If you could take one comic strip out of the newspaper forever ...

[Dan]

... which one would it be?

My vote? Family Circus. Glurgey by today's standards, and corny by even the standards of the 1960s, Family Circus has a tendancy to repeat certain signature cliches over and over and over and over and over and overr again ... Billy's footprints, Grandpa looks down from Heaven, Billy draws comics, "not me!" and so on.

Cathy is another one I'd save ink on. C'mon ... "This bathing suit doesn't fit," dieting, shopping, and "ack!" ... she's chubby and insecure. We get it already. See a therapist, get some liposuction, cut up the credit cards, and shut up already.

 

[el Guapo]

Those are the ones. Well those and Bettle Baily.

 

[SGB]

The Wizard of Id

It's another comic strip that stopped using original humor too many years ago. The king's short height, the dungeon swill, Sir Rodney the Wimp, the pickled jester - it's all gotten very old.

 

[Richmond Jake]

Garfield

 

[BKM]

Mutts. One strip is enough to drive you into a diabetic coma.

The Fusco Brothers. Used to like it, but it now just seems lame.

 

[Mud Princess]

I'd concur with Garfield. Just not funny anymore.

Beetle Bailey is at least *trying* to catch up to the times - jokes about computers, dealing with sexual harassment, etc.

 

[biscuit]

Second! to getting rid of Beatle Bailey and Family Circus. Neither one is funny and/or original. Others I would keep from cluttering up the daily comics (which is still the first part of the paper I read) is all of the drama and soap strips. When and to whom was Mary Worth, Rex Morgan MD, Mark Trail, etc... interesting or entertaining.

OT but related: To the Canadian Cyburbanites, Where in Canada is For Better or for Worse set?

 

[Dan]

The Fusco Brothers. Used to like it, but it now just seems lame.

Except this one.

 

[donk]

Andy Capp

i have never understood it or found it funny. Either images of a guy sleeping o the couch (or passed out) him dressed to play soccer or leaning against a bar. I bet they use the same picture over and over again and just white out the text.

 

[Downtown]

HATE Family Circus. Especially the strips where billy is running all over the neighborhood, as evidenced by the dotted line. How is this funny?

Also never understood Prince Valient.

 

[Mastiff]

... which one would it be?

My vote? Family Circus. Glurgey by today's standards, and corny by even the standards of the 1960s, Family Circus has a tendancy to repeat certain signature cliches over and over and over and over and over and overr again ... Billy's footprints, Grandpa looks down from Heaven, Billy draws comics, "not me!" and so on.

Cathy is another one I'd save ink on. C'mon ... "This bathing suit doesn't fit," dieting, shopping, and "ack!" ... she's chubby and insecure. We get it already. See a therapist, get some liposuction, cut up the credit cards, and shut up already.

Cartoons have gone to hell since Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes left the sceen. Aside from the ones above (and you nailed them) I'd bag "Frank & Ernest"... then "Nancy".

On a side note, if you've never had a look at "Dysfunctional Family Circus", it's worth it (I know, I mentioned it before)... I just howl at some of the lines.

WARNING: This link will have some lewd connotations.

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/trondog/dfc.html

 

[nerudite]

I would like Marmaduke and Ziggy to be deep sixed.

 

[Wannaplan?]

Mutts. One strip is enough to drive you into a diabetic coma.

No! I love that comic!

I already own one color Sunday edition compilation book of Mutts. I agree about the sugar and goodness aspect of it, but the art is actually good, panel-to-panel transitions are creative and dynamic, and there is always more than just a bunch of talking heads occupying three predictable panels.

Speaking of which, let's get rid of Dilbert already, please?! Scott Adams hasn't had a creative idea in ages, and he preaches to the choir. I want to like that cartoon, but for me, it always falls flat and feels like uninspired hack-work.

 

[Wm.J.Lufred]

Zippy The Pinhead
enough with the big muffler guys already... One time it's amusing. As the basis for a career???

 

[SW MI Planner]

I agree with Deb about Marmaduke. I absolutely *HATE* that cartoon.

 

[Planderella]

Ditto to everything said so far. I'd also like to add:

"For Better or Worse"
"Dennis the Menace"
"Hi & Lois"
"Funky Winkerbean"

 

[Jeff]

Cathy .... see ya!

 

[Jessie-J]

Ziggy and Garfield.

Both depressing, lame, never entertaining. Ziggy just makes me want to cut my wrists! I used to think they were funny at some point in my life and I can't seem to figure out why.

 

[Repo Man]

I can't remember the last time I read the comics section. If I had to vote I would say Family Circus. My favorite comic is Red Meat, found in the Onion and in other alternative papers.

 

[DecaturHawk]

Tired strips with the same basic storylines, day after day:

Cathy
Blondie
Ziggy
Family Circus
Marmaduke
The Born Loser

And, could we please get all of the newspapers to let Charles Schulz rest in peace and stop running "Classic Peanuts"? I will never fathom the popularity of that strip (although I must admit that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is a classic). The strip was rarely funny and it also recycled the same tired formulas. Please, the guy is gone now, let it go, OK?

I'm also sick of "Doonesbury." That anti-establishment stuff was cute and dangerous and funny when I was in high school and college, now it just sounds like ranting. Trudeau still has some good moments, but his lambasting of anyone with whom he disagrees is tiresome.

There are some good ones, though. Best of all, IMHO, is Rick Detoires "One Big Happy". Also good are "Foxtrot" and "Baby Blues." I still enjoy "Dilbert", and I like "For Better or for Worse" as well.

