Every year, as one of my resolutions, I seek to simplify my life. Because my everyday reading includes the funnies, I take stock of this routine and see where I might cull and thereby concentrating my reading time. I seek quality over quantity. So, here they are, yes means they make the cut one more year, and not means the strip is OUT baby.
Baby Blues – yes. It’s never laugh-out-loud-funny, but it does have its moments and it’s location on the upper left hand side of the funnies page starts my reading off on a nice note. I particularly like Darryl, the outsized-nosed father of the strip who looks like a relative of Sir Rodney (see Wizard of Id, below). Co-author Jerry Scott managed to make the old strip Nancy quite funny in the late 1980s. Nancy, originally drawn by Ernie Bushmiller was perhaps the worst comic strip ever. Even worse than Alley Oop. No, really, just in case the Statesman editors have even a vague thought of publishing Nancy.Mother Goose and Grimm – yes. This strip was on the bubble last year and almost
didn’t make the cut for my reading in 2006. But, thanks to the talents of its creator Mike Peters, it seems to have rebounded with a new burst of cynicism. Besides, I’m a sucker for smart alecky dogs like Grimmy (see Pooch Café, below).B.C. – yes. Every now and then this classic is laugh-out-loud-funny and, if there is such a thing,
a first ballot Cartooning Hall of Fame. Johnny Hart has been a favorite of mine since jr. high school with his armory of shameless puns and visual gags. His collaborations with Brant Parker made Wizard of Id one of the funniest strips of all time. In B.C. Hart has a museum quality collection of characters like the Fat Broad, Peter, the apteryx, the Cute Chick, and Thor.For Better or Worse – yes. Lynn Johnston’s ongoing saga of Canadian dentist John Patterson and his family is entertaining and dramatic both. Since FBoFW is written in real time, the people in the strip age over the years but I feel that Johnston’s characters are starting to look alike and I can no longer distinguish Elizabeth from April. But I still like these people, their stories, and their sense of humor.
Edge City – yes. Here are some more people I like (pardon me if I act like Len and Carly are real, but if you read the comics religiously like I do, these characters are take on a persona and share their lives with me three panels at a time). This strip, drawn by a husband and wife team, is often quite funny.
Pooch Café – yes. One of the best of the new breed of strips, Poncho the dog is hilarious and I particularly love the whole catapult-cats-into-the-sun story line. The drawings by Canadian Paul Gilligan are quirky and fun.
Dilbert – yes. A must read. If I am traveling and don’t get to read a newspaper with comics (aka funnies), I will go on line to read Dilbert. How does Scott Adams, who quit his job at PacBell in 11 years ago, still keep abreast of office politics? Dilbert’s simple and awkward drawings are taped to many a cubicle in corporate America for their relevance and laugh-out-loud humor. Does every office have a Pointy-Haired Boss?
Cathy – on probation.. I’m almost through with Cathy. Too many words and not enough of a payoff in the last panel. I think Cathy Guisewhite jumped the shark when she had her lead character marry Irving. The constant consumerism and sheer idiocy of some of the characters, Cathy included, is starting to get to me too. This strip has 90 days to turn it around.
Since the new year is a time to take stock of our blessings as well, I have to say thanks that the Austin American Statesman does not run the Katzenjammer Kids, which is one of the worst comic strips ever.
Mallard Fillmore – yes, but a reluctant yes. I was ready to drop this bird because of cartoonist Bruce Tinsley’s one-sided ness. It’s like conservative radio, you can only listen so much to one point of view. But Tinsley redeemed himself when he took some bi-partisan shots at his own party in November. MF brings a chuckle now and then, not much more.
Doonesbury – yes. Still fresh and relevant after 35 years in syndication. Trudeau manages to extend the life of his characters with lots of imagination. Who would have thought of Duke as a lobbyist? B.D. as Walden’s football coach is a natural, but having him go through post-traumatic stress at the same time is somehow touching and funny. Only Trudeau can pull that off.
Baldo – yes. Often funny, collaborating cartoonists Cantú and Castellanos manage to make situations in Latino households relevant to a broader audience. My favorites are Tía Carmen with her curanderias and super-sized friend Cruz.
Garfield – out. I bid a sad adieu after 25 plus years, but Garfield isn’t funny anymore. Not even a chuckle. Like Cathy marrying Irving, Jon’s boyfriend status with Liz has taken the wind out of the sails of this once hilarious strip. Not to take anything away from creator Jim Davis’ innovation and genius, but Garfield lost his edginess and sold out years ago.
