.
Saxman
November 27th, 2006 at 4:38 pm [Reply]

Some background on my hometown paper the Houston Chronicle and why it remains the most comics friendly. Back in 1995 we had two major dailies, the Chron and also the Houston Post. After a well-planned takeover, the owners of the Chronicle shut down the Post with no warning and booted most of the staff. All Post subscriptions were unceremoniously shifted to Chronicle subscriptions. To blunt the hue and cry, the new owners carried all the Post comics as well as the existing Chronicle comics. This resulted in four printed pages of comics (and a few games). Since then, they have slowly cut back. They currently still have comics on four pages, but one of those pages is mostly games, astrology, and “help” features. They do have a robust on-line presence for most of the deleted features (which includes the much beloved Apt. 3G)… But no on-line Sunday coverage. Photorealistic strips have been hit especially hard. Fortunately between Yahoo news and WashingtonPost.com I can fill in the blanks.
Old Fogeyette
November 27th, 2006 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

Excellent piece, Josh. Thanks for writing it and for posting the link.

Like so many others here I grew up with the funnies. During my twenty-year exile in New York City I gave them up, and my mom sent me Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes cut out from her paper. (Also, sometimes, I admit, “Cathy.” It was good then.)

Now I’m back in the hinterlands with a paper that keeps cutting not only the number of comics but their size. Thank God for the Internet (and the CC).
Luna
November 27th, 2006 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

I wish I had known that you existed earlier, Josh.

I found you about a month ago, I Googled the phrase “I hate for better or for worse.” That damn strip had gotten to me, and I wanted to see if there was anyone else out there who felt the same way I did.

I feel like I have found my long lost family….*sniff*…

I have been an avid comics reader since the mid-1960’s, and I admit my favorite BACK THEN was the Family Circus. I “totally: was Dolly. I had three brothers. Plus there was only one panel, it was easy for a first-grader to read, and gosh, it was funny! (HEY! I was five!!)

Yeah, the Indy Star comics page really blows since the paper was taken over by Gannett.
Braniff
November 27th, 2006 at 4:52 pm [Reply]

Thanks for posting your piece. I hope many newspapers–such as The Des Moines Register and The Chicago Tribune–take notice. Once again, well done.
Allie Cat
November 27th, 2006 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

The first time I went to my in-laws’ house, they really endeared themselves to me because they subscribe to THREE papers – they get their local rag, the Chattanooga Free Times Press and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. And they get them every day. In fact, a common expression in their home is, “Go on into the den and relax – we’ve got all three papers.”

You have to love people like that!
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 27th, 2006 at 5:10 pm [Reply]

We get the San Francisco Chronicle, which is not much of a comics paper. But do they have puzzles! The daily has two crosswords, Cryptoquip and Word Jumble, NY Times crossword on Saturday and on Sunday three big crosswords, an acrostic and a king-size cryptogram. Plus Slylock Fox.

As far as syndicated comics go, the pickings are slim. Even local favorite Zippy got the ax–but they printed it too small to really see the background art, which is the best part of the strip.

But actually the SF Chron does run some local strips, which I think is somewhat unusual among US papers nowadays.

Bad Reporter is uneven, but at its best it’s hilarious. This week is so-so. I don’t know if any other papers ever take these. I’m not sure you’d exactly call it a comic strip.

All Over Coffee is not really a comic strip, it’s drawings of various locations around San Francisco with cryptic sayings on it. It gets way more page space than any comic does. I think the cryptic sayings mostly annoy people.

Farley is a strip dealing mostly with local issues, political and otherwise. The same artist collaborates on Elderberries, which doesn’t seem to be available online. It’s about life in an old folks home that resembles Charterstone after a takeover by Halliburton. (The grounds are patrolled by security gnomes.)
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 27th, 2006 at 5:20 pm [Reply]

My sincerest apologies! I accidentally hit the wrong button before I checked my links. Revised version of #54 follows:

We get the San Francisco Chronicle, which is not much of a comics paper. But do they have puzzles! The daily has two crosswords, Cryptoquip and Word Jumble, NY Times crossword on Saturday and on Sunday three big crosswords, an acrostic and a king-size cryptogram. Plus Slylock Fox.

As far as syndicated comics go, the pickings are slim. Even local favorite Zippy got the ax–but they printed it too small to really see the background art, which is the best part of the strip.

But actually the SF Chron does run some local strips, which I think is somewhat unusual among US papers nowadays.

Bad Reporter is uneven, but at its best it’s hilarious. This week is so-so. I don’t know if any other papers ever take this. I’m not sure you’d exactly call it a comic strip. This would be a better link if you could get it to work.

