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Underground > Comic Books >

See you in the funny papers

  
  

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Eloi Tsabaoth
16:30 / 18.04.02
What comic strips do the people of Barbelith like to read? I'm interested in what's out there and what's popular.
Here's a few to start off:

Maakies- Tony Millionaire's lurid, nightmarish visual sea shanty.

Red Meat- Max Cannon's pop art knife wound. 'death rattle from a gallstone maraca'

Underworld- Kaz's demented yet sweet strip-joint.

And of course Calvin and Hobbes...
 
 
moriarty
17:13 / 18.04.02
There's a whole other thread on this here.

However, since I've been rereading huge amounts of comic strips recently, and you were kind enough to mention Calvin and Hobbes (a discontinued strip), I'll contribute an oldie.

Terry and the Pirates. I have a love hate relationship with this strip. On the one hand, it has heavy-handed patriotism that I find grating, and despite his status as the Rembrandt of comics, I prefer Sickles over Cainiff. However, damn if he doesn't get into the head of the little guy caught up in battle. Little throwaway characters with little throwaway dialogue that hits me right in the gut each time. The infamous Death of Raven Sherman episode still takes my breath away, and Nurse Taffy's plea for volunteers and medical supplies is superb.

"The Chinese are so happy that we are now in the fight they have kept going so long...When you think of how many of them have died for want of a simple sterile bandage we can buy back home..."

Possibly my favourite thing about Cainiff is his sense of pacing. The storylines flow and mix together in such a way that you never stop for a rest, and you never even notice that important characters have been off-stage for most of the time. It's almost flawless.

I'm hoping to snag another volume in my trip to Tornto this month.
 
 
Captain Zoom
17:17 / 18.04.02
Bloom County. Sherman's Lagoon. Liberty Meadows.
Though one's over, I don't get a paper that carries one, and the other's a comic now. Ah well, I tried.

Zoom.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
18:11 / 18.04.02
I dig Boondocks. It has the greatest "Can you guess what's wrong with this picture?" segments in the world. Foxtrot's not bad. Calvin and Hobbes was gold.
 
 
Steve Block
05:26 / 19.04.02
Not getting a news paper anymore, I miss Steve Bell's IF which runs in the Guardian. Having said that, it's just ocurred to me it may be online. Looks like only his political cartoons are.

I do check Drew Weing's daily journal online every day to get my fix.

I have a Maakies collection, and as ever, concur that Calvin and Hobbes ruled.
 
 
rizla mission
08:21 / 19.04.02
I'm not going to link to Pokey the Penguin.

Aren't I being good.

Also dug that Cat & Girl one.
 
 
Trijhaos
09:51 / 19.04.02
If we're talking about newspaper comics, then just Zits, and only on Sundays.

Damn you Watterson! Come back!

Online comics? Far too many to list here. Angst Technology , Unicorn Jelly
 
 
Eloi Tsabaoth
10:08 / 19.04.02
Angst technology reminds me of Penny Arcade.
 
 
The Strobe
21:41 / 19.04.02
Calvin and Hobbes is clearly seminal, and I've always liked Schultz' Peanuts.

But Penny Arcade just consumes me. Mainly because I find the strips AND the content great. It's weird, the web's my main method of reading comic _strips_ now. Which is in many ways a shame, but at least it brought PA to me.
 
 
Axel Lambert
11:32 / 20.04.02
MUTTS
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
02:41 / 01.05.02
OK...Mutts is very well done, and Zits is actually a wonderfully drawn strip that plays with the format. Boondocks and Doonesbury are must reads, but currently I am reading Fantagraphics Krazy Kat book, and it just astounds me that strips used to be this good, and noiw most of them just go for standard, boring gags.

Other older strips I love are L'il Abner (until the late 50's) Barnaby, Calvin and Hobbes, Liberty Meadows and, of course, Peanuts, probably the best comic strip ever.
 
 
sleazenation
18:06 / 01.05.02
one of the strangest thing is seeing how much space older strips had to play with- these days 3 panels is as good as it gets...
 
 
Murray Hamhandler
20:33 / 01.05.02
I don't know if it's still in print or available in this country (as I think that I special-ordered mine from Germany), but (and this recommendation is probably blindingly obvious) if you can find the hardcover comprehensive collection of Little Nemo, it is sooooo worth buying. I can't say enough good things about it. In terms of craft, imagination, and awe-inspiring-ness, Little Nemo blows away not only the comic strips of today but also most comic books, as well.

