COMIC STRIP COMPLAINT, Etc.

Fozzie Bear

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Seems hipocritical, but I do agree with Nate about For Better or Worse. It is a great comic strip story that continues on, everyone is growing up or old or dying off and it isn't candy coated. It's a real story.

Lots of these 'family' strips, though, have to be read by family folks to say, "Aww, cute!" While harsh readers such as myself read them and say, "Typical" in most cases.

Baby Blues is an exception to that though because they do have 'gag strips' moreso than 'based on life' strips. The gag strips are the ones I find most humorous. The closer to life a comic is the less attention I pay to it while, when a comedian is on stage and mentions something (using good timing) that I can associate with my own life, a comic strip MUST be thought through so that there is a definite beginning and end to the story for that particular strip, and the timing MUST be impeccable. If it is not laid-out right, if it is not worded just so-so, if it isn't increased or decreased by the amount of frames or lights-darks, if it is not aesthetically pleasing and balanced and triggers in our mind the elements of "Story, Art, Joke/Point" then we are totally lost on the strip and its value as a whole is lost.

Comic strips began as humorous portraits of everyday life, drawn in cross hatchings and reprinted in magazines (journals/almanacs) or newspapers. Eventually, the literate's use of anthropomorphosized animals made its way into cartoon drawings and when the simplification in the drawing of people and animals were done into the forms of the likes of Krazy Kat or Willie and Joe then you can probably say that cartoon drawings became comic strips.

The way that comic strips are reprinted on newsprint paper is, I think, one of the reasons that art medium is not as well appreciated as, say, oil paintings or watercolors. However, if a newspaper were to be printing new paintings by Picasso or Salvador Dali, then they would certainly never give up that art space for an advertisement whereas they do for Donald Duck (which isn't very good anyways) or Pogo.

Anybody going to help my campaign to gain more respect for comics from the papers?

Kev
 

Super Scooter

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I have to agree, comics are getting blah nowadays. But, one thing that really bothers me is, I haven't heard of half of the comics you listed, and quite a few I've only ever read at my Grandparent's house.

And, really, Family Circus gives me the creeps. It's not funny. It's all just cute, and, that Grandpa thing freaks me out!

I haven't read Baby Blues in a long time, and really miss the cartoon.
 

Fozzie Bear

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One of the greatest things about going out of town is getting that other city's Sunday newspaper to see their comics page, because a LOT of the time they'll have stuff we'll never see in Memphis. I did that recently in Biloxi, MS, and the comics were reprinted HUGE and weren't all chopped up like the Memphis Paper does their's.

Kudos, Biloxi!!

:embarrassed:
 

Manda:-D

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I love comics.com. :big_grin:
I'm a comic strip freak. A MAAAAAAJOR comic strip freak. So, I go to comics.com & ucomics.com, somtimes, and I have a few personal faves from there!
Heart of The City (I LOOOVE this strip!!!)
Sheldon. (Boy millionaire lives w/his Grampa & talking duck. It's BIZARRE and EXTREMELY funny!!!)
Frazz. (So much like Calvin & Hobbes sometimes, it'll make you scream. I wrote Jeff Mathers once, and he wrote me back, saying Bill Watterson & Charles M. Schulz are his heroes.)
....Course, I also like Zits, Fox Trot, Pickles, Baby Blues, and even that fat orange cat. I'll admit, Garfield's not as funny as he used to be, but I'll still always have a special place in my heart for him!
 

Ol' Buddy Bert

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Darby Conley's "Get Fuzzy".
Personally, I think it's one of the funniest strips around. The humour is not so much of the gag and punchline variety but it's a little more subtle/eccentric. Not only that, I think the art is fantastic. I think the artist really has a cinematic sense in his drawing. Interesting angles and interesting perspective.
 

electricmayhem

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Originally posted by Ol' Buddy Bert
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Darby Conley's "Get Fuzzy".
Personally, I think it's one of the funniest strips around. The humour is not so much of the gag and punchline variety but it's a little more subtle/eccentric. Not only that, I think the art is fantastic. I think the artist really has a cinematic sense in his drawing. Interesting angles and interesting perspective.
I love Get Fuzzy, it is hilarious! I think it's the start of the return of funny strips. It's about one of the only ones I read in the Sunday comics these days. So I get my fix from my day by day calendar and I subscribe to the daily one from comics.com.
 

Skeeter Muppet

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....Course, I also like Zits, Fox Trot, Pickles, Baby Blues, and even that fat orange cat. I'll admit, Garfield's not as funny as he used to be, but I'll still always have a special place in my heart for him!
Yes! FoxTrot and Zits rule! My family loves Zits especially since my brother is around the same age as the main character of the strip, and sometimes some of the things that happen in the strip are so true for our family that we have to cut the strip out of the paper and stick it on the refrigerator. You wouldn't believe how many we've accumulated by now.

-Kim
 

Sweetums74

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I miss "Bloom County". There is so much going on in the world today and I'm sure Binkley, Milo, Opus, and Bill the Cat would have a field day now.

Any idea what ever happened to Berkeley Breathed after "Outland" finished?

C
 

Fozzie Bear

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Of retired strips, I forgot all about Bloom County/Outland!! And I even have an Opus doll.

Comics.com IS a great place for toons, and I like to play at peanuts.com (they have animated e-cards that are great!).
 

Fozzie Bear

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By the way....

Originally posted by Drtooth
We need to see Kev's strip around, though.
Thanks!! :embarrassed:

Everytime I do a new strip, I run it past several folks to see what the result is. I'll settle for a big fat grin or it's a no-go on the strip. Also, if someone looks at the strip and I get no response, then it's archived immediately. The strips that people look at and get a laugh, giggle, big grin out of, then I know it's a good one.

In my next (self-published) collection of strips, I plan on having a section of un-funny strips added in, as well as (hopefully) the RiverKings Hockey Mascots Strips that I did for them this season.

~Kev
 
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