All Over Coffee is not really a comic strip, it’s drawings of various locations around San Francisco with cryptic sayings on it. It gets way more page space than any comic does. I think the cryptic sayings mostly annoy people.

Farley is a strip dealing mostly with local issues, political and otherwise. The same artist collaborates on Elderberries, which doesn’t seem to be available online. It’s about life in an old folks home that resembles Charterstone after a takeover by Halliburton. (The grounds are patrolled by security gnomes.)
MonkeyHawk
November 27th, 2006 at 5:25 pm [Reply]

After discovering the Houston Chronicle’s websit via this forum, I had compunctions about which features I’d read every day. Might including (DT)GT in my list be interpreted as a vote *for* it’s awfulness? Will my subscription to Pluggers might preven Lio’s inclusion in their offerings?

I have no idea what formulae apply to individual newspapers’ inclusion on-line or on-pulp. That the Houston Chronicle includes strips on their website that don’t get printed on dead trees might provide a hint.

Damn you, damn you, damn you, Curmudgeions for inticing me into including MW and (DT)GT and JP and A3G on my http://www.chron.com list. If I adjust my subscription to include DT and GA and Cathy, will someone interpret it as being supportive of their value?

My daily pulp, the Kansas City Star, dropped GA years ago, telling us that it was a ghost strip, no longer relevant to the original creator’s vision. DT, too. But they still run Blondie and Shoe and FC and DtM…so I guess there was a shift in editorial policy. Funny thing is, Universal Press Syndicate is headquartered in KC and the principals of both most certainly socialize regularly. Doonesbury’s final artwork is crafted by a guy in a Kansas City suburb and I’ve been told that a lot of other features (due to the influnce of Hallmark) are worked on by Kansas City-area artists.

I think it would be interesting if the CCs would put together their *Ideal* comics page.

I’d get rid of the post-Dairy Queen DtM and FC and other zombie strips. I’d trade fewer features for larger formats if Bill Waterston could be lured out of retirement. If Gary Larson would return, I’d give him a quarter-page if he wanted it. I mean, what have cows been doing *lately!?*

I mean, I’m not the biggest PBS fan, but it beats the hell out of another Dagwood-runs-into-the-mailman strip. I’ll stand up and defend Cathy just because it’s not being drawn by her illegitmate daighter decades after the originator died. If Walt can die in GA (admittedly, that’s still an “if”), then so can DT and Sluggo and the industrial assembly line confab that’s guilty of today’s Garfield.

In a perfect world Ella would advice Mary to not call the paramedics even though she feels chest pains. In a perfect world someone would come forward and tell the Gil Thorpe people they’re all grotesque-looking and have no right to live. In a perfect world Howard Erk would get off scot free and retreat to the forest where he finds a pet bear chained (or roped) to a tree and persuade her that not everyone had animostity toward her, then get mauled when his lame sexual advances caused Molly to maul him to death.

Then again, in a perfect world Charlie Brown would kick the football…and miss.
Meanwhile
November 27th, 2006 at 5:30 pm [Reply]

“Quasi-respectable”? Aww, come on, Josh. You’re at the very least “semi-respectable.”
yellojkt
November 27th, 2006 at 5:34 pm [Reply]

Elderberries is available on GoComics/Ucomics. I knew a guy that claimed he was the inspiration for Farley. He lied about a lot of other things too.
yellojkt
November 27th, 2006 at 5:35 pm [Reply]

Sorry for screwing up the url. Elderberries
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 27th, 2006 at 5:39 pm [Reply]

#49 Thanks for the background story on the Houston Chronicle. It’s too bad they don’t carry the Sunday strips, except for what you can sometimes get by sneakily changing the URL (a tip I got from this site). I’ve found the Seattle P-I is not bad for Sundays.

But to follow up Josh’s excellent article, if we go all over the net to read our favorite comics, is that an incentive for our local paper to carry more comics or fewer?
frigg
November 27th, 2006 at 5:41 pm [Reply]

Josh, you sounded all growed-up in that article.

Did you, like, put on pants the day you wrote that?

Kudos, sir.
DarkHorse02GT
November 27th, 2006 at 5:46 pm [Reply]

Very nice piece Josh… congratulations!
yellojkt
November 27th, 2006 at 5:54 pm [Reply]

“Inculcated” is a mighty big word, Josh. I had to look that one up.
Jennifer
November 27th, 2006 at 6:23 pm [Reply]

I second dimestore lipstick! I’d buy that t-shirt

Josh — have you checked out spreadshirt.com? They have WAY more t-shirt options, colors, etc. than cafepress… like women’s Ts in dark colors… which is awesome…

Oh, and GREAT ARTICLE. I subscribe to gocomics but haven’t gone the way of the new Jen and subscribed to everything available.

