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Comic strips in 2011

Benjamin Grimm Jan 01 2011 05:36 AM

Brenda Starr follows Little Orphan Annie into retirement tomorrow. (Can Dick Tracy be far behind? And what about Gasoline Alley?) I haven't read Brenda in years, but she was a longtime staple in both the Daily News and Newsday when I was a kid. I wonder if she'll close with a happy-ever-after with Basil St. John? Brenda, over the years, from the Chicago Tribune.

Valadius Jan 01 2011 06:28 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Honestly, it's an absurdity that they still allow Gasoline Alley to be printed in newspapers, considering that its lead character would be the oldest man in the world by now.

Edgy DC Jan 01 2011 06:32 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Easy now. Who are "they"? Brenda had been retired before, hadn't she?

Benjamin Grimm Jan 01 2011 07:00 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Edgy DC wrote: Brenda had been retired before, hadn't she? I don't think so... from the couple of articles I read it looks like she's been running continuously for 70 years. Maybe you're thinking of the retirement of her creator, Dale Messick?

Benjamin Grimm Jan 04 2011 08:18 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

It's always interesting (to me, at least) when a newspaper drops one of the "legacy" strips. With yesterday's edition, the New York Daily News has dropped Beetle Bailey in favor of Red & Rover. At least two "Voicers" disapproved: Reenlistment I Fairfield, Conn.: Please bring "Beetle Bailey" back. Not only are Beetle, Sarge and General Halftrack funny, their Army unit has never been deployed in an armed conflict. Save Camp Swampy! Priscilla Prentice Reenlistment II Seattle: "Beetle Bailey" is absolutely relevant today with so many of our armed forces serving overseas. Please don't stop running it. Sprout Hochberg Beetle Bailey... relevant? Absolutely relevant??? Get back to me when Beetle and his friends hit the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Edgy DC Jan 04 2011 08:23 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

To be fair, R&R is a weak and unfunny Calvin knockoff.

Benjamin Grimm Jan 04 2011 08:36 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I've only read it twice, and it's not looking all that promising.

Edgy DC Jan 04 2011 09:43 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

How did Brenda go out?

Benjamin Grimm Jan 04 2011 10:13 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Looks like she got a flower from Basil St. John:

Benjamin Grimm Jan 09 2011 06:25 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

There was a surprising number of skunks in the Daily News comics section this morning.

Edgy DC Feb 07 2011 10:49 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

The Daily Bugle, long a Spider-World stand-in for The Daily News, has pretty much captured the daily responsiblity theer sports editor has, perpetually reserving space to report on the Yankees getting "CHEERS" for doing "SOMETHING."

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 07 2011 11:24 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

CHEERS: Yankees Drink Something, Go On Centaur-Flavored Terror Spree

metirish Feb 08 2011 01:12 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Loving the Chrome OS and the Chrome Web Store.....there are two great apps for comics, and they are free https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... ncoeljcmhp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... hihokmkice

Edgy DC Feb 22 2011 08:27 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Wow. They went there.

Edgy DC Feb 22 2011 08:32 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

The Comics Curmudgeon wrote: Today’s strip is mainly notable because “doze” is spelled “dose.” Presumably this is because, come on, who the hell would bother to edit Dick Tracy, ...

Benjamin Grimm Feb 25 2011 10:03 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

The Curtis storyline takes a dramatic turn today. Meanwhile, we're reminded at least four times a week of what an asshole Dustin's father is.