Also... Does anyone know about the Peanuts reprint plans? I know that whoever has the rights to the reprints now is putting out full-year collections in reverse order. Is this going to ultimately encompass the entire Peanuts history? If so, I think it's an excellent idea and one that I'd be willing to invest some money in. On that note, I'd also recommend the 'Peanuts 2000' book. It's well-reviewed in the new Comics Journal and, by gum, they were spot-on. It's a gem.
Arthur Sudnam, II
 
 
Ofermod
03:21 / 02.05.02
I'm glad someone mentioned Krazy Kat. Definitely my favorite old comic strip. Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes always go without saying and never get old. Boondocks has recently become my favorite current daily comic strip. Weekly ones are Tom the Dancing Bug and This Modern World. And for your comic strip needs I give you ucomics.com which is how I get my daily Boondocks fix.

And which wins for worst comic strip of all time: Family Circus or Cathy?
 
 
Tamayyurt
04:35 / 02.05.02
Another vote for Boondocks!!!
 
 
Baz Auckland
06:09 / 02.05.02
Every day I read Doonesbury, Foxtrot, and the Boondocks at the Washington Post Comics Page

A great strip that I always forget to look up online is Weltschmerz. Although it is funnier if you live in Ontario.
 
 
mondo a-go-go
09:37 / 02.05.02


aaron mcgruder never fails to make me laugh.



i've only got the first four eclipse reprints, which is more innocent and dated than the later stuff. anyone know where i can get hold of the strips from the 50s and 60s? that's the stuff i really want.



a classic. i'm glad that watterson stopped it while it was still fresh and funny rather than dragging it out. anyone know what he's up to these days? (and i have a rose on my desk that someone gave me yesterday. i wish i could smell it, but i have a cold :[
 
 
mondo a-go-go
12:29 / 02.05.02
there's quite an interesting article on family configuration in american strips here. it's pretty extensive.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
19:04 / 02.05.02
Worst strip of all time?

Fred Bassett, hands down. No a single strip has ever been funny, the art is bland and I have no idea who it appeals to. I at least know people who like Family Circus and Cathy. I don't LIKE them, but I know them.

The shrinking of comic strips is a horrid crime that most strip artists sit silently by and are subjected to. It sad how through the 70's strip got smaller and the art got more and more simplistic until now when all but a few strips are all verbal jokes.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
19:26 / 07.11.05
Boondocks TV show torrent at Torrentspy.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
19:45 / 12.11.05
And, for the person who was asking about Peanuts, Fantagraphics is reprinting them in order, in wonderfully designed books, and printing strips that haven't seen the light of day since they were first printed. The early books are simply amazing to me, and now I understand why so many cartoonist are loud about their love of Sparky's art.
 
 
matthew.
01:30 / 14.11.05
While I loved it as a kid, it took me years to appreciate Calvin and Hobbes fully. Not that I'm saying it's deep and metaphysical, but I certainly appreciated Watterson's finer points on life, the universe (according to a cartoonist) and imagination. I couldn't do without it. "It's a magical world, Hobbes old buddy, let's go exploring" - such a classic way to end the strip. With dignity, no less.

Slate on MSN has a sort-of interesting photo essay about Calvin and Hobbes, but it doesn't say anything very profound or revealing. Rather, the Wikipedia article is just as informative.

Regardless, the complete collection is a definite must have. It makes me drool as much as the Far Side collection.

Another soon-to-be classic is this strip called Brevity. It's a one panel FarSide-like strip, but I find that it's often very "meta". It likes to play with the fact that it's a comic strip. I also like the fact that most of the jokes are extremely visual, something (IMHO) is lacking in good strips.

By the way, Rose is Rose is the worst strip I've ever read in terms of content. But its design and craftsmanship is astonishing. Unfortunately, I tend to despise strips that are so sickly sweet that I get adult-onset diabetes from touching the paper. The jokes are amazingly predictable: the mother imagines she's a child or a biker, and is embarrassed; the angel helps in some stupid way the child; the cousin's life is hyperbole literally; the son acts in a way that's far too adult. BUT, as I said, it's design is beautiful. I love how the artist plays with perspective, changing the view and the angle. It's somewhat challenging.

Here's a question, then. What daily comedic (funny) strip had the best design/drawing/craftsmanship? Other than Pogo of course.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
04:29 / 14.11.05
I loved the art on Liberty Meadows, Peanuts (of course) but the best humor strip art was L'il Abner. The Frazetta books Dark Horse put out are just amazing to look at, and I can't imagine seeing art that good in the newspaper on a weekly basis.

In the modern strips...I like the art in Zits, oddly enough, and think that the artist is doing some of the best CARTOONING in the paper currently, and I think Doonesbury has been well drawn for a long time, although I'm usually alone in that judgement.
 
 
grant
21:00 / 14.11.05
I wonder if the Kin-Der-Kids counts -- I suppose it does.

It was out at around the same time the lush, gorgeous Little Nemo in Slumberland was being published, but Lyonel Feininger had something Windsor McKay lacked.

I'm not sure what it'd be called -- he had a style that was sharp, angular, exaggerated and, I don't know, a little spooky. Mean, almost. Cartoons of the absurd.

