"Liberty Meadows" by Frank Cho, really good artist. Kinda like "Pogo" by Walt Kelly Charles Rodrigues in National Lampoon was always funny as hell. Charles Addams "Addam's Family"
The recent Bloom County revival has been quite good, especially the 2021 Calvin/Hobbes crossover series of strips.
I didn't realize the strip only ran for 4 years. I guess it then had life as a comic book, one in which Cho better explored the... appeal of its main human character:
There's this great comic strip from New Zealand named Footrot Flats starring a sheepdog mostly referred to as "the dog" (doesn't like the name he was given by Aunt Dolly)! Many collections of the strips available...
Another victim of the All-Mighty-Dollar. Cho wanted to continue but he didn't have enough time and the other gigs he had paid more. A great strip and book with an unfortunately permanent cliff hanger ending.
The return of Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbs). ‘He created something magical’: Calvin and Hobbes fans rejoice as creator plans first work in decades On New Year’s Eve 1995, six-year-old Calvin and his tiger, Hobbes, sledded off together for the last time. It was the final strip in Bill Watterson’s acclaimed comic, Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in 2,400 newspapers, and it looked as though it might be Watterson’s final published work. In the ensuing decades, the man who had become a cartooning legend seemed to have all but disappeared, as if he were just a figment of Calvin’s rich imagination. He rarely gave interviews; his occasional small projects, including secretly filling in for another cartoonist for a few days, were newsworthy events. Last week’s announcement of Watterson’s first major work in nearly 30 years – The Mysteries, a vibrantly illustrated “fable for grown-ups” – stunned fans and called for celebration.
As a kid, I remember buying cheap Fawcett Books paperbacks from a drugstore spinner rack that collected strips from Peanuts, Wizard of Id, and B.C. Those comic strip collections were the first paperbacks I ever bought with my meager weekly allowance, and they were the gateway to my later purchases of paperback adventures featuring Doc Savage and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan/John Carter of Mars.
These three are my all time favourites: Krazy Kat Little Nemo in Slumberland (it's a Sunday strip but it still counts I feel) Calvin and Hobbes (the grandchild of Nemo) Second tier favourites: Bloom County Doonesbury Lil Abner (For the art alone - Frank Frazetta was one of the illustrators) Bizarro Far Side
I went looking for the strip because you said it was Watterson. I thought maybe I could see some telltale signs that he was back. I'm not able to see any signs but it's a really funny strip!
I liked reading about the saga of 'Aldo Kelrast' in Mary Worth. Yes, Kelrast is an anagram for 'stalker', and that's just what that weirdo did: stalk Mary Worth. The Comics Curmudgeon got his greatest number of hits from writing about this saga. (SPOILER: Kelrast dies in a convenient car crash; Worth had an alibi).
The classics I followed, with some commentary: Peanuts Calvin and Hobbes Academia Waltz / Bloom County / Outland Far Side Ernie/Piranha Club - once it introduced a bearded lady marrying a duck and other unearned surreal characters, my interest waned. Fox Trot - Though I think the quality's waned in the past 5-6 years. Get Fuzzy - Was great, and I still read the re-runs, and then Darby stopped writing them. A shame, but we've all seen what happens when writers burn out and keep going. Current ones which I really enjoy (including internet-only strips): Perry Bible Fellowship - this is NOT at all how it sounds. Dark humor. Pearls Before Swine - in recent years the larger cast has been reduced to cameos - to its detriment. Macanudo - Some of the best - yet simple - artwork to be found on the comics page, and philosophically Calvin and Hobbes' equal at its best. Sally Forth - Wow, that debate got heated! I had given up reading it in the mid 1990s then tried it again when I saw the art changed. I'm down with the gen X angst but can see why it turns others off. Herman (see below) The Lockhorns - These last two have been around for decades but new writers have kept the quality pretty consistent. Loose Parts - In the spirit of The Far Side, but more everyman than zoology - though it can go there too Wondermark - Those complaining about lengthy dialog a la Sally Forth need not apply, but it has a nice warped humor to it. Berkeley Mews Zits (see below) Baldo - These both capture different aspects of being a teenager. Zits has that great over the top oddball stuff, where Baldo is more sweet. My dad learned to read with The Phantom and made sure I picked up the comics page once I was of age as well. So it's been a lifelong adventure reading them. I used to read everything on the page except for the Mary Worth / Mark Trail serious stuff, back when a paper could carry three pages of strips. Now I hit gocomics and comicskingdom every morning. I dropped some of the old standbys pretty quickly - Beetle Bailey, Wizard of Id, Crock, Dennis the Menace... the only pre - Peanuts humor strip I still read is Blondie because once in a while it can make me chuckle. I also keep up with the Phantom and Dick Tracy, though the quality as of late is questionable. The message boards on the sites above can be lively. As Funky Winkerbean wound down the message boards got really brutal. Nowadays the Phantom seems to have the fans' knives out - it's been on the same story for well over a year, and it doubled back on itself and repeated somewhat (as part 1 was a prophecy). Dick Tracy has its ardent supporters and critics as well.