 

[BKM]

There definitely seems to be a consensus about the "1950s style" comics. Marmaduke and Dennis The Menace are very tired.

I actually like For Better or Worse.

There is a weird circle of us here at work that religiously follow the strip "Luanne" Its a wierd in-joke, because there is no reason for a 40-year old to care about the problems of a high school freshman.

Red Meat rules! Predictably, I also like other indie strips like This Modern World (he has a great blog, too), and for a real dose of paranoia, Ted Rall.

 

[jmf]

OT but related: To the Canadian Cyburbanites, Where in Canada is For Better or for Worse set?

" small city in Southern Ontario" according to the For Better for Worse website. I quite like the strip myself but I think it has paralleled some of the things my family has gone through which makes it a little more interesting.

I agree that Family Circus should go, also Garfield. I also don't get much out of Blondie - same things over and over again.

I also don't like Six Chix.

I think it has all gone downhill since Calvin and Hobbes stopped running.

 

[Wm.J.Lufred]

Not ALL down hill.
Boondocks!

 

[Chet]

Pickles.

 

[Tranplanner]

Family Circus, Dennis the Menace, Peanuts, and Marmaduke all get the boot from my comics page...

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Hi & Lois; arf!

 

[NHPlanner]

I don't like comics much, but please don't get rid of Tank McNamara!

 

[pandersen]

Comics I Want Brought Back

Herman
Calvin & Hobbs

 

[SkeLeton]

For the ones to be booted: Garfield, it's just so boring

Comics I want back: Calvin and Hobbes.. too good to go...

Webcomics i like:
-Sinfest (www.sinfest.net)
-MegaTokyo (www.megatokyo.com)

 

[giff57]

For the ones to be booted: Garfield, it's just so boring

Comics I want back: Calvin and Hobbes.. too good to go...

I miss The Far Side

 

[biscuit]

I miss The Far Side

And Bloom County. One of my favorites.

 

[Maister]

I have such a very hard time picking only one, but if I am forced to pick only one I say let it be Apartment 3-G. Although I could just as easily have said, Rex Morgan M.D., Mary Worth, Prince Valiant, Judge Parker or any other 'serialized' soap opera style comic with realistic drawings.

As for regular three or four panel 'funny' strips go, I'd have to say Garfield deserves the axe more than any other strip. Other strips are equally insipid, but Garfield's wide distribution, and aggressive merchandising efforts (e.g. 'I don't do Mondays' Garfield coffee cups or t-shirts) ensures this worn out, hackneyed, forumulaic strip is never very far from your consciousness.

 

[Rygor]

I would axe pretty much all of the ones mentioned. I'd add to that list "The Lockhorns". We get it. You hate your spouse. Just get a divorce already! I also never really understood the appeal of Andy Capp.

My all-time faves are Bloom County/Outland, The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbs, Dilbert, Red Meat, This Modern World, Slowpoke, and The Oatmeal.

 

[otterpop]

Our local paper has a bunch of crappy comic strips - I think the publisher must get them really cheap or is getting kickbacks. But by far W.T. Duck sucks the worst. A duck who is a photographer. Must be a concept good for, I don't know, three strips.

 

[beach_bum]

I would axe pretty much all of the ones mentioned. I'd add to that list "The Lockhorns". We get it. You hate your spouse. Just get a divorce already! I also never really understood the appeal of Andy Capp.

My all-time faves are Bloom County/Outland, The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbs, Dilbert, Red Meat, This Modern World, Slowpoke, and The Oatmeal.

I think the best comics are online these days...The Oatmeal is hilarious and I read the PhD comic in grad school.

 

[Maister]

As painful as it may be when it happens, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson had the right idea; the best time to retire a strip is while it's still funny and going strong. Go out on a high note rather than allow a strip to become a sad, tired, formulaic, mockery of itself. I may go to hell for saying this out loud, but even Schultz should have retired Peanuts some time in the mid-late 70's. My impression is that most cartoonists have at best maybe 8-10 years worth of good ideas for a strip in them. It seems patently unfair that a worn out comic like Garfield is carried by hundreds of papers and is taking up space that a talented, fresher and more inspired new cartoonist could use.

 

[Hink]

As painful as it may be when it happens, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson had the right idea; the best time to retire a strip is while it's still funny and going strong.

I think this is really true in comic strips, more so than other media. I can tell you that I love Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side. I think I love it so much is because I remember how funny it was.

When the jokes or the situations start to fade or repeat, it just makes a good thing slowly waste away.


Then there is Cathy, Family Circus, and a couple others that were never funny to me. How they ever existed is confusing to me.

 

[mgk920]

I used to like reading Doonesbury, but Trudeau lost me when he contracted his case of severe BDS in the early 'double-aughts'.

Mike

 

[btrage]

I'd probably just take all of them out, but I've never been a comic strip kind of guy. I used to read them as a kid, because I would read the newspaper from cover to cover. But I never found them funny or noteworthy.

 

[TexanOkie]

Andy Capp

i have never understood it or found it funny. Either images of a guy sleeping o the couch (or passed out) him dressed to play soccer or leaning against a bar. I bet they use the same picture over and over again and just white out the text.

[OT]He's makes a mean hot fry, though.

JK, they're pretty tame...[/OT]

 

[ofos]

Out with Henry, but bring back L'il Abner or at least several of the female characters including Daisy Mae, Moonbeam McSwine, Stupefyin’ Jones, and a few others.