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Underground > Comic Books >

Funnies

pointless and uncalled for

16:14 / 17.12.01

So it seems that this place is the veritable safe haven for hardline graphic novel enthusiasts.

Anyone around here still enjoy the funnies, such as Doonesbury and Calvin and Hobbes?

16:24 / 17.12.01

I loved calvin and hobbes, but that sadly came to an end and there hasn't really been another newspaper strip (a form whose decline is steeper than that of comics) to take its place in my affections... Although i did read Gemma Bovary When it was orginally serialised in the guardian...

16:31 / 17.12.01

If... by Steve Bell is still the best cartoon strip going.

God, I'm such a cheerleader for Bell...

pointless and uncalled for

16:33 / 17.12.01

Yeah, I remember that, always entertaining.

16:37 / 17.12.01

I remain inexplicably fond of Pat Brady's Rose Is Rose. Brady, like Bill Watterson before him, is an amazing draftsman and can draw anything. Like George Herriman, he brings an uncalled-for level of design and invention to what is essentially a gag strip--and, like Herriman, he's created an entire visual vocabulary unto himself, and can produce 365 strips a year simply by ringing those changes in new and different combinations.

A

22:38 / 17.12.01

red meat is a favourite, albeit an occasionally disturbing one.

Matthew Fluxington

22:40 / 17.12.01

No one in the world of comic books or newspaper comics comes close to Ted Rall.

He is the fucking king.

Jack, I'm really amazed that you like Rose Is Rose. But probably just because I utterly loathe that strip...

[ 18-12-2001: Message edited by: Flux = American Aquarium Drinker ]

23:05 / 17.12.01

red meat is freekin' great and rose is rose has some stunning art! and i'm currently digging the Boondocks, and Shoot Me Now

Matthew Fluxington

23:28 / 17.12.01

I don't really care one way or the other about Rose Is Rose's art. The writing is twelve steps past trite and about one step away from insufferable... It's like the arty version of Family Circle!

I gained a lot more respect for Boondocks after seeing the collected editions...I don't think that comic works well on its own, but when you see it all together, it's fairly decent.

Ruben Bolling is tremendously talented.

Tom Tomorrow is pretty good. He has his moments.

I'm glad we've made it this far without someone mentioning (ugh!) Lynda Barry.

Jumping Jesus, I hate Lynda Barry...

[ 18-12-2001: Message edited by: Flux = American Aquarium Drinker ]

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

23:39 / 17.12.01

[ 18-12-2001: Message edited by: Jonny Suede ]

14:16 / 18.12.01

I loved, LOVED Bloom County and Outland. Berke Breathed does far too little work now.

For current stuff I don't think Liberty Meadows can be beat. That said, the newpaper strip is ending in January and it's moving solely to comics. Hopefully this will create a new market for the comic book.

(his capitalist-pig side said)

Zoom.

Matthew Fluxington

14:23 / 18.12.01

well, yeah, I'm sure Frank Cho actually will have a larger audience...that strip was in soooo few papers, and isn't in any New York/New Jersey/Connecticut papers that I'm aware of ... and that's A LOT of people just there...

Also, there's so much limitations on daily strips, he's better off going into full length comics for purely artistic purposes...

14:28 / 18.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Flux = American Aquarium Drinker:
I don't really care one way or the other about Rose Is Rose's art. The writing is twelve steps past trite and about one step away from insufferable... It's like the arty version of Family Circle!And KRAZY KAT was about a mouse that threw bricks at a cat. Your point?

Here's mine: It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it--that's what gets results.

15:00 / 18.12.01

"Tom the Dancing Bug" is very good.

Foxxy Feminist Fury

16:47 / 18.12.01

Jack, God love you, but "Rose Is Rose"?!?

Are you SERIOUS? Ugh, I can't stand it. I feel like it's the new "Cathy."

Me, I love Doonesbury, I'll always have a soft spot for Snoopy, and I also really like "For Better or For Worse" - kill me, I just really like the way Lynn Johnston draws.

Serious props for "The Boondocks" as well.

And I love making fun of "The Lockhorns."

15:27 / 19.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Flux = American Aquarium Drinker:
I'm glad we've made it this far without someone mentioning (ugh!) Lynda Barry.

Jumping Jesus, I hate Lynda Barry...

You'd better hope i don't make it to that NY Supermeet, son. And if I do, remember to bring a bag to carry your teeth home in.

I collect massive amounts of old school comic strips, and am now spending twice as much cash on strip reprints as I am on new comics. So far as what's currently in the papers, much as I agree with the negative statements regarding Rose is Rose, I still read it, if only because of Brady's stretching the form. Peanuts is just reprinting old strips, and I've got most all of them on my bookshelf, but if I didn't it would be top dog. For Better or Worse has much respect for being the only serial strip of any notwe still left on the funny pages, but I could do without the lame puns. My favourite daily would have to be Mutts. If there was any successor to Krazy Kat, well, the choice is obvious.

Since a few weeklies were mentioned, I would have to include Julius Knipl and Ernie Pook (though I do prefer Barry's earlier work, Flux).

