The Far Side Coming Back?

[nwhoopfan]

To think most people under age 30 have no idea of daily doses of Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes or Bloom County / Outland (Sundays).

I haven't bothered looking at the comics in the Sunday paper in years. Without those 3 it's just not worth it.

 

[dbmill]

Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, and Bloom County. The three great strips of the 1980's, and they were all ended early by their creators. Calvin and Hobbes probably my favorite strip of all time.

 

[dbmill]

Fans of Berkeley Breathed's work may want to check out the movie Secondhand Lions, which was released in 2003. One of the characters in the movie grows up to be a cartoonist. The cartoons shown in the film were drawn by Breathed. No Bloom County characters are drawn, but I remember the first time that I saw this movie that I thought the artwork had a familiar look. As for the movie, it is a favorite mine and my wife as well.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

my favorite of all time is 'Peanuts,' a name that Charles M. Schulz disliked immensely.
the 50's and 60s version is far more thought provoking, while the final decades were more whimsical.
'Peanuts is one of the literate strips with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones that flourished in the 1950s. The strip's humor (at least during its '60s peak) is psychologically complex, and the characters' interactions formed a tangle of relationships that drove the strip.'
I would argue that Snoopy is the most recognizable and well known fictional character ever (theologies aside). he's certainly my favorite persona.
Perhaps Syracuse University professor Robert Thompson put it best when he famously described “Peanuts” as “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.”

 

[dbmill]

my favorite of all time is 'Peanuts,' a name that Charles M. Schulz disliked immensely.
the 50's and 60s version is far more thought provoking, while the final decades were more whimsical.
'Peanuts is one of the literate strips with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones that flourished in the 1950s. The strip's humor (at least during its '60s peak) is psychologically complex, and the characters' interactions formed a tangle of relationships that drove the strip.'
I would argue that Snoopy is the most recognizable and well known fictional character ever (theologies aside). he's certainly my favorite persona.
Perhaps Syracuse University professor Robert Thompson put it best when he famously described “Peanuts” as “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.”

Peanuts was a great strip in the 50's and 60's, one the the best of all time. During the 1970's the strip started to go into decline, and the decline deepened as the decades advanced and the focus of the strip switched away from Linus and earlier characters and more towards Peppermint Patty, Marci, Rerun, and Snoopy's overactive fantasy life. Snoopy's World War I pilot stuff was great, but not so on some of the other fantasy stuff, it became just too much.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Just out of curiosity I took a peek at the latest Sunday comics. For Better or Worse, Garfield, Family Circus, Wizard of Id, Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, Doonesbury are all still in print. Some of those were probably fairly new when I was a kid, but I bet my parents grew up on some of them. You have to run out of ideas at some point. I used to love Dilbert but it got stale quite a while ago IMO. It's still going as well.

 

[dbmill]

Just out of curiosity I took a peek at the latest Sunday comics. For Better or Worse, Garfield, Family Circus, Wizard of Id, Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, Doonesbury are all still in print. Some of those were probably fairly new when I was a kid, but I bet my parents grew up on some of them. You have to run out of ideas at some point. I used to love Dilbert but it got stale quite a while ago IMO. It's still going as well.

Even worse, the original artist dies or stops doing the strip, and someone else takes over. At least the Sunday Doonesbury is still by the original guy, however, the Doonesbury strips during the week are reruns. But Wizard of Id, Beatle Bailey, Hi and Lois, B.C., and some others are basically strips that just get passed on to other people to do. To me that stifles newcomers with brand new ideas. Of the "passed on" strips, the only one that I really still like is Blondie.

 

[eebmg]

Dilbert. For us working drones.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Even worse, the original artist dies or stops doing the strip, and someone else takes over.

I wondered about that. Some of those must date back to the 50s or 60s. That would be a long time for one artist/author to keep doing the same thing.

 

[dbmill]

I wondered about that. Some of those must date back to the 50s or 60s. That would be a long time for one artist/author to keep doing the same thing.

In the case of Blondie (1930) and Prince Valiant (in the Sunday Hartford Courant), they both started at least a couple of decades before that. By the way, Prince Valiant I also look forward to reading, but it isn't as good as it used to be.

 

[nwhoopfan]

In the case of Blondie (1930)

Wow, Dagwood has been raiding the fridge to make those big sandwiches for almost a century? He hasn't aged a day...

 

[dbmill]

Wow, Dagwood has been raiding the fridge to make those big sandwiches for almost a century? He hasn't aged a day...

Yes. And Blondie was popular enough that a long series of "B" movies were made based on the strip starting in 1938.

Blondie (comic strip) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

When I was a kid growing up in the late 1960's into the 1970's, these Blondie movies were shown regularly on New York City television stations.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Wow, Dagwood has been raiding the fridge to make those big sandwiches for almost a century? He hasn't aged a day...

(overheard at the grands) gramms: 'make sure you find some tongue, pickling cukes, and sourdough at the store, they're coming on the weekend.' gramps: 'that boy sure makes some odd dagwoods.' weekend comes. me: 'hey folks, what's new? gramps; 'sorry son, I forgot to get that thousand island stuff you put on your dagwoods, why can't you eat normal?'
(noticed a copy of the recent aarp zine featuring cannabis on a table there, picked it up.
gramps; 'does that stuff make you eat funny?' man, we laughed. a lot. me; 'gramp, go back to your katzenjammer kids thinking, and while your at it, explain to me again what's a Dondi?' lol.)

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Yes. And Blondie was popular enough that a long series of "B" movies were made based on the strip starting in 1938.

Blondie (comic strip) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

When I was a kid growing up in the late 1960's into the 1970's, these Blondie movies were shown regularly on New York City television stations.

they're still on the tube. a highly rec'd and worthwhile watch.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Dilbert. For us working drones.