Willets Point Feb 26 2011 02:54 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Ted Forth as Charlie Sheen:

Benjamin Grimm Feb 28 2011 11:24 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

The Daily News, which once had four pages of comics, and has been running three for the past few years, today dropped down to a mere two pages. (This may have been a printing glitch, but I don't think so, since there's been a realignment of the remaining features.) Lost in today's bloodbath are: Rose Is Rose, Curtis, Close to Home, The Flying McCoys, Lockhorns, Marmaduke, Over the Hedge, Sherman's Lagoon, F-Minus, Dustin, Tundra, and Real Life Adventures. New panel added today: Between the Lines. The survivors are: Zits, Jump Start, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, One Big Happy, Doonesbury, Red and Rover, Argyle Sweater, Soup to Nutz, Gasoline Alley, Get Fuzzy, Dilbert, Pearls Before Swine, Blondie, and Mutts. Close to Home, The Flying McCoys, Real Life Adventures, and Between the Lines are all single-panel strips with no recurring characters, and are pretty much indistinguishable. (At least to me.) F-Minus and Tundra also have no recurring characters. (Strange that there are more and more features like this lately; it sort of takes merchandising off the table, except in unique cases, like The Far Side.) It's especially amazing that Gasoline Alley is hanging in there. If ever a strip was due to be euthanized, it's that one.

Edgy DC Mar 17 2011 08:11 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I'd like to thank Crock for celebrating St. Patrick's Day by reminding us that the Irish in the French Foreign Legion were as disposable as a spent tissue. I'm surprised they waste bullets on poor McGee instead of sapping him out in the desert and leaving him to the vultures. At least I can count on Blondie to give me some cheerie authentic traditional Irish slang like "dissin'."

metirish Mar 21 2011 09:29 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Those are awful , here is someone trying to buck the trend of the Irish stereotype in comics. Just in time - a new breed of Irish superhero Anyone remember the Irish superheros mentioned here?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 21 2011 09:57 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Banshee and Jack O'Lantern. Oh, and Cassidy the vampire. The Preacher books are hilariously profane; if your tastes permit you to enjoy REALLY black humor, I highly, highly recommend them. (Anything by Garth Ellis, really.)

Edgy DC Mar 21 2011 10:00 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Preacher rubbed me the wrong way. Cassady was a bit of a stereotype too.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 21 2011 10:06 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I can see that-- the ethos can be a bit... problematic. (Put another way... I love Preacher, but a good number of the people who dig it as well rub me the wrong way. Does that scan?) And yes, Cassidy/Cassady(/Cassidey?) has the glint of the stereotype. But... um... there's a good amount of other stuff there as well.

Benjamin Grimm Mar 21 2011 11:11 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Wasn't Banshee Scottish?

Edgy DC Mar 21 2011 11:16 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

No. He was named Sean Cassady (with that spelling, I think), and smoked a stupid long pipe. His wife was killed in an IRA bombing.

metirish Mar 21 2011 11:19 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Wasn't Banshee Scottish? maybe you are thinking of Shamrock RISH SUPERHEROES are nothing new. Back in the 1980s, Marvel Comics created Shamrock, a flame-haired Dunshaughlin lass called Molly Fitzgerald, who donned a skintight green costume to fight crime with her superpower – the luck of the Irish. She had an inexplicable Scottish accent (“Hello lassies!

Benjamin Grimm Mar 21 2011 11:28 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Nah, I'm not familiar with Shamrock. And I'm afraid I probably couldn't tell an Irish accent from a Scottish accent. I checked on Wikipedia, and Banshee is indeed Irish. I think I was probably thinking of Moira MacTaggert when I was thinking of Scottish X-Men related characters.

Edgy DC Mar 29 2011 10:05 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

What is the implication here?

Benjamin Grimm May 20 2011 05:43 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

All the cultural references in Red and Rover seem to be about forty years out of date.

Edgy DC May 24 2011 08:53 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Bill Rechin passes away. Rechin was the creator of Crock --- a strip I never got. It had an interesting setting --- the French Foreign Legion --- but nothing else that made sense to me, and yet ran for decades. It was like The Wizard of Id, only not as well drawn and not funny. His son will natch carry on the work. And hopefully, like Blondie, he'll make something more of it.

Benjamin Grimm May 27 2011 07:35 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Mort Walker, or whoever is currently drawing Beetle Bailey, has been consistently horrible at drawing animals for many many years.

Edgy DC May 27 2011 07:57 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Jack Elrod, on the other hand, can handle the fauna, but not the humana.

