Comments on: RIP Farley the dog.

RIP Farley the dog.

ktoad — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:02:34 -0800

Nancy , the best comic strip ever? Close but no cigar. Pogo? Peanuts? Calvin? Good choices all, but still wrong. Krazy Kat you say? Again I shake my head sadly, friend. For Mr. Dave Astor has finally stepped forward to settle this debate once and for all. The greatest comic strip ever appearing on newsprint? Why, it's For Better or For Worse of course. Let the debate begin.

By: amro

amro — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:07:08 -0800

"Calvin and Hobbes" was another masterpiece of writing and drawing, but it didn't have the sprawling cast of a "Peanuts" or "For Better." And Bill Watterson ended "C&H" after only a decade in syndication, while "For Better" is still going strong as it nears its 27th anniversary next month. Weak. What's so great about a sprawling cast?

By: amro

amro — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:09:11 -0800

(Though truly, my heart belongs to the Shmoo.)

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:09:17 -0800

Better than Krazy Kat or Pogo? That's sacrilege of the highest magnetude. The Inquisitors will be seeing him soon. The ReEducation Machine will see to his blasphemy.

By: newfers

newfers — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:09:49 -0800

For Better of For Worse? Ewwww... To hell with emotional resonance - I would pick The Far Side.

By: jimmy

jimmy — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:10:54 -0800

man, what a fucking idiot!

By: ambulance blues

ambulance blues — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:12:55 -0800

not one person has mentioned Bloom County. that's my vote for best ever.

By: benATthelocust

benATthelocust — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:13:10 -0800

Length of run should probably be the last thing considered when it comes to comics. Calvin and Hobbes was quality for that entire decade, and Watterson knew when to call it quits.

By: yeti

yeti — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:15:01 -0800

At least it wasn't chatty Cathy.

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:15:19 -0800

I'll agree. "For Better" was great when I was reading the comics on a daily basis, but now I pick it up and to find myself dropped into an incomprehensible storyline. I must admit that I have a prejudice against serial strips for this reason. "Doonesbury" does a better job of preserving continuity while keeping each individual strip funny.

By: msjen

msjen — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:19:04 -0800

My all time fave daily comic strips in order: 1) Bloom County (RIP) 2) Far Side (RIP) 3) Doonesbury 4) Zits 5) For Better or For Worse Is anyone as afraid as I am that FBoFW is going to get Elizabeth back together with the absolute schmuck known as Anthony??? How can a 24-25 year old be so fricken old and dowdy as Anthony? Yikes, can we say 1970s leather boy 'stache! Yuck!

By: buggzzee23

buggzzee23 — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:19:15 -0800

A tremendous strip in its day with some brilliant satire.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:21:07 -0800

By his criteria, I'd vote for Gasoline Alley. The art in the original Sunday strips was amazingly inventive, and FBoW owes a lot of its narrative structure to GA.

By: davelog

davelog — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:22:03 -0800

Anything short of awarding Funky Winkerbean the 'Best Cartoon of All Time' prize is just hollow posturing.

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:22:58 -0800

Paging fandango_matt! This is his only masterpiece I could find with a quick search.

By: jet_silver

jet_silver — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:23:22 -0800

Zippy.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:23:34 -0800

Where are thou, SpaceMoose?

By: snofoam

snofoam — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:25:24 -0800

best comic ever!!!!!

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:26:30 -0800

The worst thing about For Better or For Worse is how whenever a little kid eats something, they always have a drop of spit flying out of their mouths. I'll say the art is fluid. Gross. That and the lameness.

By: hipnerd

hipnerd — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:26:37 -0800

Best. Strip. Ever.

By: scody

scody — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:26:40 -0800

"Calvin and Hobbes" ... didn't have the sprawling cast of a "Peanuts" or "For Better." Heh. By that measure, Caligula is superior to My Dinner with Andre.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:27:16 -0800

Those eyeblinks almost made me spill my coffee on my keyboard, snofoam!

