Comic Strips

[Ella]

I always loved Herman. Not sure if they had it in the States. That was one funny strip.

[fantagrape]

My current favorites are Foxtrot and Baby Blues because they are my family in a nutshell. Dilbert was great once. Mr. grape was once a telecom cube dweller in another life and that strip used to be spot on every day.

Calvin and Hobbes rocks. It really grates to see all the Calvin ripoff pissing stickers in the back windows of cars. Dissing brands. Oh, the irony.

I loved Bloom County before it jumped the shark with the basselope. Seeing Opus in the Sunday paper now just makes me sad.

[Deleted]

I work with someone named Steve Dallas, who always makes me flash back to the late 80s when Bloom County was at its peak. I agree that today's version in the sunday papers is a pale imitation, much like modern Simpsons versus Old School Simpsons.

Still with the pasting Satchel's head crudely over Zebra's in the Get Fuzzy run. There needs to be a punchline. However, the setup did make me aware of Pearls Before Swine for the first time, which was obviously the point, and I'm glad to be introduced to the world of Zeeba Zeeba Eata. Even if they are quite explicit that the baby crocs are actually being killed, not just suffering usual cartoon injuries.

It is so out-of-character to see Satchel taking violent revenge on his tormentors. Satch is a New Testament, turn the other cheek type. Bucky would have a temperment better suited to swatting baby crocs, though it would be a break in continuity for any of his threats of physical violence to actually be effectively realized.

[marywebgirl]

The Get Fuzzy crossover really doesn't make much sense if your paper doesn't run Pearls Before Swine, though.

Seeing Opus in the Sunday paper now just makes me sad.

It gives me deja vu since he quite often copies a strip panel for panel from ye olde days. One that comes to mind in particularly is Steve's mom finding out that she's in his anxiety closet. I mean jeez he has to come up with one strip per week and he can't do any better than ripping off his old ideas?

[Deleted]

You can follow a lot of the currently available strips at www.comics.com. Thank goodness, or I would not have my daily Get Fuzzy updates, and would have to settle for "plot" developments in Luanne, Adam@Home, and Red Rover.

Luanne - Keeps running in circles. Some potential with Brad's love triangle, but too often interrupted by "Tiffany is a bi*ch" storylines.

Adam@Home - Does he really work out of the home? I think that is just a cover story he uses to justify sitting at home all day surfing the net and napping. I've never seen any indication of him doing any kind of actual work.

Red Rover - Why is this young child obsessed with 60s and 70s TV shows/pop culture? Was he raised by sitting him in front of Nick at Night every evening?

And it goes without saying that Marmaduke is still large and intrusive, Garfield is still lazy, and Hagar is still going through the motions.

[Deleted]

I didn't read Pearls Before Swine prior to this week so I was utterly confused by there suddenly being crocodiles in Satchel's bed. I had to ask a friend who does read Pearls Before Swine what the hell was going on. The crocs are hilarious though, so I'll probably keep reading it after the Get Fuzzy gag ends.

[emersende]

Darby Conley's portrayal of himself in Get Fuzzy looks exactly like Steve Dallas.

I would not have thought of that if not for this thread.

[ernestine]

I love comic strips and I hope to get this thread moving. Might not work, but I will try. What are your current top 3 favorite strips? Top five? Top ten? And why? They don't have to be syndicated. What's your all time favorite comic strip?

For me, My top three current strips are 9 Chickweek Lane, Monty, and Clear Blue Water. 9 Chickweed Lane isn't really funny, but it's drawn really well and the characters and storylines are really interesting. A quality strip that I wish my paper carried. Monty is probably the most consistently funny strip I've ever read. It's just so STRANGE! Honestly, I never know where he's going to go with it and I love that. Really REALLY good strip. I love Clear Blue Water because it's like she's writing about MY life! I AM Eve. This strip is both poignant and funny and it features an autistic child, which I LOVE.

To add to my top five, Pearls Before Swine and Doonesbury. PBS is usually very funny. My favorite characters are the crocs. It's so over the top and self-referential. What a great strip. Doonesbury is great. I love the storyline with B.D. and his amputated leg. I think he's done a brilliant job with portraying his anger and frustration and his post traumatic stress disorder. This strip ALWAYS makes a great point and it's really smart.

To round out the top ten, Big Top (always a great punchline), Pooch Cafe (So funny, and I love Poncho), C'est La Vie ( I think this is web only... it's up on the ucomics site though-- such a dark, dramatic strip and Mona's a GREAT character), PreTeena (I like this one for the art more than the writing) and Stone Soup (a good, solid, well-written strip). Notice I tend to go for strips written by women. Noticably absent is FBoFW. Used to be a favorite, now it's gone thoroughly downhill. So sad. Oh, and I forgot Pibgorn! It's web only, drawn by the same dude who does 9 Chickweed Lane. The art work's exquisite, and the storylines, while long, are interesting.

My favorite strip of all time is Calvin and Hobbes with Bloom County a close second and The Far Side almost in a dead heat.

So what are YOUR favorite comics and why? Maybe I'll be exposed to a few more to add to my favorites.

[spinsterliz]

Unfortunately, my paper seems to only carry mostly crap strips like "Rose is Rose" (you could get diabetes just from reading that sentimental mush) and "Hagar the Horrible" (Hagar's trying to get out of work again, and his wife is a nag again-ooh, real funny after 12 thousand likewise strips in a row). I liked "Monty" better when it was "Robotman." I'm still wondering why Robotman got written out of the strip abruptly. Must have been a copyright problem or something. I had a "Luanne" book way back in the early 1990s and liked it, but I only see it in the weekend papers now; what is up with Brad and that Toni chick with the nasty boyfriend? Hasn't Brad been after Toni for at least five years now? Seems pretty dull.

I love "Herman." I think it's the funniest strip ever. And it quit long before it totally burned out, which I appreciate. I also like "Mutts" even though it's not as good as it used to be; Mooch is so damn cute. I also like a strip called "Overboard" about pirates and their lazy dog Louie. Mostly I read it for Louie.

[topher]

Hasn't Brad been after Toni for at least five years now?

He finally gave up, yesterday.