Hey, new Jen — do you read Big Top? C’est La Vie? My faves.
Awfulart
November 27th, 2006 at 6:32 pm [Reply]

Good work Josh. Proud to be one of your 13,000 visitors & a occasional blogger.. L.A. Times is a damn good paper…!!!
Simple J Malarkey
November 27th, 2006 at 6:47 pm [Reply]

Alls I can say is that I’m glad I live in DC, because the WaPo — in addition to being a reasonably good newspaper — has a terrific comics section. I’m still peeved that they cut RMMD and A3G (while retaining the abhorrent Zippy and SM, as well as a host of mediocrities such as Broom Hilda and Marvin), but in general, they’re among the most comprehensive sections out there.

I think that to some degree there’s a correlation between people who enjoy comics more than the norm and those who read dead-tree papers. I’d be interested to see research on that.
Tekende
November 27th, 2006 at 6:52 pm [Reply]

Von Zeppelin–a fellow Oklahoman! I wondered if there were any around here.

The Oklahoman really does have a terrible comics section, though it’s a bit better on Sundays (weird arranging of the strips notwithstanding). It’s sad, but I read the comics each day pretty much solely for the purpose of checking this site later. We just don’t have anything good.
MossMoses
November 27th, 2006 at 6:57 pm [Reply]

Simple J., I second your emotion on the Post. I read every comic every day religiously, despite the prevalence of crap and despite my lack of any other religiosity. I read a couple of ex Post comics online like A3G, RMMD and the Phantom but there is no substitute for that old fashioned pulp and ink, imho. I actually ordered some curmudgeon swag to support the site.
Karen
November 27th, 2006 at 7:24 pm [Reply]

Josh,
I had to comment after reading your piece in the LA Times. My local paper is The Republican in Springfield, MA. Unlike most papers, their comic section has grown. We get 2 full pages of comics in color every day – 38 strips total. Our newspaper has left a small space for advertising on the bottom of the comics page as well. I’m glad that there is one paper out there that realizes the great pleasure of reading the daily funnies – its main reason I still subscribe to the daily paper!
Christopher
November 27th, 2006 at 7:26 pm [Reply]

No. 55: One thing that interests me is that a couple of comic book publishers have made inroads into the newspapers.

Besides the daily Spider-Man strip, Marvel has recently been including reprints of complete Spider-Man comics in the sunday papers.

Yep, an actual real comic book might just come with your sunday paper! Wow!

Meanwhile, American Manganistas Tokyopop have created two sunday strips in the popular “American Manga” style: Peach Fuzz, about a little girl trying to make friends with a delusional ferret, and Van Von Hunter, about a man who fights evil in some kind of medievaly fantasy type world.

They don’t seem to be online anywhere (The version of Van Von Hunter up there is apparently different from the newsprint one), which is kind of annoying, but also gives me a reason to pick up my sunday paper every week.

I mean, I find the American Manga style to be kind of dull and un-inspired, but both strips are more interesting then margo-ing Garfield.

So, mission accomplished, Sunday Oregonian!
cheech wizard
November 27th, 2006 at 7:29 pm [Reply]

The Freep (Detroit Free Press) carries a pretty good lineup in the two pages it has, though they’ve axed what I thought were some of the more entertaining ones to come along in recent years – Big Top, Housebroken and Sherman’s Lagoon come to mind. Also, they have a painfully hypersensitive politically correct censorship policy – I’ve seen them pull strips that, when found online, proved amazingly mild. What’s ironic is that back in the 80s, they used to be one of the first to criticize other papers that pulled an occasional Doonesbury for being too edgy. So go figure.
cheech wizard
November 27th, 2006 at 7:34 pm [Reply]

P.S. I also wanted to call everyone’s attention to the fact that today’s Shylock Fox takes place in a strip club.

How does he know Cassandra Cat’s earrings are cold? Did he walk up to her and start fondling them? Plus, where’s her coat? It’s freezing outside and the catwoman is practically naked. A more likely clue would be that her highbeams are still shining after being out in the cold.

But how did he really know Cassandra Cat was lying about having been in the club for several hours? Easy — she wasn’t drunk yet.
Mikel
November 27th, 2006 at 7:39 pm [Reply]

Amazingly, my paper has kept it comic line-up pretty steady since I first started reading them about fifteen years ago. These days, we have twenty-five strips and six single panels. Out of the twenty-five strips, only seven weren’t there when I started reading. Of the single panels, I can’t really tell, but I know we’ve always had “Family Circus”, “Ziggy”, and “Marmaduke”. We will always have “Family Circus”, because like a demon from the pits of hell, you cannot really kill it. It will simply come back, stronger than it was before and even more ravenous for the souls of the innocent and just.
MonkeyHawk
November 27th, 2006 at 7:41 pm [Reply]

Von Zep & Tekende:

So sorry to hear “The Daily Oklahoman” is your newspaper. I had a — it’s hard to figure out — cousin or second-cousin or first cousin twice removed or something who was a mucky-muck in the Gaylord media empire. He died young, fabulously wealthy but unable to look himself in the mirror.