He was a modernist in a way McKay wasn't. McKay was an art nouveau illustrator. Feininger went on to teach at the Bauhaus school in 1919.

You can read more about Feininger here and here, and read some strips here and here, and here

Tony Millionaire loves him, too.
 
 
Baz Auckland
00:14 / 20.11.05
Yahoo Comics is re-printing Bloom County from the start, and I'm loving it... so many of these I read when I was 6 years old and never really understood.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
00:20 / 21.11.05
You'll have to tell me what you think of them...I recently re-read my Bloom County books and was shocked at how many of the strips were so prefaced on current pop culture that I spent more time trying to figure out the reference than laughing.
 
 
matthew.
01:14 / 21.11.05
When I was 10 and I discovered Bloom County I had no fucking clue who Dan Quayle or Ronald Reagan was. But I still laughed.

It's funny you mentioned the pop culture references in Bloom County - I was always more struck by the political references.
 
 
Rev. Jesse
03:27 / 21.11.05
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Zippy the Pinhead or Get Fuzzy. I really like comics that challenge me and Zippy is the only one that does in the paper.

Also worthy of mention is For Better or For Worse. Dave Sim has nothing on Lynn Johnston in terms of endurance.
 
 
This Sunday
04:25 / 22.11.05
Currently in print in papers:
'Zippy the Pinhead' remains immensely cool at all times.
'Get Fuzzy' is usually cute and witty and when it isn't both, it's still one or the other.
'Pearls Before Swine' is witty and sharp and often has a happy, merry fuck you tinge to it.

Out of print from newspapers:
'Little Nemo' encapsulated a splendor of dreams nearly every way imarginable (for a PG-esque audience) through excellent artistic skill and sensibility.
'Krazy Kat' might actually be a map of the universe.
'Andy Capp', how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... quick, somebody give me some ways, otherwise I'll have to reveal to the world that I have no clue why I like the strip as much as I do.
'Calvin and Hobbes' was just tops in all ways. Never a bad strip and it was killed before it could die.

Currently running online strips:
'Megatokyo' keeps plugging along, from its gag routes to its current soap-stylings. Even when I start to get tired of it, I find myself drifting back for a peek after a couple weeks and getting all happy with it again.
'Strange Candy' has that genre-hopping conceit that I quite like, it's got a porno pet (one of the greatest misheard lyrics, surely), and a general half-assed atmo that's endearing.

No longer running online strips:
'Exploitation Now' remained consistently of bad taste but never failed to at least make me grin. Even when it went from one kind of exploitation, with T&A to another, with emotional trauma and exploding buildings.
'Boy Meets Boy' was the adventures of two cute almost-idiots and their evil, malicious, and fun landlady.
'Kiss the Girls' was about a two cute almost-idiots and their families and lives. It involved feather fetishes and a girl dragging herself in geek-kit to go buy anime and manga. Then it died, came back as a serious strip for about three episodes and then died again.

Comic strips I probably should like, but instead don't get:
'Peanuts' has Snoopy and the birds, which are immensely fucking cool. It also had a bunch of kids taking up panel-space and story-time from birds and beagle. What's up with that?
'Liberty Meadows' was well-drawn, even if Frank Cho does with bodies what Steve Dillon does with faces. Sometimes funny. But, people love this thing to pieces, so...?
'Pogo', then...? Why?
No, wait. 'Pogo' is the greatest comic strip of all time. I just want(ed) to spur people into posting about it more. If nothing else, for everything it inspired, from its gorgeous wordplay to effecting, of all things, 'X-Men' and 'Swamp-Thing'.
 
 
grant
18:00 / 22.11.05
'Calvin and Hobbes' was just tops in all ways. Never a bad strip and it was killed before it could die.



Are none of y'all in markets where they're printing the new C&H strips?

They're good.
 
 
Triplets
18:15 / 22.11.05
Rose is Rose ... its design and craftsmanship is astonishing.

So why does Rose have nipples coming out from under her eyeballs? Thought so.
 
 
sleazenation
19:56 / 22.11.05
there are NEW C&H strips?

Where?
 
 
This Sunday
20:29 / 22.11.05
Similarly: There are new C&H? And not some decal of Calvin pissing or praying, but actual Watterson-done?
 
 
matthew.
20:49 / 22.11.05
I'm under the impression that there are no new Calvin and Hobbes strips - that the ones being printed currently are a "Best Of" to celebrate the publication of the complete works. Prove me wrong, though. Please.
 
 
grant
16:51 / 23.11.05
Hmm.

I don't know. I just saw them reappear in the comics with some kind of a note about "returning to the comics" next to the new Opus strips.

UComics.com is syndicating them online... but the Des Moines Register agrees with sleazenation that they're just reprints to go along with the big book. Apparently The Far Side is doing the same thing.


More on C&H (plus a slideshow!) on Slate.
 
  

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