Valadius May 27 2011 08:23 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Well considering the only "work" Jack Elrod does is editing out cigarettes and pipes and splicing in random shots of terrifyingly huge forest-monsters into recycled strips of yesteryear, I would say he hasn't had time to work on his humana.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 05 2011 07:16 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I never read Prince Valiant, but today's guest appearance by Laurel and Hardy caught my eye.

cooby Jun 06 2011 07:13 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Do it John! Tell Mark Trail to go f*** himself!

Edgy DC Jun 27 2011 07:56 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Willets Point Jun 27 2011 08:22 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

"Yeah, we couldn't believe Ziggy would last 40 years either so we were unable to come up with a caption."

Edgy DC Jun 27 2011 08:33 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

The Comics Curmudgeon wrote: Hey, everybody, are you going to enter the Ziggy 40th anniversary contest? Here’s my caption: OH MY GOD ZIGGY IS EATING A CAKE SHAPED LIKE HIS OWN FACE OH MY GOD

Benjamin Grimm Jun 27 2011 08:33 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

"My giant malformed head looks even uglier in cake format!"

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 27 2011 11:56 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

"Would you eat me? I'd eat me. I'd eat me hard." [Calliope rendition of "Goodbye Horses" plays in background]

metsmarathon Jun 27 2011 12:19 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

"icing boogers, cool!"

metsguyinmichigan Jun 29 2011 07:48 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

And we lit a candle for each funny strip in the last 40 years. No, we won't need a second one.

Willets Point Jul 08 2011 07:33 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Bow before Edgy. Bow, I said!

Edgy DC Jul 08 2011 07:55 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

HOLY CRAP!

Willets Point Jul 08 2011 08:07 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Edgy DC wrote: HOLY CRAP! Well, yeah, it is Crock.

Valadius Jul 09 2011 11:59 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Congrats Edgy.

Edgy DC Jul 09 2011 04:25 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

“That’s great, honey — we just need to take that energy and pour it into something that, you know, makes money.” --- Ms. Edgy

Benjamin Grimm Aug 13 2011 07:47 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I like how Charlie Brown's cap pops off his head at the thought of Willard Mullin.

Edgy DC Aug 13 2011 08:04 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Cartoonists are a tight fraternity. They think there's no funnier joke than to reference each other. Surprised nobody mentioned Luann's exciting adventure in the tub this week.

Benjamin Grimm Aug 13 2011 08:28 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I think if this strip had been created today, Lucy's ambition would have been different.

Edgy DC Aug 13 2011 10:27 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Lucy's Lucy, man. Whatever ambition she would have, it would involve being worshipped and doing as little work as possible. Funny to see the 'Nuts in four frames again.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 13 2011 12:25 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Edgy DC wrote: Lucy's Lucy, man. Whatever ambition she would have, it would involve being worshipped and doing as little work as possible. Minnesota congresswoman?

Edgy DC Aug 13 2011 12:36 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Now stop.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 13 2011 12:38 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Willets Point Aug 17 2011 07:27 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Whenever I see a gang of clean-cut white kids on skateboards I run as fast as I can. When they arrive you know the neighborhood has gone downhill and you can only expect gentrification, Abercrombie & Fitch outlets, and a new Apple store.

Edgy DC Aug 17 2011 07:57 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I'm guessing she and Bobby break up when he complains about her grabbing the crotches of other boys while riding the skateboard. "It's not my fault! Blame the artist! You know he can't do perspective!" Speaking of which, where's her right elbow in panel two. The thing about these flashbacks --- I'm also thinking of the one by the drunken bridesmaid a few months back --- is that they make more sense if you think of it as playing out not as recalled in the story teller's imagination, but as interpreted in Mary's imagination. "My childhood was fun and full of love..." they start, and Mary's mind starts painting the picture. "Mm-hmm. I'm seeing that. You in your impossibly homogeneous 100% white culture. Everybody has clean, neat hair and sensible clothes. But nothing too ornate or chintzy. Tasteful. You must have been very happy."

themetfairy Aug 26 2011 12:44 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

This is far from 2011. But I found it today, in my son's files, while I was looking for some paperwork that he'll need when we drive him to college tomorrow...