However the current shake-up among the Times of LA and NY and other newspapers, I have hope that the industry will turn away from the current corporate model. Even when fascisits like the Gaylords are in charge, newspapers tend to have some calling higher than the bottom line of conglomerates. (Not the Oklahoman, mind you, but generally)
Bitter Scribe
November 27th, 2006 at 7:42 pm [Reply]

Nice piece, Josh. I only wish you had said a little more about dinosaur strips on their second or third generation of artists.
Zorba the Geek
November 27th, 2006 at 7:54 pm [Reply]

Very nice article, your Popeness. You go, guy!

#67: Simple J. Malarkey- great nom de blog! I take it you’re a Pogo fan. I go Pogo!
Gadge Cubic, Mole Preener
November 27th, 2006 at 8:06 pm [Reply]

Surprising how many folks here remember the old Milwaukee Journal’s Green Sheet. I don’t remember the content of Ione Quinby Griggs’s columns…but what a great name! There was also a kid’s column called “Ask Andy” – kids would write in with questions like “why do bees buzz?” etc.

I gave up dead-tree papers years ago, primarily because they take up too much physical space in the recycling bin. (Rant: even without a daily paper subscription, our two bins (we ordered a second one) get filled up with paper well before the collection date. They’re forcing people to put recyclables in the garbage, I tell ya. Of course, rumor has it a lot of them end up non-recycled anyway…) But for a while I subscribed to a daily paper solely to read the comics (this was before A. Gore invented the intermajiggernet).

Anyway, a thoughtful, insightful article, Josh.
Uncle Lumpy
November 27th, 2006 at 8:10 pm [Reply]

Griggs was apparently quite a broad. Not like some other advice-givers I could mention.
Von Zeppelin
November 27th, 2006 at 8:24 pm [Reply]

75 Monkeyhawk–The Gaylord clan is much given to good works these days, having endowed a–wait for it–journalism school at OU. Perhaps the Oklahoman can send its editorial writers there to find out exactly what this “journalism” business is, anyway. The football stadium is now the “Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium,” with its traditional name, Owen Field, apparently referring only to the actual grass itself, possibly including the yardage lines.

I actually was a high school classmate of the current Empress of the Gaylord Realm. She did not, in those days, give much hint of her future as a tycooness and Lady Bountiful. But, of course, it was old grampa E. K. Gaylord who made all the money and started the empire. The succeeding generations have been dilletantes and coupon clippers.

Oh, yeah–this is the comics blog. Sorry about the rant. Say, how about that Ziggy today!
blake
November 27th, 2006 at 8:26 pm [Reply]

#45 i find frank and ernest entertaining more often then not. but i heard bob thaves died last summer, so i don’t know what will happen to it.

anyway, good piece, josh.

i think i was originally pointed here by james wolcott

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott

…another fine source of snark.

your pal,
blake
Victor Von
November 27th, 2006 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

#77: Oh, I definitely go Pogo. I’ve been a Pogo reader since I was four years old.

Nice article. It’s nice to see intelligent/funny criticism of The Comics Problem actually reach the pages of a newspaper. Hearst used comics to help create the modern newspaper, and they may still be part of the solution to dwindling circulation numbers.

My local paper, the Raleigh News and Observer recently did something surprising. It used the disappearance of Boondocks from the comics page as an opportunity to bring in some new blood, trading comic for comic evenly. Instead of “Cathy” and “Hagar the ~~Venerable~~ Horrible” we now have “Frazz” and “Pearls Before Swine.” I don’t recognize all the good strips, but I am glad to see the N&O bucking the trend.

I’m a web cartoonist of sorts (I write, but don’t draw), and am glad to have the interwebs as my infinite canvas. That having been said, we’ve stuck with a newspaper format for our serial. I think there’s a charm to the simplicity of telling a story three or four panels at a time. Or nostalgia for reading comics over my scrambled eggs. Whichever.
mermaidinflames
November 27th, 2006 at 8:45 pm [Reply]

Great article! Very interesting.
sandtarts
November 27th, 2006 at 9:18 pm [Reply]

Wonderful article, Josh.