By: jtron

jtron — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:27:22 -0800

Bloom County, sadly, has not aged well. Little Nemo in Slumberland will probably live for eternity.

By: davelog

davelog — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:28:18 -0800

Heh. By that measure, Caligula is superior to My Dinner with Andre. It's certianly easier to masturbate to.

By: The Mauve Frog

The Mauve Frog — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:28:35 -0800

Get Fuzzy, says I.

By: stemlot

stemlot — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:29:29 -0800

Achewood. In what other comic could a camera with magical Mexican realism let a vegetarian cat's friends know he's gay by revealing to them that he secretly conceives of himself as a chaps-wearing carnivore with a huge horsecock?

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:30:40 -0800

While I agree that FBoFW probably has the biggest fan base of any current strip, since when did popularity equate with being "best"? I'm really hoping this guy will publish a music review column as well.

By: coffeespoons

coffeespoons — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:31:48 -0800

I think "For Better" gave up any claim to being the greatest when the online version began blinking. Creepy. On preview: snofoam demonstrates!

By: yeti

yeti — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:32:12 -0800

Agreed maryh. What's the deal with the blinking?

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:34:16 -0800

Blinking is Comics 2.0 (beta)!

By: snofoam

snofoam — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:35:31 -0800

that's how the comic is on the official site, and i guess that's how it will be when we get electronic newspapers. i only linked to it because the blinking was creepy. as far as the actual best comic ever, i have two words: howard huge. he thinks he's people!

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:36:45 -0800

Oh, come on, nothing compares to Ziggy. Or "Love Is". * begins vomitting *

By: Malor

Malor — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:37:35 -0800

Bloom County was great, but I don't think it will age well. Most of the strip's energy came from riffing off the conservative vibe of the time, and if you weren't there, I think a lot of it simply wouldn't be funny. Calvin and Hobbes should have serious staying power. As long as humans organize themselves into families, have a reasonable standard of living, and raise kids in the real world (as opposed to doing it online), Calvin should be funny and relevant. I'm not sure how long the Far Side will last. The stuff with cannibals, geeze, that'd last practically forever. A lot of it, though, probably not. I'm thinking of the Acme Magnet Company strip, with all the cars stuck to the side of the building.... a future human might have no idea what a car looks like. And dinosaurs smoking will be funny only as long as RJ Reynolds (*cough* Altria *cough*) exists. They'll both last at least another generation, though, which is pretty darn good for humor. And geeze, talk about taking comics overseriously. I think I need a beer. :)

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:37:59 -0800

Yikes, can we say 1970s leather boy 'stache! Yuck! He's canadian. Give him a break.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:38:08 -0800

oops! that was supposed to say "actual best comic ever featured weekly in parade magazine"

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:39:55 -0800

What's the deal with the blinking? It shows how everybody in FBOFW is just standing eerily still, only their eyes occasionally moving. Between panels they change their ornate tableaus and then continue their ritual presentation of banality.

By: aeschenkarnos

aeschenkarnos — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:41:59 -0800

No-one's mentioned Dilbert? I've gotten more actual laughs out of Dilbert than any other syndicated comic strip.

By: madajb

madajb — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:43:11 -0800

"And, last but not least, few strips in the history of comics are drawn as well as "For Better." Its spectacular level of detailed, fluid art is especially impressive in today's age of shrinking comics space." I'm fascinated by this remark. Half the time I read "For Better", I'm left wondering who these people are as they all seem to be drawn the same.