Blondie – yes. Now in its unbelievable 65th year with great drawings by Dean Young, son of
original cartoonist Chic Young, Blondie is consistently funny. Considering that the strip has only about six standard situations repeated over and over, they still manage to make me laugh. Even anachronisms like Mr. Beasley who delivers mail to the Bumstead’s door only to get body slammed by a late-to-his-car-pool Dagwood Bumstead. How can you not laugh at that?
Sally Forth – yes. Sally makes the cut but for the life of me I don’t know why I read this strip. Maybe for the office situations, which aren’t really hilarious but just o.k. Message to Sally’s husband Ted: man up for Pete’s sake.
Born Loser – out. I dropped the Born Loser last year. Used to be funny. Now it isn't.
Baldo – yes. Often funny, collaborating cartoonists Cantú and Castellanos manage to make situations in Latino households relevant to a broader audience. My favorites are Tía Carmen with her curanderias and super-sized friend Cruz.
Garfield – out. I bid a sad adieu after 25 plus years, but Garfield isn’t funny anymore. Not even a chuckle. Like Cathy marrying Irving, Jon’s boyfriend status with Liz has taken the wind out of the sails of this once hilarious strip. Not to take anything away from creator Jim Davis’ innovation and genius, but Garfield lost his edginess and sold out years ago.
Blondie – yes. Now in its unbelievable 65th year with great drawings by Dean Young, son of
original cartoonist Chic Young, Blondie is consistently funny. Considering that the strip has only about six standard situations repeated over and over, they still manage to make me laugh. Even anachronisms like Mr. Beasley who delivers mail to the Bumstead’s door only to get body slammed by a late-to-his-car-pool Dagwood Bumstead. How can you not laugh at that?Sally Forth – yes. Sally makes the cut but for the life of me I don’t know why I read this strip. Maybe for the office situations, which aren’t really hilarious but just o.k. Message to Sally’s husband Ted: man up for Pete’s sake.
Born Loser – out. I dropped the Born Loser last year. Used to be funny. Now it isn't.
Hi and Lois – yes. One of the great things about Hi and Lois is the f
act that nobody grows up, really. Trixie is still a baby after a few decades (the strip has been around since the 1950s) and there she still is in her high chair talking to the sun. Dawg has probably been around for about 50 years, which puts him at about 350 years old in dog. Hi and Lois is wholesome and nutritious but still has an edge to it with the lazy alcoholic neighbor “Thirsty” Thurston, although he is seldom referred to as “Thirsty” anymore in this PC age. Every paper that carries Hi and Lois needs to also have Beetle Bailey, who happens to be Lois’ brother.
Jump Start – yes. Funny, funny strip. Love the cops, particularly Joe’s police partner Crunchy. Love Marcy. Love the football players. But I could do less with the kids. Robb Armstrong’s humorous take on Black History Month every February is entertaining and sometimes educational. He even had me reading about Sojourner Truth after she was mentioned in one strip.
Kid City – no. Kids that read the funnies go for the humor, not for a science class. Nobody reads this comic. Nobody.
Ziggy – maybe. I don’t read Ziggy anymore, but some people probably do. He is chuckle-funny every now and then, but I consider Ziggy a couple of notches removed from Love is…. and a victim of his own success.
Bizarro – no. Not funny. Was funny at one time, but no longer. Dan Piraro’s drawings don’t really “sell” the story for me.
Mutts – yes. Mutts is a throwback strip with very simple drawings. No plot, no story, just a set up and a punch line. Mutts is usually funny and at least worth a chuckle with simple drawings that sell the punch line. The influence of Herriman’s Krazy Kat cartoons from the early 20th century is evident in cartoonist Patrick McDonnell’s quirky little strip.
Pearls Before Swine – on probation. When this strip first appeared in the Statesman, it relied on simple set ups, with very corny puns. Coupled by the stick-like characters it made for a very funny strip. The added cynicism of Rat made it almost irresistible. However, Steve Pastis has either run out of ideas or gotten some bad advice as he has drawn himself into a corner with story lines that often run out of steam. The crocodiles, whose broken English is sometimes hard to follow, are wearing thin. Pastis should go back to his original simple and funny formula.
Wizard of Id
– yes. In the same category as B.C. and Blondie, the Wizard has a half dozen situations that are consistently re-written in a fresh and funny way. The hirsute prisoner “Spook” being stretched on a rack? That’s funny. The King addressing the rabble on tax increases? Funny. Sir Rodney and his nose in battle? Funny. The alcoholic Bung? Funny. Funny.