16:21 / 19.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Foxxy Feminist Fury:
Jack, God love you, but "Rose Is Rose"?!? Are you SERIOUS? Ugh, I can't stand it. I feel like it's the new "Cathy."

Me, I love Doonesbury, I'll always have a soft spot for Snoopy, and I also really like "For Better or For Worse" - kill me, I just really like the way Lynn Johnston draws.

You condemn Rose is Rose and praise For Better or For Worse?

For shaaaaame!!

The guardian angel gags are great in Rose.

Boondocks rules the roost, of course.

Mutts is also kick-ass.
And the local paper prints something consistently funny called Sherman's Lagoon, about a goofy shark and his hermit crab buddy. Simple gags, but good ones.

I still, however, give full attention to Prince Valiant. No telling how much historical information in my head has gotten polluted by reading it, but I love it. Not as good as the Hal Foster years, but still....

Oh, and do yourselves a favor and go get some old Pogo collections. Preferably annotated ones. It rocks.

Foxxy Feminist Fury

16:43 / 19.12.01

quote:Originally posted by grant:

You condemn Rose is Rose and praise For Better or For Worse?

For shaaaaame!!

Yes, I saw the irony when I wrote my post. But I just really love Lynn Johnston's drawing style.

Matthew Fluxington

20:07 / 19.12.01

I'm sad that there are no other Rall fans here, by the looks of it. I'm really not kidding around....he is one of the best people working in the comics medium, period. End of sentence. Up there with Ware, Clowes, Morrison, and Moore, he is..

20:59 / 19.12.01

<crumpling with relief>

Ted Rall!!! That's his name... I have been looking for him for, like, ages! I totally fell in love with this hilarious cartoon he did about the way people in S.F. are about the city, but I mixed him up with Tom Tomorrow and he's been lost to me ever since.

You have *no* idea what this means to me.

Though I do like Lynda Barry, too. I don't like that beatnik dog poet, but somehow I am an exact cross between Marlys and Arna. What don't you like about her? Is it all the freckles on everyone?

Matthew Fluxington

09:07 / 20.12.01

Ted Rall did a really vicious satire of Lynda Barry one week, and it's in the Search & Destroy trade paperback...it pretty much sums up neatly everything I dislike about her work... Check it out. I'll see if I can find it online... That comic about SF Bay Area/Berkeley is in the Search & Destroy book too, it's called "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"...

Rall is just so fucking brilliant. I highly recommend his recent graphic novel 2024, and his weekly opinion column, in addition to his 3x weekly comics...

He's one of those guys, much like Daniel Clowes, who I can't even seem to find words to explain why I love them so much...

[ 20-12-2001: Message edited by: Flux = Depresso ]

09:07 / 20.12.01

Funny-pages anecdote:

A few weeks back my housemate didn't understand a bloody Family Circus cartoon, of all things. It amused me so much I cut it out and posted it on the fridge, as a humiliating reminder of his slow-wittedness. Since then I've been playing with him, replacing the cartoon with new ones that, through the magic of Adobe Photoshop, have been given all-new, completely nonsensical captions by me. I think he's caught on now, so the gag's over, but the look of intense confusion and frustration on his face as he peered at those meaningless counterfeit cartoons delighted me for days...

[ 20-12-2001: Message edited by: CameronStewart ]

09:07 / 20.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Flux = Depresso:

Rall is just so fucking brilliant. I highly recommend his recent graphic novel 2024, and his weekly opinion column, in addition to his 3x weekly comics...

My personal fave by Ted Rall is his "Revenge of the Latchkey Kids", which is absolutly spot-on about everything from deadbeat dads to 'the dignity of work' to lawyers. Anybody read any of his other books? I've been looking for that "Americans Admit The Worst Thing They've Ever Done!" book for awhile now....

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

09:07 / 20.12.01

Stuff all that Americano tosswank. Badly-drawn, often impenetrably British Bobbins is the blood-red way of the Ninja.

10:46 / 20.12.01

mutts is cute. they have collections of that over here.

i wish to god someone would collect the boondocks. every time i ever read that strip in an american paper, it made me laugh.

calvin & hobbes, natch. i used to have a great t-shirt. i cannibalised it for cushions. chip has one of them.

has anyone read the novel that lynda barry did? was it worth picking up?

10:57 / 20.12.01

Gary Larson used to be in one of the papers, am I the only person who likes his stuff?

14:55 / 20.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Kooky is a bad scamp:
i wish to god someone would collect the boondocks. every time i ever read that strip in an american paper, it made me laugh.

There are two collections: Boondocks, and Fresh For '01, You Suckas!

Oh, and on the Family Circus thing - that sounds brilliant.
A situationist zine at my college ran this "recaption the Family Circus" contest that was hysterical.

Murray Hamhandler

19:10 / 20.12.01

Boondocks is the best. I'm sure it's always on the verge of getting pulled from every newspaper it's in. I've been liking This Modern World since 9/11 because it's been very snarky and angry almost. Red Meat, sure. Just the hard-edged or sick strips for me, thanks.
Oh, and I like to keep up w/Luann.

Arthur Sudnam