Like many of the posters here, I started reading the comics when I was in grade school – a very happy memory is of spreading the newspaper out on the living room floor and savoring the comics. I live by the “save the frosting for last” rule and always saved my favorite comic for last, something I do to this day. (Right now it’s Mary Worth!) And as I grew older I started reading things other than the comics. Newspapers are being shortsighted in not trying to get everyone, but especially kids, interested in the comics, because kids who like the comics will most likely be hooked on newspapers for life.

My local newspaper has a pretty good comics section, two and a half pages. They carry a lot of strips I like, including MW and RMMD. However, this is a very conservative area, and Opus and Non-Sequitor didn’t last long.

Keep on curmdgeoning.
liz
November 27th, 2006 at 9:51 pm [Reply]

We take the local paper, mostly for the sports, as we live in a Big Ten town and also our kids are high school athletes so we like to keep up on the high school scene. I read my comics though on chron.com because it’s so much easier to read and they are in color. Our paper doesn’t come until afternoon when things start to get busy around here so I can check off reading my strips in the morning.

I have very fond memories of my much-loved, now-deceased daddy reading the comics every day and laughing so hard, he would cry. I’ll always read the comics because it’s a connection to him.
Sheilagh
November 27th, 2006 at 10:20 pm [Reply]

Ontogeny recapitulates philogeny — do I have that right? I mean that the order in which I read the newspaper today is the order in which I began reading it as a child.

Comics first (yeah, Pop used to read ‘em to me when I was preliterate). Then advice columns. Then editorials and letters to the editor. Then the front section, then the regional news, and finally the business section. I’m 50 years old and set in my ways — I only tackle the front section first if there’s big BIG news, like election results or 9-11.
Alan Vanneman
November 27th, 2006 at 10:44 pm [Reply]

Yo, Josh! I didn’t read all 86 comments, so I don’t know if someone has already let you know, but if they have, you deserve to be told it again: Aldo did not die drinking “cheap hooch”! If you knew anything about booze, which apparently you don’t, which really surprises me, since you come from Baltimore, you’d know that Aldo was drinking Johnny Walker Red when he died! “My old friend Johnnie” remember? And the square bottle? And the rectangular label? (It wasn’t Johnny Walker Black because no man who can afford JWB would commit suicide.)
Gadge Cubic, Mole Preener
November 27th, 2006 at 10:59 pm [Reply]

I don’t believe anyone else has pointed it out, but I think Josh is guilty of a terrifying attempted Prince-based pun in the title of this entry.
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 27th, 2006 at 11:15 pm [Reply]

To add to the nostalgic stories of childhood comics reading:

When I was small my mother worked as a library assistant. She couldn’t afford a babysitter, so she used to take me to work with her. It was basically a teachers’ college, and there was an entire room full of children’s books where she would leave me. That in itself was a lot of fun.

But the next room over was one where they had bound copies of newspapers going back several decades until they got so valuable they had to lock them up. So I used to haul out these huge heavy volumes (the newspapers were bigger then and I was smaller) and read through months and months of just the comics.

Most of what I remember were comics that you all are familiar with, Barnaby for example, but one I particularly liked was Flook. That was one that lasted longer in Britain, where it eventually became more of a political satire.

So it’s true, a misspent youth leads to a misspent adulthood.
FREE HOWARD NOW
November 27th, 2006 at 11:19 pm [Reply]

Alan (87), you are correct. However, it makes a better story for it to be cheap hooch and the reference to Johnny Walker was a mistake by the writer, who obviously intended for it to be cheap hooch but blew it.

Of course, that’s just one of a hundred ways in which the story could be improved.

Speaking of extremely dull comics, this miscarriage of hoser justice is dragging on as long as the OJ trial. Not bad for a clear cut summary judgment in favor of Howard.
Da Scrodfather
November 27th, 2006 at 11:20 pm [Reply]

Von Zep– as an ex-Okie (attended OU back before Switzer was a Cowboy) I had hopes that the Gaylords had gone the way of the dinosaurs. But I remember reading Pogo and Lil Abner (before I realized how bat-guano Al Capp really was) in the Sunday Oklahoman back when.
RentedMule
November 27th, 2006 at 11:48 pm [Reply]

Alan (87) and Free Howard (91) – au contraire! After gripping my head for days during the drunken swervathon I now believe that Aldo’s hooch of doom was indeed Bundaberg Rum. Check out the bottle shape and the yellow label http://www.bundabergrum.com.au/ and compare, similar square bottle and slanted rectangular _yellow_ label.
cvk
November 28th, 2006 at 12:32 am [Reply]

We love you! Congrats on publication in the LA Times, and for such a well-written and readable piece.
James Schend
November 28th, 2006 at 12:35 am [Reply]

Just posting to say I like Mutts. It might be a little too sweet sometimes (but not nearly as bad as Rose is Rose… which I also kind of like), but the majority of the time it makes me smile, and that’s a lot more than most comics manage. And it encourages me to pay more attention to my cat.