Foxtrot – no. But Foxtrot is somewhat off the hook on this one because cartoonist Bill Amend is threatening semi-retirement and plans to do a Sunday-only strip. This may be an improvement because right now his work seems to be stretched thin with boring story lines, characters that you cannot tell apart, poor drawings, and unfunny punch lines. This feature has become a chore to read.
Rose is Rose – no. Pasquale drives me nuts. Rose and her motorcycle leather-clad alter ego don’t make me laugh. Plus the drawings are sometimes hard to figure out.
Over the Hedge – no. This falls into the same category as Get Fuzzy (see below) in which there is too much to read and too little pay off in the way of a punch line. I have tried unsuccessfully to understand the relationship between the characters in this strip but their characterization has never been strongly established (contrast with Blondie in which the characters are strong and consistent).
Hagar the Horrible – yes. Hagar is not as good as it once was when Dik Browne originated this strip in 1973. However, his son Chris has done a tremendous job since taking over solo in 1988 by remaining faithful to the original drawings and characters in this great strip. Hagar has not jumped the shark, Honi is still single and Hagar is still a loveable slob.
Zits – yes. Since my seventeen year old son is a virtual clone of Jeremy Duncan, the star of this family-oriented strip, Zits makes me laugh again and again. Scott and Borgmans drawings are fantastic and Scott, who also co-authors Baby Blues (above), has a simple and funny writing style.
Luann – yes. A personal favorite of mine since she first appeared 25 years ago, this strip
continues to make me laugh with fresh new story lines every month or so and a cast of very realistic characters. I like the way Luann’s author Greg Evans draws this strip, particularly when the characters are eating or drinking. Excellent characters like Luann and her brother Brad, Crystal, the elusive Aaron Hill, Tiffany aka Sheraton St. Louis (pictured at right) make this one of the best story line strips in the paper.
Peanuts – yes. No question. Like Mozart, you never tire of Peanuts and reading the strips again and again is a pleasure.
One Big Happy – yes. This is a good little feature, but suffers from the reduced size format it gets in the Statesman. Ruthie, the creation of cartoonist and humorist Rick Detorie, is a bit off-center and makes statements out of the children-say-the-darndest-things school of humor. I hope she doesn’t grow up.
Non Sequitor – on probation. One-panel funnies have to sell a set up and a punch line with a quick one-two punch delivered in a matter of seconds and Non Sequitor delivers in this medium with good writing and interesting drawings. When writer and illustrator Wiley Miller go to the multi-panel format, squeezed into the same space as the one panel version, it falls flat. The characters are hard to distinguish from one another, and main character Danae Pyle does not engage me at all.
F-Minus – yes. The space once occupied by Boondocks whose creator Aaron McGruder retired from the daily funnies business to do TV and film, left big shoes to fill for Tony Carillo, the artist behind F Minus. Carillo got syndicated after winning the mtvU strips contest for fledgling cartoonists. Although his drawings leave a lot to be desired (perhaps he will improve with age much like Doonesbury’s Trudeau) his punch lines are quirky and funny. Still, I’d rather still be reading about Huey Freeman and Grandad.
Get Fuzzy – no. I have been reading this strip off and on for several years and I always get the feeling that I am walking in on someone else’s conversation. I never quite pick up the thread. All of this is despite the excellent drawings by Darby Conley. The characters, however, are not convincing and I sometimes have a problem distinguishing between Bucky (cat) and Fungo (ferret).
act that nobody grows up, really. Trixie is still a baby after a few decades (the strip has been around since the 1950s) and there she still is in her high chair talking to the sun. Dawg has probably been around for about 50 years, which puts him at about 350 years old in dog. Hi and Lois is wholesome and nutritious but still has an edge to it with the lazy alcoholic neighbor “Thirsty” Thurston, although he is seldom referred to as “Thirsty” anymore in this PC age. Every paper that carries Hi and Lois needs to also have Beetle Bailey, who happens to be Lois’ brother.Jump Start – yes. Funny, funny strip. Love the cops, particularly Joe’s police partner Crunchy. Love Marcy. Love the football players. But I could do less with the kids. Robb Armstrong’s humorous take on Black History Month every February is entertaining and sometimes educational. He even had me reading about Sojourner Truth after she was mentioned in one strip.
Kid City – no. Kids that read the funnies go for the humor, not for a science class. Nobody reads this comic. Nobody.
Ziggy – maybe. I don’t read Ziggy anymore, but some people probably do. He is chuckle-funny every now and then, but I consider Ziggy a couple of notches removed from Love is…. and a victim of his own success.
Bizarro – no. Not funny. Was funny at one time, but no longer. Dan Piraro’s drawings don’t really “sell” the story for me.