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 26 2011 11:07 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Meanwhile, inside his thought bubble, OldDad's thinking, "I couldn't be prouder of my encephalitic son."

cooby Oct 12 2011 12:28 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

what kind of madman slaps a kitty around?

cooby Oct 16 2011 09:46 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

If I had waited 10 years to see my pro hockey or soccer or whateverthehell playing boyfriend again, I would def do something different with my hair.

MFS62 Oct 16 2011 11:21 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

cooby wrote: If I had waited 10 years to see my pro hockey or soccer or whateverthehell playing boyfriend again, I would def do something different with my hair. Coob, following someone (especially an old flame) for 10 years puts you into the category of stalker. Later

Edgy DC Oct 16 2011 01:41 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Gina looks like an undersized Chinese matron in panel three.

Edgy DC Oct 19 2011 07:47 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Six Chix features six different author/artists each day of the week. I've written above how I'm not a fan, but I've got to saulte the Wednesday chick's willingness to go there --- there being mining humor from BDSM themes on your family's funny pages. That's two weeks in three, Wednesday chick. They're on to you.

Edgy DC Nov 07 2011 08:35 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

More Luann hijinx: Irrischano wrote: “Um…something white?” was also Lu Ann’s response when asked what she was looking for in a husband.

metirish Dec 01 2011 10:04 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Superman comic sold for $2m http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing38.html

Edgy DC Dec 02 2011 08:03 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I'm a bad man.

cooby Dec 03 2011 10:47 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Haha! Edgy that is great! And quite right! So, does anybody think Kelly Welly will get what she rightfully deserves, taking a bear for a walk?

Edgy DC Dec 11 2011 02:52 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Brenda Starr follows Little Orphan Annie into retirement tomorrow. (Can Dick Tracy be far behind? And what about Gasoline Alley?) Dick Tracy is just so inauthentic. I mean, I know that if Dick was pointing some sort of terrifying double-decker revolver at me, unlike Fake-Flattop here, I would probably steel my nerves with a few bars of "Bette Davis Eyes" or possibly "Turning Japanese." Maybe.

