Your Favorite Newspaper Comic?

Hello All,
I am 52 yrs. old and still love to read the
comics in the newspaper. My mom read them to
me before I could read, which led to a lifelong
love of newspapers.
What are your top 3 favorites?
Mine are...1.Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Pastis
2.Non Sequitur, by Wiley 3.Beetle Bailey by Mort Walker.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

I have several I like beyond three. But here goes...

1. For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

2. Arlo 'n' Janis by Jimmy Johnson (he must be observing me)

3. Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley

I don't get in my newspaper but will endorse Cleats by Bill Hinds for family tie reasons and many of the characters are named after my family members including Georgie my mothers name.

Whatever happened to Snuffey Smith, Lil Abner and Little Orphan Annie? Is Dick Tracy still around? Who was the Cave man?

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Even though Bill Watterson doesn't write/draw it anymore, Calvin & Hobbes is my all-time favorite. I miss it!!!

My top 3 that are no longer running are 1) Calvin and Hobbes 2) The Far Side 3) Peanuts

I like Dilbert, For Better and For Worse, Foxtrot, and Get Fuzzy.

One of the papers in my area still runs Snuffy Smith. It's not very good these days but they still run it.

The cave man was Alley Oop.

1. Garfield 2. Peanuts 3. Bloom County

Okay, got the Tribune comics section right here. In order:

1. Doonesbury- Anyone who thinks this is just liberal claptrap hasn't been paying attention lately.

2. Non Sequitur-Delightfully subversive.

3. Mutts-Love the style. It reminds me of some of the classic artwork from the comics of the early to mid 20th century.

4. Get Fuzzy-Great characters, excellent artwork.

5. Zits-Very well written and incredibly insightful. During our daughters' teenage years we clipped numerous strips and hung them on our refrigerator as a reminder that other parents were going through the same pain. Also, they made us laugh enough so we didn't kill our children.

6. Dilbert-Even though I haven't worked in a corporate environment for more than fifteen years I can still remember the madness. Dilbert is a daily reminder of what not to do if you're the boss.

7. Frazz-I don't know if this strip is very widespread. Too bad. It depicts elementary school age children who are well read and thoughtful. It tacitly encourages its readers to do the same.

8. For Better or Worse-Not the funniest strip on the page but it has developed nicely over the years. I now find myself caught up in these people's lives.

9. Blondie-This is the one old time strip I can tolerate. It's rarely funny and frequently repetitive; using the same jokes about Dagwood's eating habits, sleeping at work, being late for the carpool, knocking down the mailman as he runs out the door, etc. But there is a certain mathematical exactness in the artwork that appeals to my eye the same way a very precise rhythm appeals to the ear in some classical music.

10. Mr. Boffo-I love the dryness of this one cell strip. What most people do not realize is that the writer/artist of this strip does about five different daily strips, all different names and situations, that appear in different papers all over the country! Talk about prolific!

I read several other strips but these are the standouts. I'm a casual scholar on newspaper comics. I own numerous large tomes on the subject and love reading the old ones from 60 to 80 years ago. There was some remarkable artwork being done and it's really interesting to see how our culture and sense of humor was reflected in the strips back then.

Buddy

P.S. After reading some of the above posts I realized I had missed Bloom County which is now called Opus and only runs on Sunday which is why I forgot.

As for All Time Favorites, they would have to be, in no particular order: Doonesbury, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side. All of these represent the genius that is possible in eight inches or less of newspaper space.

B.

p.p.s. The above P.S. represents the "contemporary classics" After further reading of above posts I also need to mention Lil' Abner and Pogo. Two politically diametrically opposed strips, but both hilarious and absolutely brilliant!

b.

I too, like Dilbert, Doonesbury, and For Better or Worse. I enjoyed Buddy's comment on Dilbert. Yes Trudeau (sp?) may sometimes take a liberal view, but like the best editorialists, he is never in lockstep with the left or right. Because he is thought provoking rather than just entertaining, my local newspaper made the decision, many years ago, to put his comic on the editorial page. IMO, it was a good decision.

Bloom County
Calvin & Hobbs
Beetle Bailey / "Old" peanuts

For Better or Worse
Baby Blues
Jump Start
Funky Winkerbean
Six Chix
Adam@Home
Mutts

My favorites are

Dilbert
Shoe
Hagar
Blondie

Happy 4th of July!

Walt

Agnes
Baldo
The Boondocks
Doonesbury
The Duplex
For Better or For Worse
Foxtrot
Heart of the City
Lucky Cow
Mutts
One Big Happy
Pooch Cafe
Pre-Teena

The Buckets
Frazz
Get Fuzzy
Grand Avenue
LuAnn
Monty
Pearls Before Swine
Raising Duncan (Mr Mayor, are you aware of this one?)
Rose is Rose

I go to ucomics.com and comics.com

I take my cartoons very seriously.

Favorites are:
Peanuts
Beetle Baily
Shoe

Blondie
Beetle Baily
Marmaduke
Peanuts
The Lockhorns
Family Circle

Mine is Ziggy !!

go Ziggy, go!