That said, I also think Garfield is funny sometimes… so maybe I’m just a freak.
fillmoreeast
November 28th, 2006 at 12:52 am [Reply]

38: Sidekick has a couple more reasons for hatred. First, most of the content in it is pure cruft. It’s nice to have the week’s DVD/CD/game releases, but does it really take two pages? Does anyone care what the featured InDemand movie of the day is? And while I find it amusing that the local Fox anchor babe has Rage Against the Machine on shuffle on her Ipod (true!), it’s really not providing any knowledge or insight about anything.

Second, the Globe tends to stick its advertising circulars inside it, which means crap (and occasionally a page or two of the section itself) has a tendency to spill out, which is a pain in the neck if you’re on the train (and hey, Sidekick’s partly a response to the Metro’s popularity on transit, so that matters).

Third, on Thursdays the actually somewhat useful Weekend Listings section gets tucked inside it, making it a pain to dig out, particularly if you’re on a crowded train again. This is especially annoying, as the Weekend section is what most of Sidekick really ought to be.

Fourth, its content is so slight that it’s kinda embarrassing to be seen reading.

Fifth, the ploy was so obvious, and so idiotically naive and/or cynical. Yeah, we’ll appeal to youth by putting the comics in their own section with the TV listings and give it a marketing-approved Edgy(TM) name. Sure, that’ll bring in the demographic.
CB
November 28th, 2006 at 1:10 am [Reply]

Everyone, just protect your sanity and pretend that the FOOB for the 28th doesn’t exist. I hate Lynn.
MonkeyHawk
November 28th, 2006 at 1:11 am [Reply]

Yes, James (#94), you are a freak.

Then again, my favorite line from a movie is from Fellini’s “Amarcord,” where a Little Man in White from the insane asylum explains the strange uncle’s behavior saying, “Some days he’s normal. Other days he’s like the rest of us.”

Mutts’ recurring “little pink sock” trope and lisping kitty finally drove me away. I appreciate the thought behind the adoption stories but they came to make me want to mainline insulin.

The best kitty in cartoondom (Hobbes doesn’t count; he’s a tiger) is Bucky in Get Fuzzy. He’s so full of himself even when he’s not very bright, just like my four-legged roommate. And Satchel is so, so…. dog. So sweet, so loyal, so dumb.

Garfield is funny, *sometimes.* The last time was, I think, March 12th, 1987.

Keep reading. He’s due.
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 28th, 2006 at 1:37 am [Reply]

#96 Didn’t Anthony get Mr. Foob a good deal on a car a few months back? Or something like that?
Audible Sigh
November 28th, 2006 at 1:40 am [Reply]

#82 Did Barry Saunders write a tribute to The Boondocks, and did he wear a hat?
Dingo
November 28th, 2006 at 1:49 am [Reply]

FOOB 11/28/06:

WHERE IS HE WHEN YOU NEED HIM? He’s fucking protecting the country, you bitch! He’s keeping the Russians from coming over the North Pole, invading Canada, and giving you something actually aggravating in your lives. At the least, he’s keeping the drunks of Mgtimolespreener off of the streets.

Oh, if there truly were a divine being watching over us, I’d read in tomorrow’s paper that Lynn Johnston had been impaled on a pen, a flagpole, or some other phallic approximation to satisfy my bloodlust.
Kenny
November 28th, 2006 at 1:52 am [Reply]

That’s excellent, Josh! Very appropriate that you of all people are being seen and appreciated as the pundit and go-to-guy for any and all things life & comics. The comic in print is slowly becoming a lost art… I’m greatful we have someone such as yourself keeping us all intrigued in the goings-on of our favorites and not-so-favorites in such a personal and insightful manner. While on the topic – I used to fight with an old friend of mine on the proper method or ethic of reading the comics. In my local newspaper, I go from the bottom up, starting with *sigh* FC at the bottom and reaching my way up to *bigger sigh* FOOB as, in between there is Garfield (which I often skip nowadays) and F&E, (which somehow slips a good social commentary by now and then, shrouded in gut-wrenching puns). I digress… my friend read the comics top-down, I read bottom-up – we fought daily, “Dude, you catch ‘Garf’ today”, “Hey! I’m not THERE yet!”. Anyone else have rituals like this? Now that we’re all reaching to the Chron or Comics.com online it’s easier to pick and choose an order. I usually start with Cow & Boy online and continue on in whatever manner i’m feeling that day.
Mr. Oâ€™Malley
November 28th, 2006 at 1:54 am [Reply]

And you’re a real plugger if you put a 1918 inverted biplane stamp on your absentee ballot!
efab
November 28th, 2006 at 2:36 am [Reply]

I learned to read when I was 4 years old by reading The Ryatts in the Dallas Morning News. I googled the Ryatts and came across this site, incidentally. It seems Winky and the gang have now introduced me to a wonderful world twice in less than twenty years.
efab
November 28th, 2006 at 2:39 am [Reply]

101-I always read the paper comics clockwise, starting at the top. I can’t remember the order of the Des Moines Register’s comics page, but I know my order usually leaves me reading FC last, as it was/is usually at the top center spot.

