When I was a wee lad (many a moon ago as I sit here less than 13 months away from my 50th birthday), I loved newspaper comic strips. Dick Tracy, Li'l Abner, Peanuts, (and, yes, even soap opera strips like Mary Worth)...I eagerly followed them all daily (just one of many reasons for a curious child to open the newspaper.) And on Sundays...glorious Sundays...the paper (back then, for me, it was the Los Angeles Times) came wrapped in a burst of dazzling primary colors, the comics calling to the eager eyes as well as the open hearts and bountiful imaginations of children of all ages.
Comic strips were fun then. They were clever and engaging and full of wit and whimsy, action and intrigue. Nowadays? Not so much.
I rarely even glance at the comic pages in my newspaper (now it's the San Diego Union-Tribune), it's too disheartening. Charles Schulz has died (and, to be honest, Peanuts had been on automatic pilot for years before that), Doonesbury has been relegated to the editorial pages, and the wry and wonderful Bloom County sailed off into the sunset.
And what is probably my favorite comic strip of all time, the incomparable Calvin and Hobbes, ended its (relatively) brief but astonishingly great run with Bill Watterson steadfastly adhering to the old showbiz adage to "always leave them wanting more."
The once-delightful comic pages of today filled with bland, tired, wholly un-amusing and uninvolving offerings...nothing that would capture the attention of an imaginative child...or of a cynically optimist adult.
All of this is preamble to my suggestion that you surf over to Brian Anderson's Dog Eat Doug site, home to the warm, and wonderfully rendered, daily comic strip of the same name. It's the tale of a dog, the long-suffering but philosophical Sophie, coping with a strange new arrival/rival: Doug, his owners' rambunctious new baby. It's filled with gentle good humor managing, despite the fact that its two principals are a dog and a baby, to be utterly charming and engaging rather than cloying.
I go to the site almost every day (the newest strip is always on the top of the page, previous strips are a mouse click away) and the strip almost never fails to make me smile, chuckle, or even laugh out loud. Just like good comic strips should.
9 comments:
Good afternoon, Mr. Willis. I had to drop in after getting wind of a rumor that someone had a great blog, and after reading the opening sentence I think the gossip may be true. I'll take some time later to read through the back issues, but for the moment I'll rest on this one. I got to tell you, I still follow the deep philosophic thoughts that the Sunday comics provides, even as I pine for Pogo and the rest of his gang in the swamp. Today's fare has changed; I'll agree.
But the lady Barb is right about Get Fuzzy. It's just so cat and dog. It's taken me awhile to adjust to Dilbert, admittedly, but I have, since I at least own a computer now. I always look forward to the bizarre adventures of Opus, and can hardly wait to see how life goes under the sea with Sherman's Lagoon. For Better or For Worse chronicles suburban life with wit and wonderfully-styled pen, and Zits does the same, zeroing in on what appears to be the goings-on of my own crazy 17 yo son. After this feast, and if I've managed to retained any will-power at all, I save Shoe for last, for here I feel at home among trees drawn in the manner as those of my beloved Walt Kelly, and here, for now I shall pause to roost.
Barb, Harry,
Thanks for pointing me to Get Fuzzy, it's a hoot! :-) Looks like the internet is new home for great comic strips.
I agree, Dog Eat Doug is one of the better comic strips I've seen on the web. I like Get Fuzzy but still, it almost never makes me laugh.
I've got a comic strip of my own, George. I only have time to update it twice a week, but who knows...maybe someday it'll move up to...three times a week.
Cartoon strips used to be funny and then they all became political or soapboxes for the personal agendas of the creators and ceased to be funny.
Even animated television cartoons aren't funny anymore. Somewhere along the line someone took the slapstick out and replaced it with dark foreboding characters and plots and changed the face of childhood for the recent generation.
People, kids and adults, need funny cartoons again.
While I love the art work in Dog Eat Doug, I can't say that I find it all that funny. Though, ever since Calvin and Hobbes, I think the bar has been raised quite high, and most (read all) other comics tend to come up lacking.
I particularly like Hastily Put Together over at http://www.hastilyputtogether.com . It reminds me of Gary Larson's The Far Side.
I particularly like Hastily Put Together over at http://www.hastilyputtogether.com . It reminds me of Gary Larson's The Far Side.
I know what you mean about "aging", Barb. That touch of realisim I find refreshing. But what appeals to me most, and of course this is just a personal preference, is both the loose and relaxed style of art, coupled with the more mundane aspects of life used as subject material; in a sense, an ideal blog, and with drawings. (not to mention that the artist is a woman, which is something rarely seen)
Now, I hope I'm not out of line here, but I would like to suggest some sort of campaign to help move the likes of the infantile art and story-line of Brewster Rocket: Space Guy to the bottom of the ocean, unless the ink happens to be poisonous. Maybe just force the kid that draws the strip to eat it?
I enjoy Kevin and Kell (http://www.herdthinners.com). It's an "interspecies family" where the father is a rabbit, the mother and son/stepson are wolves, the elder daughter is an adopted hedgehog, and the baby is a carnivorous rabbit. It's weird, it's funny, it's timely.
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