Mutts – yes. Mutts is a throwback strip with very simple drawings. No plot, no story, just a set up and a punch line. Mutts is usually funny and at least worth a chuckle with simple drawings that sell the punch line. The influence of Herriman’s Krazy Kat cartoons from the early 20th century is evident in cartoonist Patrick McDonnell’s quirky little strip.
Pearls Before Swine – on probation. When this strip first appeared in the Statesman, it relied on simple set ups, with very corny puns. Coupled by the stick-like characters it made for a very funny strip. The added cynicism of Rat made it almost irresistible. However, Steve Pastis has either run out of ideas or gotten some bad advice as he has drawn himself into a corner with story lines that often run out of steam. The crocodiles, whose broken English is sometimes hard to follow, are wearing thin. Pastis should go back to his original simple and funny formula.
Wizard of Id
– yes. In the same category as B.C. and Blondie, the Wizard has a half dozen situations that are consistently re-written in a fresh and funny way. The hirsute prisoner “Spook” being stretched on a rack? That’s funny. The King addressing the rabble on tax increases? Funny. Sir Rodney and his nose in battle? Funny. The alcoholic Bung? Funny. Funny.Foxtrot – no. But Foxtrot is somewhat off the hook on this one because cartoonist Bill Amend is threatening semi-retirement and plans to do a Sunday-only strip. This may be an improvement because right now his work seems to be stretched thin with boring story lines, characters that you cannot tell apart, poor drawings, and unfunny punch lines. This feature has become a chore to read.
Rose is Rose – no. Pasquale drives me nuts. Rose and her motorcycle leather-clad alter ego don’t make me laugh. Plus the drawings are sometimes hard to figure out.
Over the Hedge – no. This falls into the same category as Get Fuzzy (see below) in which there is too much to read and too little pay off in the way of a punch line. I have tried unsuccessfully to understand the relationship between the characters in this strip but their characterization has never been strongly established (contrast with Blondie in which the characters are strong and consistent).
Hagar the Horrible – yes. Hagar is not as good as it once was when Dik Browne originated this strip in 1973. However, his son Chris has done a tremendous job since taking over solo in 1988 by remaining faithful to the original drawings and characters in this great strip. Hagar has not jumped the shark, Honi is still single and Hagar is still a loveable slob.
Zits – yes. Since my seventeen year old son is a virtual clone of Jeremy Duncan, the star of this family-oriented strip, Zits makes me laugh again and again. Scott and Borgmans drawings are fantastic and Scott, who also co-authors Baby Blues (above), has a simple and funny writing style.
Luann – yes. A personal favorite of mine since she first appeared 25 years ago, this strip
continues to make me laugh with fresh new story lines every month or so and a cast of very realistic characters. I like the way Luann’s author Greg Evans draws this strip, particularly when the characters are eating or drinking. Excellent characters like Luann and her brother Brad, Crystal, the elusive Aaron Hill, Tiffany aka Sheraton St. Louis (pictured at right) make this one of the best story line strips in the paper.Peanuts – yes. No question. Like Mozart, you never tire of Peanuts and reading the strips again and again is a pleasure.
One Big Happy – yes. This is a good little feature, but suffers from the reduced size format it gets in the Statesman. Ruthie, the creation of cartoonist and humorist Rick Detorie, is a bit off-center and makes statements out of the children-say-the-darndest-things school of humor. I hope she doesn’t grow up.
Non Sequitor – on probation. One-panel funnies have to sell a set up and a punch line with a quick one-two punch delivered in a matter of seconds and Non Sequitor delivers in this medium with good writing and interesting drawings. When writer and illustrator Wiley Miller go to the multi-panel format, squeezed into the same space as the one panel version, it falls flat. The characters are hard to distinguish from one another, and main character Danae Pyle does not engage me at all.
F-Minus – yes. The space once occupied by Boondocks whose creator Aaron McGruder retired from the daily funnies business to do TV and film, left big shoes to fill for Tony Carillo, the artist behind F Minus. Carillo got syndicated after winning the mtvU strips contest for fledgling cartoonists. Although his drawings leave a lot to be desired (perhaps he will improve with age much like Doonesbury’s Trudeau) his punch lines are quirky and funny. Still, I’d rather still be reading about Huey Freeman and Grandad.
Get Fuzzy – no. I have been reading this strip off and on for several years and I always get the feeling that I am walking in on someone else’s conversation. I never quite pick up the thread. All of this is despite the excellent drawings by Darby Conley. The characters, however, are not convincing and I sometimes have a problem distinguishing between Bucky (cat) and Fungo (ferret).