By: mkhall

mkhall — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:43:57 -0800

It all depends on what you consider great, I guess. For me it's Calvin & Hobbes, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Krazy Kat, Thimble Theater, The Spirit, The Far Side, and Doonesbury. Among modern strips I like Boondocks and Get Fuzzy, but I don't know how well they'll stand time's test.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:46:02 -0800

I don't know, Bloom County's doing pretty well so far, though it may be an indictment of us that shit like the Star Trek Missile Defense Shield still seems pretty spot on 20 years later. If we're talking "in newsprint" then we get to usher in the alt-weekly stuff, and Tom The Dancing Bug and Carol Lay's strip are both a lot better than the daily stuff around these days. Hell, Perry Bible Fellowship's in print in a few places.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:46:13 -0800

FBoFW is not horrible, but it's become both syrupy and maudlin in turn over the past several years. The various plotlines involving the kids out of the nest are tedious and soporific. Michael is a schlemiel, Elizabeth is whiny and indecisive. The parents are still vaguely appealing in a vanilla way; at least they aren't Ted and Sally Forth, thank God. The writer of the article in the link makes a big deal out of the fact that Lynn Johnston introduced a gay character in 1993, and yes, good for her; that set of strips lives on in my mind as a great example of what comics can do as an art form. But since then, probably chastened by the vitriol those strips inspired, Johnston has neutered Lawrence, turning him into a completely minor character with no life (and certainly no overt expression of gayness). April's boyfriend has more identity than Lawrence does. "Johnston has skillfully created a comic that appeals to a general, mainstream audience while not pandering to readers who want a mythical 1950s world in their funny pages." Actually, that's untrue. Despite all of the forced attempts at making April and her little pals "hip" with invented slang, the world of FBoFW resembles a "mythical 1950s world" more closely than almost any other mainstream comic, with the possible exception of "Family Circus." It's sort of like "I Love Lucy" without the bawling, the screaming, the catfights, and the bad Cuban accents.

By: Derive the Hamiltonian of...

Derive the Hamiltonian of... — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:47:44 -0800

Malor, I was too young (age 7?) to understand the politics in Bloom County when I started reading my parent's collection, but I loved the absurdity. For Better or For Worse is great if you like annoying, simplistic moralizing with your breakfast.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:49:57 -0800

Apparently being a great strip has nothing to do with the quality of the illustrations.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:51:04 -0800

What a strange and misleading article. FBOFW is his favorite comic, best by the standards that he defines on the fly. It's like asking what the best band is, answering "Sha-Na-Na", and then non-chalantly rattling off the qualities that Sha-Na-Na has in spades as though these qualities are the only ones that could make a band great.

By: Pressed Rat

Pressed Rat — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:51:28 -0800

POGO, without a doubt, C&H Farside and others notwithstanding.

By: stenseng

stenseng — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:55:09 -0800

Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes DOMINATE. Nothing else comes close.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:55:42 -0800

Apparently being a great strip has nothing to do with the quality of the illustrations. Well, if it did, Dennis the Menace would be an infinitely better panel than The Far Side, but we don't seem to live in that universe. It is pretty weird when you think about it. But director's sense is much more important than drawing skill when it comes to comics, and Gary Larson had all sorts of that.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:03:04 -0800

The Far SIde is just about the best single panel comic to ever hit the papers I'd say. It was weird and sublime and usually hilarious. It had that good stoned humor. It's like the antithesis of Marmaduke.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:05:53 -0800

Pogo is better. Hell, Pogo is better than anything Hemingway wrote. It's funnier than the rest, and it's also politically and philosophically more important.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:08:24 -0800

Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, The Far Side more - yes yes. Many others before For Better or For Worse, though FBoFW is fine and good. But the best published comic ever is without a doubt The Parking Lot Is Full.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:09:05 -0800

And: Walt Kelly was one of the very few comic writers who really could write. His grasp on language was impeccable, and poetic at that. Add that to his beautiful illustrations, and the choice is clear.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:09:59 -0800

BTW, "Pickles"?? What's the matter, Kansas, Marmaduke too secular for ya?

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:13:50 -0800

Actually, "Pickles" has some occasional mordant humor in it, whereas FBoFW has none.

