COMIC STRIP COMPLAINT, Etc.

Fozzie Bear

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I'm a cartoonist (and puppeteer). I think you all know that. I support the acceptance of comic strips as art. I think it is nice that several newspapers are now adding color to the dailies and I hope folks are writing their newspapers and thanking them for that, but at the same time we need to write more.

It began with my huge complaint already that the papers were chopping up comic strips and putting them in all kinds of screwy directions in the papers, but when I open my funnies one sunday and the whole back page is covered with an advertisement which replaces comic strips to discuss the pros and cons of having an "Arthritic Theraputic Heating Pad!" Please write your papers and complain about the chopping up of comic strips and the replacing of them with dumb articles or ads. At the same time, praise them on what you think they're doing right. Also, request they run "The Buckets" which a pal of mine is artist on.
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I have another complaint about comic strips. The funny is gone nowadays. They are blah. They need new blood to work on them, or just retire them.

Hagar the Horrible is horrible.
Mary Worth is worthless.
Apt 3-G should be condemned.
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad...wonder what THEY'RE UP TO?!
Rex Morgan, MD should be disbarred
Garfield...what is UP with those FEET!! They're friggin huge!!
Family Circus? The tent should be taken down.
Peanuts--well, I'm a huge fan and they still make me laugh.
Boondocks: There is no way Aaron McGruder should be that angry, he's a kid being fed off a silver platter.
BC and Wizard of Id are still okay.
Shoe is better without McNelly (who created it)
Dennis the Menace is ready for a long break in boarding school.
For Better or Worse, Sally Forth, and Arlo n' Janis should just all be the same darn comic strip.
Over the Hedge and Frank and Ernest are funny to me, too.
The Buckets RULE!! (They're drawn by a friend of mine!)
There's so many more complaints!!

I know people who's comics are far superior to the syndicated strips because they're fresh, and the humor is good. If a comic plans to continue, they need to quit just drawing the first thing that comes to mind and think it through better. In the very least, hire new writers with fresh ideas.

What do you all think? After all, I've insulted some classics.

~Kev le FOZ
 

radionate

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Oh Kevin, I have to really really really really really really disagree with you on a few points.

Mainly "For Better or for Worse". To me, this is one of the greatest strips of our age. Not only is it funny, it is very social as well. From addressing such subjects as loosing a family member, the family pet, and the birth of a child, they have done it all. Not to mention they had a character "come out" one year. It's one of my all time favorites, and I feel it is a very well done strip most of the time. (It also means a lot to me personally with 2 of the major story lines that went on over the years)

Some of the strips you've mentioned I agree are stale and old, but the tide will change. Before long we'll have greats like "The Far Side" "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Peanuts" back in the spotlight again.

I agree that the drama serial strips need to go away though. Mary Worth, Dr. Rex Morgan, etc. have never appealed to me, and I feel that genre died long ago.

I'm undecided on Shoe since McNelly's passing. I loved his artwork, but I've never been much on the strip.

Family Circus is also one I look lovingly at, as the Keene family is so amazing and talented, that I see past the strip and into their family when reading it.

All the old school strips like Hagar, Hi and Louis, Wizard of ID, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith, etc. will eventually die off, but you never know. There's a sense of "endearment" by a lot of editors that hate to get rid of them.

Besides FBOFW my favorite strip right now has to be Wiley's Non Sequitur. I find it very political, social, and funny!

Thats all for now! :smile:
 

GWGumby

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Originally posted by radionate
Before long we'll have greats like "The Far Side" "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Peanuts" back in the spotlight again.
Greats like Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes? How long has it been since they were retired? Almost a decade? Where are those great strips that were supposed to rise up and take their place?

There are some good modern strips like Dilbert that have grown on me, but it feels like the golden age of the funny pages is long dead and gone. Almost anything over 20 years old is just repetitive and stale. And nothing has been as great as those strips mentioned above despite all the years since they were retired. However, there are a lot of great underground webcomics out there on the Internet which may never replace the standard newspaper funny pages, but can be so much funnier than anything a normal newspaper would carry.

It's not a comic strip, but www.homestarrunner.com is probably one of the few Internet sites that is consistently hilarious and has actually created some really interesting characters.

Meanwhile, I will continue my search for the next Bill Watterson and Gary Larson. He must exist out there somewhere...
 

radionate

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It's all a cycle, and we're in a down time, but I'm sure that before long a new batch of greats will come up. I admit though that ten years is a long time to wait. :frown:
 

Drtooth

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Personally, Garfield, Peanuts, and Far Side will always be my favorites.

Garfield needs more odd gags and less, "I need Coffee, I'm mean to spiders, I love my Teddy Bear" strips. We need more strips like... like DOOOR DOG!!! (at the last panel, a large Dog crushes Garfield with a door, and variations of that, like Roof Dog, and Bungee Dog were used for the week. Never have I laughed so Hard)

Personally, Aaron McGruder's strip is funny, but too dark. He needs councilling. Just kidding. I love Off the Mark (sort of like a cartoonier version of the Far Side). It's actually funny if you're a cartoon buff (stabs were made at everything, from Spongebob to Simpsons, and even Star Wars). Doonsburry was much funnier when it was a political statement during the Vietnam War (I have books of strips written during that period, and they are so much better than the 1980's Yuppy comics they made). Dilbert.,.. I dunno why, but It cracks me up sometimes, and I know nothing about Business. Grimmy, well, I love Grimmy.

We need to see Kev's strip around, though.


But I really can't stand Sylvia... it is the WORST comic strpi in the history of Comic Strips! Poorly drawn, poorly written, is she sleeping with the editor or something?:sleep: :boo:
 

electricmayhem

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Originally posted by GWGumby
Meanwhile, I will continue my search for the next Bill Watterson and Gary Larson. He must exist out there somewhere...
AHEM...he or SHE:wink:

Some of the strips you've mentioned I agree are stale and old, but the tide will change. Before long we'll have greats like "The Far Side" "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Peanuts" back in the spotlight again.
I can't wait for that. It's hard just living off the collection books:big_grin:
 

frogboy4

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I juat read a cool Gary Larson book about the importance of earthworms. Funny stuff. I don't know when it was published.

I gave up funnies when I was about 12. I won't mention the ones I didn't like for fear of penguin throwing, although Garfield is a strip that hasn't entertained me since about the time his book 13 was published. That was a long time ago. Probably around the Garfield and Friends era and the introduction of that pig cartoon. I guess it's hard to keep things fresh. I really used to adore that orange cat. Can still draw him too.

Anyway, I just never latched onto the funnies after that. :sympathy:
 

radionate

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You were into artwork from Norway by then. :wink:
 
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