I read my strips in the L.A. Times daily and then a dozen on gocomics and a handful of other individual sites. Some of my lesser know favorites: Barkeater Lake - only lasted a few years and Corey Pandolph started swirling at the end trying several different reboots. I'm on my 5th or 6th time around now. Barkeater Lake - Wikipedia Today on Barkeater Lake - Comics by Corey Pandolph - GoComics Another gocomics one, lots of visual puny gags. Today on Dark Side of the Horse - Comics by Samson - GoComics Used to be in the L.A. Times, so I added to my gocomics list after they dropped it. Many music/movie/pop culture puns. Today on The Argyle Sweater - Comics by Scott Hilburn - GoComics In it's 20th year and getting close to 5000, a world where AI robots live among humans with normal interaction. Started out as very crude art, but improved immensely over the years. Questionable Content - Wikipedia Questionable Content And then there's xkcd. My all-time favorite xkcd: Spirit
I am a huge comic strip fan and have a large collection comic strip reprint books: -Calvin and Hobbes -Peanuts (1950 - 1970) -Krazy Kat (all of the “Krazy & Ignatz” volumes) -Terry and the Pirates -Flash Gordon -Prince Valiant -Rip Kirby (all Alex Raymond volumes) -Captain Easy/Wash Tubbs -Buz Sawyer -Bloom County -X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan -Steve Canyon -Polly & Her Pals -Gasoline Alley (all “Walt & Skeezix” volumes) -Star Wars -Silver Age Batman -Superman (all volumes…both Sundays & Dailies) -Alley Oop (Sundays) -E.C. Segar’s Popeye (missing volumes 5 & 6) I think that’s about it… My favorite is Calvin and Hobbes, followed by Peanuts. My favorite adventure strip is Terry and the Pirates. I also own a few pieces of original comic strip art: Rip Kirby (Alex Raymond); X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan (Al Williamson); and Bloom County (Berkeley Breathed)
Orson Welles was a fan of Milton Caniff's "Terry and the Pirates." What's really amazing when you read the series from the beginning is to note how quickly it developed from a simple kid's adventure strip to a beautifully rendered World War II saga with great dialog, mature-themes and adult characters. Caniff was called "the Rembrandt of the Comic Strip" and he--with an assist from Noel Sickles--turned "Terry" into an influential and important work of illustrated American Literature.
Nice to see a call out for Rip Kirby. That was one of my favorites growing up, but it appeared in none of the papers in places I lived after leaving my childhood home. I was sad to see that it had ended by the time I discovered online comics sites. To this day, I occasionally refer to what Desmond the butler described as the butlers' international distress signal, "The Duchess of Yonkers is coming to tea." Get Fuzzy showed up in my hometown paper after I left, and I remember Mom and Dad going on about how much they liked it. Not too long ago I started taking (digitally) a paper that carries it, and to be honest I haven't been overwhelmed, although it has its moments. Did it have a change of artist/author? If so, that would explain a lot. I think Hagar the Horrible has done; the art style abruptly changed recently. Mind you, I'd been finding it pretty lame for quite a long time now and was still reading it mainly from habit. The Phantom--another favorite from my youth. "Mr. Walker--for the ghost who walks." I stumble into it now and again on those occasions when I venture into comic strips on line (I'm still primarily a paper reader), but I haven't really followed it in years for the same reason I lost track of Rip Kirby, failure of local papers to carry it. I remember a kinda so-so movie based on it came out years back, which I saw on TV and reasonably enjoyed but never felt the need to revisit. [Edit] One appearing in that digital paper that has caught my fancy, at least for now, is called Phoebe and Her Unicorn. I gather it's intended as a kids' comic, but it's really cute; I get a smile out of the artwork, and the situations, at least so far, have been off-kilter enough to keep me chuckling.
Darby Conley drew and wrote "Get Fuzzy" its entire tenure. As far as "Hagar the Horrible," if you didn't know, the artist Chris Browne became too sick to draw the strip (he took over from his dad, Dik Browne, in 1988) and he ended up dying on Feb. 4.
Darby Conley was the author / artist all the way through, but there is an evolution in style from the earlier days. Even Bucky would have a moment or two of showing some "normal" cat behavior early on, but got progressively more disturbed as the series went on. As Oatsdad said in post 15, the strip petered out. First there were alternating weeks of reruns intermingled with original strips, and then originals were only on Sundays, then it was all reruns. I never saw any reasons given, anything online is appears to be speculation. It's a strip which could easily run out of ideas - how many different ways can Bucky torture those around him - but they had a pretty decent cast of characters which would've helped keep variety (the ferret next door, Manx, etc)
Didn't know that, and sorry to hear it. Thanks for the update. And thanks to you for that. I just came back to this thread after months away, and I'd forgotten the earlier posting. I'll go back and reread it.
Fun thread! Definitely some blasts from the past. Used to love the Sunday paper that used to have expanded versions of the strips shown during the week. Dick Tracey, Dagwood, Li'l Abner, Prince Valiant, Steve Canyon...I remember one of my earliest exposures to Superman and Batman came through their comicstrip adventures, For some odd reason I can only remember that they were in B&W, and I loved the look!
Yeah, I think I did some attempted Internet sleuthing when this thread ran last year and could never find out anything about what happened to Conley. Took a quick look right now and see nothing concrete - he just stopped. Weird. Can't think of another case where a success strip just ended without some indication of why.