By: dw

dw — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:14:48 -0800

Bloom County, sadly, has not aged well. I disagree. I have some of the original books (salvaged from a friend's trash can... silly friend, those things are like gold now) and I read back through them. Yeah, it was current event-y, but it was profoundly absurdist. It was, in many ways, a direct descendant of Pogo. I liked Peanuts, C&H, Far Side, Bloom County. I've barely read any of the old strips, but Little Nemo was beautifully done, Pogo grandly written, and Lil Abner a cultural landmark. Of the modern strips, I'm not sure what will last. Boondocks is relevant, but I don't know if it will age well. Get Fuzzy is really frustrating, the humor erratic. I'm finding some of the webcomics out there to be better than what appears in the two dailies we have in town. Confession: I read Luann every day. I don't know why. shudder

By: panoptican

panoptican — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:14:55 -0800

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:15:26 -0800

Krazy Kat 252;ber alles. Absolutely no contest.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:15:41 -0800

oops, uber

By: Chinese Jet Pilot

Chinese Jet Pilot — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:17:06 -0800

I second the nomination for Zippy the Pinhead. And speaking of Nancy, Bill Griffith has made some meaningful tributes to the strip, particulary in Are We Having Fun Yet? Zippy the Pinhead's 29 Day Guide to Random Activities and Arbitrary Donuts. Say what you will about Bloom County, but to me Zippy is what 80's comic strips were all about.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:17:12 -0800

"There's also 'Pogo'." That's all they have to say about that? Oh, somebody a'sides is going to rue this here particular day. The early years of Bloom County top out my personal list by a long margin. I just can't say how many ways I loved that strip. If I had to sum it up in one line, I guess it'd be "Here, take a few pounds home to th' wife." Any number of things come in ahead of FBOFW, though. It may be many things, but I don't remember it ever being funny; certainly not bust-a-gut funny, and never flirting with the sort of loopy surrealism that lurks in the fringes of almost all my favorites. Ozy and Millie is by far the most-represented on my office door.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:18:23 -0800

Confession: I read Luann every day. I don't know why. shudder I do too. A very unpleasant admission for me to have to make. Luann DeGroot makes Elizabeth Patterson look like the most appealing character in funnies-dom.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:20:45 -0800

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Fred Bassett. Greatest comic ever. Fred is unique. He never speaks - just thinks out loud (!!!)

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:27:33 -0800

Pogo, followed by Calvin and Hobbes, followed by The Far Side. And I think you can look at 90% of the newspaper comics today and see that they all derive at least partially from one of those.

By: eriko

eriko — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:29:28 -0800

The Far SIde is just about the best single panel comic to ever hit the papers I'd say Amen. I offer this -- no links, just text. "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal." "Okay, Rusty's in the club!" "Beware of Doug." "I've gotta be me!"

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:31:58 -0800

Pogo is a really excellent strip, and it's pretty easy for modern readers with just a bit of Looney Tunes background to get into its loopy rhythms, so I do nth koeselitz's recommendation. I somewhat prefer Peanuts, but arguing that Pogo's the best comic ever is a deeply defensible position. Pick up one of the collections, peoples, you won't regret it.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:35:05 -0800

1. Krazy Kat 2. Pogo 3.Far Side 4. Calvin & Hobbs 5. They'll Do It Every Time

By: eriko

eriko — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:37:20 -0800

As to Bloom County. The problem is Breathed went too long. The early days were uneven, as he tried to establish what he was doing. The last three years were horrible. But those middle years were wonderful stuff. Still, Berke Breathed failed the test that Bill Watterson and Gary Larson passed -- they realized that inspiration was finite, and they hung it up. I still love Bloom County and there are still two stuffed Opuses (Opii?) in my room, watching over my computers. Having said that, nothing matches the brillance of Calvin and Hobbes -- a combination of amazing artistic talent, a deep understanding of what his characters were, and a willingness to fight hard to show us the comics he wanted to show us -- and that we so desperatly wanted to see. Finally, when he realized that he couldn't, for whatever reason, keep doing that, he ended it. Calvin and Hobbes started well, and got better until the very end. I thank all that is holy that Bill Watterson said what he wanted to say, and no more. Charlie Brown is still kicking that damn ball. We have no idea what Calvin's up to. We are so much better off never knowing -- because our last memory of Calvin is he and Hobbes sledding down that hill.