Sigh indeed.
Dingo
November 28th, 2006 at 4:01 am [Reply]

Hmm… efab, that’s a good game for all of us to play. I subscribe to both the Chicago Tribune and The Times, a local rag in Ottawa, IL that has articles on subjects such as a local woman who’s written a cookbook entirely containing recipes that meet the dietary restrictions put forth in Leviticus. In other words, it’s dreadful.

In reading the comics in the Tribune, I start on the left with Dilbert and make my way down the first column, begin the second and go down it, and then end with the third column on the second page moving my eyes downward so that I end with Doonesbury. In the Times, I start on the right side lower with Family Coitus moving up the right-side panel to Crankshaft and then move from upper-left to lower-left. Why? I haven’t a clue. All I know is that in the Tribune I avoid Sylvia, Dick Tracy*, and Cathy. In the Times, I avoid Garfield as though he were Karl Rove in a thong.

Others?

* – In high school, there was this stuckup cheerleader (NO! REALLY?!?) named Tracey. Every time she passed me, I’d yell, “DICK TRACY!” One time she actually said to her friend, “Boy, he must really like that cartoon.”
bubujin
November 28th, 2006 at 5:51 am [Reply]

Josh–great article but a quixotic effort I’m afraid.

Fellow Curmudgeonites, you’re making me both homesick and wax nostalgic. I grew up reading that rag of a paper, the Bangor Daily News (any other Maineacs out there?), next the Rocky Mountain News during college, and then a number of forgotten or forgetable (and some not so forgetable like the Chicago Tribune) papers that came about during assignments or travel with the military. Now for almost 20 years I’ve been a regular reader/subscriber to the Pacific Stars and Stripes. As far as comics go this paper is OK–three tabloid-sized pages of about 25 strips and panels. But wherever I’ve been getting a paper, it’s always been about what offered the best or the most comics.

Lately though I’ve been thinking of saving myself the $160 in annual subscription fees. The Stripes is available on line in a PDF version, there are plenty of other newspaper sites out there, and I’m already subscribing to three online comics sites. Now, if I can just figure out the easiest way to get it to the table in the morning while munchng on my bowl of cereal…..

But if it’s bemoaning the sad state of comics in particular or newspapers in general, I’m sure for many of us it’s the loss of something that says “home”–whether current or past.
bubujin
November 28th, 2006 at 5:55 am [Reply]

Oh, mon-ma-tron (#44), I don’t know if it’s considered “weird” since I only make it my folks’ place in Colorado every couple of years or so, but I understand the two major Denver papers, the Rocky Mountain News and the Post, alternate their paper on Sundays and produce one combined comics section.

That they still carry “Prince Valiant” might be considered weird by some.
compass rose
November 28th, 2006 at 7:19 am [Reply]

#106 Don’t be dissin the BDN – Still a decent paper for a town this size, and struggling like all the others (laid off 11 people including several writers a couple weeks ago).Where else are you going to go for coverage of local brou-ha-ha? The comics section very slow to change, which is actually good because MT and Phantom are still here. So I can get my paper comics and cereal fix, and then head over to chron.com for the rest.
Forthillrox
November 28th, 2006 at 10:23 am [Reply]

fillmoreeast/ 95 I don’t think the Sidekick has much appeal on the train. I ride the Orange Line a few times a day and by the end of the day (or rush hour) the trains are littered with Metros and Heralds (God help their comics page). Maybe Globe readers are less prone to littering (the utterly inept MBTA management contributes to that too by not cleaning its subway cars), though with the rigid glossy inserts/sidekick/automotive/Calendar, Thursday’s paper resembles Sundays. More rigid glossy inserts do end up on the train floors on Thursdays, since they just fall out so easily.
Dennis Jimenez
November 28th, 2006 at 10:33 am [Reply]

Whenever I can, I’ve been trying to work the phrase, “largely a titular postion” into conversation. I’m easily amused.
arlo
November 28th, 2006 at 11:14 am [Reply]

Re: Sidekick debate: So many fellow Boston Globe readers here, I see. I like it. We can discuss the horrors of Ask Shagg. I’d so much rather get Mark Trail than Ask Shagg, so there ya go.