Benjamin Grimm Dec 19 2011 02:18 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Here's a person who is still alive, former Dondi artist Irwin Hasen, as profiled in the New York Times last week: At 93, Still the ‘Staff Artist’ Julie Glassberg for The New York Times The Particulars NAME Irwin Hasen AGE 93 WHERE HE’S FROM New York WHAT HE IS Former illustrator of the "Dondi" comic strip TELLING DETAIL He stands just 5 feet 2 inches. "What meant the most to me was having a tall woman, so I could walk into a restaurant and have everyone’s head turn," he said. IRWIN HASEN, 93, says the happiest moment in his life came early one morning in September 1955, when he had just begun drawing the comic strip "Dondi." "I was on 42nd Street and I saw a newspaper truck roll by, with a huge poster of Dondi on the side," he recalled. "Just to see that kid’s face on the truck, to see him being delivered to newsstands all over the city. I’m telling you, I cried." From 1955 to 1986, Mr. Hasen spent nearly every day drawing the character, a lovable war orphan, for the syndicated daily strip that at its peak was carried by more than 100 newspapers. Now, fresh Dondi cartoons are published only on the walls of the Nectar Café at Madison Avenue and 79th Street, where nearly every morning for the past 30 years Mr. Hasen has arrived at 8:30 on the dot to sit at the same stool at the counter. Dondi’s endorsements of the diner, and cartoon versions of its employees, are posted above the grill and on the menu rack. "I call it Café Hasen " I’m the staff artist," said Mr. Hasen, who lives a block away. He has a corresponding evening constitutional: his 5:30 jaunt to the bar at Bistro Le Steak, on Third Avenue and 75th Street, for a martini. "I’m a creature of habit," Mr. Hasen said last weekend, still in his hat and raincoat, with his cane, hooked over his forearm, dangling as he ate two eggs sunny-side up. "I don’t like to eat alone, and this is how I keep in touch with the real world." Indeed, the place was bustling with the usual clientele " millionaires, doormen, tourists, celebrities, deliverymen " and Mr. Hasen bantered with many of them. At the counter, the actor and writer Ethan Hawke finished breakfast alone, barely turning a head. Mr. Hasen was born in New York City in 1918, grew up on West 110th Street and studied classical drawing. By the time he was 15, his family had "lost everything" in the Great Depression, he said, and he began sketching prizefighters full time for magazines. "At a young age, I was suddenly around a seamy bunch of people " gangsters, fight promoters, champion boxers," said Mr. Hasen, who then segued, as nearly every topic of conversation leads to a corresponding ribald tale, into how he lost his virginity at age 15 when Frankie Carbo, a gangster-promoter known as Mr. Gray, walked into a magazine office and noticed a young, pimply-faced Hasen. "In those days, if you had pimples, that meant you needed sex," Mr. Hasen said. "Mr. Gray gave my boss $20 and said, ‘Take the kid uptown,’ which meant, ‘Take him to a prostitute.’ " By the 1940s, Mr. Hasen was a staff illustrator for the biggest comic books of the day, working with teams of now-legendary illustrators, dreaming up new heroes and villains and gimmicks and plots, he said, while walking up a set of creaky, carpeted stairs to an apartment door marked with a drawing of himself and Dondi together. Mr. Hasen lives alone, and the centerpiece of the apartment is his small, cheery bar, at the ready with Scotch and martini mixings. He never married or had children. The strip was like a son. The 31 years of drawing a strip a day were a draining but exciting daily grind. He had always wanted to make it big, and finally, with his pen, he was somebody. And then it all ended, on June 8, 1986, with circulation and his pay both dwindling, and the strip’s original writer, Gus Edson, long dead. Mr. Hasen still has all the clippings and many original storyboards in the closet, under his hats. He took some out and stared at them, then stepped to the bar. He poured a Scotch on the rocks, gave a toast " "Mother’s milk!" " and downed it. Just as Dondi never aged, Mr. Hasen, by his account, has still never grown up. His height, or lack of it, kept him out of combat in World War II. With the women, it both helped and hurt. "To this day, I have no idea why they liked me, but they did," he said. "Being short, that was my shtick." Instead of family pictures, his walls are covered with his sketches of the naked likenesses of his girlfriends. It is his favorite topic, all the girls he’s loved, and all the joy and regret they left him with. "She was a fling," he said pointing to one. "That’s the one that got away," he said of another. One illustration depicts a veritable harem of past girlfriends " all tall, buxom and naked. Drawn tiny in the corner is the laughing Mr. Hasen, bringing in a tray of martinis. "I didn’t want much," he said. "I just wanted to be loved by everyone."

Edgy DC Dec 19 2011 02:37 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

No longer alive is Eduardo Barreto, Jr., whose figure drwaingand shading turned Judge Parker from the boringest thing on the comics page to the zexiest. You could hardly understand how the smug, rich, and ravishing folks in Parker could keep their hands off each other. Also with a heckuva a legacy in the superhero funny books.

Frayed Knot Dec 19 2011 07:01 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

I met Irwin Hasen several decades ago and would have sworn he was in his nineties back then. Oh, and the 5' 2" is generous.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Dec 19 2011 09:02 PM Re: Comic strips in 2011

Edgy DC wrote: No longer alive is Eduardo Barreto, Jr., whose figure drawing and shading turned Judge Parker from the boringest thing on the comics page to the zexiest... Also with a heckuva a legacy in the superhero funny books. I have a bunch of his Titans and Batman run-- including a memorably gritty issue about a snuff-film producer-- in my mother's basement some'eres.

Edgy DC Dec 30 2011 07:26 AM Re: Comic strips in 2011