By: uosuaq

uosuaq — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:39:17 -0800

I would also put Pogo first, because it's basically lacking nothing: humor, incredible artwork, huge and memorable cast of characters, political satire, and language that's the equal of the artwork. After that...I'm tempted by Calvin & Hobbes, because the artwork is almost as good as Kelly's, but for sheer weight of achievement, I think I'd have to go with Doonesbury. A decades-long epic about American life, with the characters actually aging in real time...and killer political satire. There should be American History textbooks based around the strip.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:42:22 -0800

The folks over at The Comics Curmudgeon are pretty merciless when it comes to FBoFW. Gotta admit I think the strip has jumped a pool o sharks in the last few years. Looking at archives of the strips I understand why i liked it so much at one point, and why I am mildly irritated with it now. There is a reason people stop writing strips, and it is called preserving quality.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:43:35 -0800

I second the parking lot is full, especially the one about coming of age.

By: ktoad

ktoad — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:45:52 -0800

mrgrimm - I can't believe nobody's mentioned Fred Bassett. Greatest comic ever. And let's not forget Fred Basset Upfucked!

By: taursir

taursir — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:47:22 -0800

The writer of the article in the link makes a big deal out of the fact that Lynn Johnston introduced a gay character in 1993, and yes, good for her; that set of strips lives on in my mind as a great example of what comics can do as an art form. But since then, probably chastened by the vitriol those strips inspired, Johnston has neutered Lawrence, turning him into a completely minor character with no life (and certainly no overt expression of gayness). April's boyfriend has more identity than Lawrence does. Hi. blucevalo: people can also be humans in addition to being gay. Why does someone who comes out as gay suddenly have to go on being only gay? So he went on to not be a flaming fairy, that's perhaps a point that (I can't prove this in Johnston's case) an author who is writing/drawing about gay people in order to increase acceptance would like to do. He came out, and he didn't become a token. This is something I've always striven (strived? strove?) for in life. Sorry if this seems a bit rude, or irritated, but well, I don't come out of the closet because I want to educate people, I come out because well, I want to be able to live my own life as a normal person. If someone asks how my girlfriend is doing, I'll switch it around to boyfriend, but my main intent is to not turn my whole life political. I realize Lawrence is just playing a part in someone's story, and thus not necessarily a real person, but my point in life is not to serve as some sort of token in everyone else's lives, nor do I want to be gay for anyone else's benefit (except maybe those who it does benefit, like my boyfriend *snark*), but another thing one has to realize is that gay isn't just sexuality but it's a cultural thing too. It's possible to separate the matters, and so you know, maybe Lawrence really is just a normal person, and not one of those people you find on Will and Grace, or Queer Eye. I think what was nice about this set of strips for me was that I remember reading them when I was younger, and likely my life is better off in some way because of it.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:50:17 -0800

You have a good point, taursir, and it is well-taken. But I wasn't trying to say that Lawrence should be a token, or a symbol, or anything else. It would just be nice to see him be something more than a cipher, which is what, in my opinion, he now is.

By: diddlegnome

diddlegnome — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:51:24 -0800

"Beware of Doug." *snort* Yeah, that was a good one. Also "CAT FUD" ("KAT FUD"?) and "Dog OK." Calvin and Hobbes is probably my all-time fave, although Get Fuzzy makes me laugh about as much as Calvin ever did. Dilbert coulda been a contender, but it seemed to run out of steam a couple of years ago. Still one of the better offerings on the comics pages, though. I'll also throw some love to Mutts, which is funny, thoughtful and sweet and has a Sunday color palette unmatched by anything in the funnies.