And to SJ Malarkey, I’m one of the rare under-25 continency who go Pogo. And Mr. Malarkey could kick Slylock Fox’s everlovin’ blue-eyed ass.
MaryAnnTheRest
November 28th, 2006 at 12:34 pm [Reply]

Great article, Josh! I really enjoyed it.

You people have no idea of the horrors of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Gannett). NO Foxtrot (too edgy, I guess). So needless to say, no PBS, no Monty, no Get Fuzzy!! Just Family Circus et al … they should print the comics on the obit pages. It’s like someone’s sense of humor died and went to hell, and it’s Rochester.

I grew up with L.I. Newsday and read every word in the comics section, no matter what (except for the Bridge tips, I never understood them and had an irrational hate of the game for taking up my comics space.) I grew up wanting to be Margo Magee. I used to cut out Peanuts strips and tape them to my bedroom walls. By the time I was in high school, my walls were covered floor to ceiling and Bloom County had crept in. I try to inculculate this love in my children, but not with our local paper. Blech!

Your local library will have the good stuff in books. That’s the way to go.
queek
November 28th, 2006 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

71: the local Sunday paper (the aforementioned Freep) also carries the TokyoPop strips. Wasn’t fond of Peach Fuzz, horrid example of how to care for a ferret.

72: Cheech, remember the ink-censoring of Modesty Blaise? At least the Freep carried that strip right to the end. One of my favorites.
cheech wizard
November 28th, 2006 at 1:27 pm [Reply]

I’m embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t even aware the Freep was crudely censoring Modesty Blaise until someone complained about it in a letter to the editor. I just thought it was some weird stylistic thing by the artist.

But yes, Modesty rocked! I guess at the end, the Freep was one of only four papers that carried it, one of which was, I believe, the Bombay Times. Interesting echoes of the old Empire there.

Another bit of trivia – the book John Travolta’s character was reading throughout Pulp Fiction was Modesty Blaise – though I’m not sure if it actually appeared in novel form or not.
Victor Von
November 28th, 2006 at 2:55 pm [Reply]

#94: James– I like Mutts and Rose is Rose, too. Not all the time, obviously, but they do have heart and even the cynic in me is glad to see it.
queek
November 28th, 2006 at 4:21 pm [Reply]

114: 3 papers in India and the Freep. Everytime the Freep ran a comics poll, the fanatics came out of the wood-work and kept Modesty in the paper.

maybe we can talk Angelina Jolie into starring in the movie. *adds more “Nailer” scenes to the script.*
True Fable
November 29th, 2006 at 10:09 am [Reply]

Thanks to you, Josh, I have re-discovered the comics page from your whimsical point of view.

And having a hell of a good time, too!

I used to curse our local paper for playing it safe and running crap like Garfield and Slylock Fox. Now I can deride them with unholy glee.
Craigers
November 29th, 2006 at 5:35 pm [Reply]

mon-ma-tron’s rehearsal of the Santa Fe New Mexican Sunday comics page makes me want to weep…

Hagar, Blondie + Garfield, again, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Wizard of Id and BC, Frank + Ernest, Family Circus, and the Born Loser. Itâ€™s craptacular!

That’s just an unbelievably awful collection. I hope that’s not all of them…
tim
November 30th, 2006 at 10:27 am [Reply]

They ran this in today’s edition of my small-town newspaper, the Valley News in Lebanon, NH. Lord knows that this very paper has had its share of cranky New Englanders writing letters to the editor complaining about the lack of decent comics. Thanks for a great article!
Ann Marie
December 6th, 2006 at 12:20 am [Reply]

You’ve probably heard by now, but the Houston Chronicle published your piece on its op/ed page!
aj
December 7th, 2006 at 12:46 am [Reply]

As a longtime lurker, I’m glad to see that you’ve been published in several different papers outside the nebulous world of the internets, and congratulate you. I see that I’m not the only one whose memories of the comics were stirred by your piece.

Thinking back, I remember when our local scummy newspaper, the Monitor, actually had a halfway-decent comics page, and our not-so-local San Antonio Express-News had a decent comics page. I collected Sunday comics sections as a kid, which were an incredible (in light of today) 5 pages front and back. After they reduced the comics section to a disgusting 3 pages, I refused to read the comics anymore. In any case, I hated the soap strips (of which we only really had FOOB and Spider-man, and Prince Valiant (which doesn’t merit mention anyway)) and was only introduced to Mary Worth, Mark Trail, Apt. 3G, RM M.D., etc. in all their glory on this website.

In any case, as this post is far too long at this point, I only wanted to say thanks for reviving the comics for me.
nemoErensenuT
February 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm [Reply]

I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:

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