28 replies to this topic

[ILOVEVHS]

Comic Strips!

Which ones do you like?

My favorites are Bloom County and Pearls Before Swine.

[RedAuthar]

Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, and Zits.

[Bakuda]

Lifelong fan!

[Uncle Ben]

I miss Calvin and Hobbes

[ILOVEVHS]

I miss the Far Side more.

[LogiTeeka]

Mine are as fallows:

1. Calvin and Hobbes - I love the characters, the humor, the imagination, the insightful topics, and especially the art style. It's like "Winnie the Pooh" geared towards older audiences.

2. Peanuts - Again, I love the characters, humor, and topics. But what makes me attracted to it the most is the nostalgic factor. We all felt like Charlie Brown once in our lives.

3. The Far Side - This is how political cartoons should be done: have a subtle, underlying theme, but make it ironically funny through just one single-panel - depicted in a surreal fashion - and a simple sentence to sum it all up.

4. Garfield - Sure, the series isn't as good as it used to be, but I still get a good chuckle out of them. A simple gag topped with Garfield's bored expression and sarcastic comment of the day never gets old.

[furrykef]

I don't like newspaper comics. About the only one I do like is Calvin & Hobbes, which is every bit as great as its reputation suggests. (Though, as an adult, I now notice the times Watterson gets preachy, and that's a bit annoying at times -- but it's not that big a deal.) I do read Frazz every day, though I'm not entirely sure why. I do also have some respect for a tiny handful of comics like Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine, but I don't actually read them. Probably because I feel I already read enough webcomics.

And as for webcomics, the only one that I read that would remotely work in a newspaper environment is called Out There, which has been likened at least once to Doonesbury before Doonesbury got political. But it's not the sort of comic a syndicate would buy. It's not a dull gag-a-day strip like Beetle Bailey, or a gut-wrenchingly awful soap opera like Mary Worth (ironic how a strip with "Worth" in its name has no worth at all)... the closest would be For Better or For Worse, except that strip sucks and Out There doesn't.

My favorite webcomics are Out There, Out at Home, and Something*Positive (which occasionally veers into NSFW territory, but no uncensored nudity).

[ILOVEVHS]

Have you read Endtown?

[Uncle Ben]

The one Red did was good... unfortunately it had to end

[RedAuthar]

Wait what?

[Uncle Ben]

the FAR one?

[RedAuthar]

Oh.

[Uncle Ben]

yes. i was enjoying it too

[salamander]

Frazz has its moments, but it always bugged me a little. It's very clearly inspired by Calvin and Hobbes, and the main character even looks like a grown-up Calvin. That's fine, but besides the characters looking very similar and the precocious dialogue with the kids, the strip lacks the detail and imagination that Calvin and Hobbes had. Most of the jokes are about how clever and intellectual Caulfield and Frazz are and how dumb everybody else is. It all feels really self-involved and smug, and it doesn't earn its homage.
The Far Side was a favorite, and Dilbert has been good here and there. Monty (formerly Robotman) is probably my favorite strip. It's consistently funny and well drawn. F Minus is a newer strip that consistently makes me laugh.
So many strips in the papers today are legacy strips passed down to new artists or put together in a copy and paste fashion long after its creators have passed on. It's kind of depressing looking at the comics page. Age is a constant theme- the strips are old, the creators are old or dead, there are so many anachronisms in the jokes and the art, and any reference to new technology is confused and dismissive. Hell, Gasoline Alley is still in the papers. It began in 1918. And have you seen Funky Winkerbean lately? He's still in the papers, but instead of a wacky teenager he's grown into a bitter old man. If there's any better metaphor for newspaper strips I haven't seen it..

[Uncle Ben]

Never heard of some of those

[furrykef]

You're probably better off not knowing about Funky Winkerbean. It literally is the most depressing comic strip ever made.

Oh, and the cartoonist really hates it when people complain that it's depressing. He thinks his audience is complaining that his comic is not funny. He doesn't realize that they're complaining that it's not good.

[LaserX5]

I don't have many, but my 5 favorites are:

1. Calvin and Hobbes

2. Peanuts

3. Garfield

4. FoxTrot

5. Dilbert

[quirkybear]

Wow...so many Calvin and Hobbes fans. If you like his works, you should definitely try to get your hands on the 10th Anniversary Book.

[Uncle Ben]

I borrowed years ago from the library... i had a Seinfeld Library book moment

[quirkybear]

I borrowed years ago from the library... i had a Seinfeld Library book moment

I don't think I've seen that episode...