Thought Provoking Comic Strips

I can't believe I had forgotten about my main man Andy Capp. Flo was a tough ol' broad.

Try this link for more on Pogo.
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3y3t2

OHMIGAWD! The New York Daily News has discontinued "Boondocks"

False alarm, on "The Boondocks"...It's back, as of Sunday. I checked comics on my computor, and saw that last weeks strips were pretty strong. involving racial misinformation, in american history. The one week suspension seems to help prove the author's point. The guy is fearless. He can piss off politicians, and people of all races, including his own. If he didn't occasionally piss me off something would be wrong.

One really great cartoonist gets overlooked in these type threads - maybe because he drew comic books instead of comic strips. Carl Barks invented Uncle Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge's adventures were epic, plus one could occasionally learn something from them. In one episode he raised a ship off the ocean floor by filling it with ping pong balls. Years later, a person remembered that tale and actually did raise a ship by the same method. Barks also did the zany Donald Duck yarns that appeared in WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES comic books.

That reminds me of various scientific things I used learn reading Superman, diamonds evolving from coal, and lead being the denses metal, to name a couple. Eight year old kids don't learn those things in school.

Sealpoet, George Herriman...Krazy Kat. My favorite.

The Houston Chronicle prints Doonesbury and most of the other comics way too small. In most cases it's not so bad. With Doonesbury the lettering is of a style that makes too small virtually unreadable.

Sealpoet - just read "Understanding comics" last week! Still digesting it.

Big fan of C&H, I especially liked that it never got sentimental or mawkish. Often wonder whether Waterson had a bad experience with snowmen once, they are a recurrent theme. Another great device is the interplay of reality and pure fantasy in Calvin's life and how seamlessly he slips between the two.

I was also a Doonsbury reader way back when (70's). As it wasn't mainstream I ended up with a lot of exposure to cartoon/comic 'art' rather than just Batman, Mad, etc. And when I came across 'Heavy Metal'! Blew my tiny mind....

I've started rereading Calvin & Hobbes on the Internet. What I'm noticing is that although Watterson started a much copied technique with the fantasy flights , he could go for days without using it and crack me up.

Terms of endearment
To me, the most endearing comic strip of my lifetime is the current Mutts by Patrick O'Donnell. Mutts is basically about the misadventures of Earl, the dog, and Mooch, the cat.

O'Donnell's strip is perhaps the best drawn one in today's newspapers. The humor here is warm and precious. All the rest of today's comic strips pale in comparison to the humaneness of Mutts.

Like Peanuts, Mutts captures the human comedy we see around us everyday. Mutts can often be political, too. It is strongly in favor of saving endangered species, animal rights, environmental issues and other "schtuff."

If you want Mutts to enter your life, go to www.muttscomics.com. Besides the daily black-and-white ink drawings, McDonnell uses watercolors for his very artistic Sunday strip. These are also featured at the website.

Mutts is a must

Take a look and see if you think it "schwell."

Mutts is a good strip. I read it an average of six times a momth.

I could use some deep heavy freedom kissing about now.
Thanks bw.

Hey Larry,
...speaking of freedom kissing, and such madness; Do you think it was a coincidence, that they used a female voice, to interpret the French UN rep yesterday? Hmmmm...

Bizarro

Agreed that "This Modern World" is excellent. For cultural satire, it's hard to beat "Zippy". Bill Griffith is a genius--and he's a character in his own strip!

Is Cathy supposed to be based on herself, also? She does use her own first name

Re Griffith in "Zippy": He actually "appears" as a character about his own actual age, and I've seen photos of Griffith--he looks remarkably like the character he draws. If I were capable of importing a sample cartoon here, I would, but I'm inept in this regard...

Good point booman!