I'm all about the comics!
My current three favorites? Probably Get Fuzzy, Lio, and Monty. And Pearls Before Swine. Oh yes, and Mutts - just plain loveable.
Ink Pen, Brewster Rockit: fairly new strips, not up there as fine artwork, but always good for some laughs.
Overboard, The Fusco Brothers: really at their best 10 years ago or so, but they get plenty of good will from me.

Mutts
Peanuts
Wizard of Id
Zits
BC

Hello All,
Sundancer, John Rose who now draws and writes the Snuffy Smith comic
works at the Daily-News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va., where I work as
a pressman, (ink monkey.)
Mr. Rose is our editorial cartoonist, and for a number of years drew
the Snuffy Smith comic secretly, and when the original creator decided
to retire, he turned the whole thing over to John Rose. He does an
excellent job, and I think it's funnier now.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Our high school mascot was a cartoon character out of Snuffy Smith. We were the Speedway Sparkplugs and Sparky the mule was the mascot. That was then. I don't know what is today because they'd probably sue the school. A high school in Minnesota got sued because their logo looked a lot like the University of Wyoming school logo of a cowboy on a bucking horse. That was just recently after twenty plus years of use by the high school.

The Wisconsin State Journal has a pretty decent selection for a single 2-column page. My favorite is Frazz but Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequitir, Real Life Adventures, Funky, Luann, etc. are all pretty good. Of the new ones (new to us, anyway) I like Retail (my wife works at Kohl's and we can identify with it) and Pooch Cafe. Stone Soup is OK and the jury's still out on Heart, Watch Your Head, The Flying McCoys (1 panel), and F Minus.

Of course, we have the classics like Hagar, Blondie, Garfield, and good ol' Rex Morgan, who's almost as hokey as Mary Worth.

I guess I might be in the minority but I'm not a Get Fuzzy fan. I like Satchel but Bucky's way too annoying and Rob's a milquetoast.

Brad

We don't have Rex Morgan or Mary Worth but we do have Judge Parker. Those are serial soap opera comic strips. The Judge in Judge Parker is rarely in the strip.

I kind of like the hokey Mark Trail serial mainly because of its outdoor theme. You can always tell who the bad guy is. He usually has scraggly unkempt hair and longer sideburns.

Since I am now a senior citizen I get some little pleasures out of Crankshaft and Pickles.

Why Agnes of course.

"Get Fuzzy". The funniest animal strip going, maybe one of the best ever.

"Dilbert". Consistently funny and at the same time close to the truth.

"FoxTrot". Sorry the strip has ended its daily run, but it was outstanding.

"Doonesbury". Insightful, character-driven, funny.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd


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I kind of like the hokey Mark Trail serial mainly because of its outdoor theme. You can always tell who the bad guy is. He usually has scraggly unkempt hair and longer sideburns.
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I like Mark Trail chiefly because with the haphazardly placed dialog balloons you often have talking giant woodland animals - once a potato even had a line!

quote:

Originally posted by jmckee

"Get Fuzzy". The funniest animal strip going, maybe one of the best ever.

"Dilbert". Consistently funny and at the same time close to the truth.

"FoxTrot". Sorry the strip has ended its daily run, but it was outstanding.

"Doonesbury". Insightful, character-driven, funny.

Yep, those would be my four favorites as well. Get Fuzzy is the greatest. I never really appreciated it until I met my current wife, who had a cat. Now I get it.

I've been reading For Better or For Worse all these years, so I stick with it. Can't say it is a favorite, but I read it daily.

John

quote:

Originally posted by Vince Macek

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd


-
I kind of like the hokey Mark Trail serial mainly because of its outdoor theme. You can always tell who the bad guy is. He usually has scraggly unkempt hair and longer sideburns.
-

I like Mark Trail chiefly because with the haphazardly placed dialog balloons you often have talking giant woodland animals - once a potato even had a line!

See: today's installment!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mark.asp?date=20070706

Who knew moose could be so verbose. I figured they only had a vocabulary of twenty words or so...

Buddy

"Calvin & Hobbes"
"Get Fuzzy"
"Mutts"
"Luann"
"Pickles"
"Doonesbury"

I miss Calvin & Hobbes. My son was that age when it was in the papers. Quite an imagination he had.

quote:

Originally posted by Vince Macek

quote:

Originally posted by Vince Macek

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd


-
I kind of like the hokey Mark Trail serial mainly because of its outdoor theme. You can always tell who the bad guy is. He usually has scraggly unkempt hair and longer sideburns.
-

I like Mark Trail chiefly because with the haphazardly placed dialog balloons you often have talking giant woodland animals - once a potato even had a line!

See: today's installment!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mark.asp?date=20070706

Yeah I noticed. Don't you love talking moose? I guess about every 4th panel or so he likes to throw in some wildlife and assume you know who is really doing the talking.

Yeah, I always thought the vocabulary for a moose consisted of, "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat"!