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:54:01 -0800

I think For Better or Worse kind of sucks. It's corny to me. I read the comics everyday online, and I like (in no particular order): Monty Get Fuzzy Doonesbury Pearls Before Swine Peanuts Non Sequitur Boondocks Calvin and Hobbes Bloom County The Far Side I've never even HEARD of Pickles! And I consider myself a fan of the comic strip form. On the other hand it is Kansas, where they don't believe in evolution, so I'm not sure that it's much of a recommendation.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:54:17 -0800

Actually, i like 9 Chickwood Lane quite a bit, the felow that does that also does an online comic and I'd say he has some of the best artwork in daily comics around.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:54:58 -0800

While looking for an example of Frank King's Sunday pages, I came across this amazing website. Enjoy!

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:57:29 -0800

I think they were a bit incomplete. "For Better or Worse" is the best Canadian comic strip ever. Obviously, "Calvin and Hobbes" should receive a lifetime achievement award for fulfilling a specific set of goals and quitting while you're ahead. "The Far Side"? I think "Bizarro" was always just as funny and it still is... and two other random one-panel comics, "Speed Bump" and "Reality Check" are not generally as good, but have had some great singular moments. If only "Non-Sequitur" would LOSE the regular characters..." Best 'silly' comic ever? "Frank and Ernest" (whose creator just passed away, but he'd left the comic to his son years ago). Current single best comic strip: "Over the Hedge" (I cringed when they announced the movie, but even Bruce Willis couldn't ruin it). The 'animals commenting on human life' theme is excellently done, but not overdone. The characters are well defined, unique, and funny, and their interaction works. I just wish they'd redesign Verne the Turtle's face... The "Charles Schulz Memorial We Know You're Just Coasting But You're Still Very Good" Award goes to "Dilbert", with "Opus" a solid runner-up. A big "Uh-Oh" to "Get Fuzzy" which is drifting into the realm of "Garfield but with bigger words and better art". And "Pearls Before Swine" is no longer making it look easy - just last week it had a gag so bad, Rat went to Stephen Patsis' desk with a gun and said "This is for your own good". Best "Family Strip (because it's a helluva lot more like families really are these days)" goes to "Foxtrot". Still, with "Hedge", "Dilbert", "Fuzzy", "Pearls" and "Foxtrot" every day, plus "Frazz" (coolest school janitor ever) and "Candorville" (best strip with Black characters since "Boondocks" got boring) and "9 Chickweek Lane" (sexy toon females plus a madaman philosopher) and "Kudzu" (even though Rev. Will B. Dunn has pretty much taken over) and "Sherman's Lagoon" (better than talknig animals - talking FISH!), you can fill a page with as many good daily laughs as I remember you ever could. (And I grew up when "Peanuts" was cool!) Then you just add all the good webcomics (and despite "Achewood's" rep as the first big edgy webcomic, there are several others at least as good), and I, after taking careful consideration all the factors, pick as the ALL TIME GREATEST COMIC STRIP: Brenda Starr, which since Mary Schmick (the true author of "Wear Sunscreen") has been writing it, has parodied Bill O'Reilly, American Idol. celebrity chefs in general and most recently "Gone With the Wind" with its current 'Old Hollywood' storyline. It's so cool, the Comics Curmudgeon won't touch it...

By: nomisxid

nomisxid — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:57:59 -0800

spacemoose all the way

By: Ohdemah

Ohdemah — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:59:20 -0800

Tom the Dancing Bug.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:00:39 -0800

Are we doing top fives, then? 1. The Far Side 2. Achewood 3. Calvin and Hobbes 4. Sinfest (although it has been going downhill lately) 5. Footrot Flats. It's an antipodean thing. Look it up.

By: Iron Rat

Iron Rat — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:01:17 -0800

9 chickweed lane and Ces't La Vie are my favorites, maybe not "important" but eye candy and fun I think Allison Bechdell is a genius

By: imperium

imperium — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:03:35 -0800

Ok, so nobody else has the Freak Brothers? Fair enough, it's not got the suburban emptiness and stylistic simplicity of the original nomination, but hey, sometimes that stuff doesn't even make the coffee sweet.

By: katieinshoes

katieinshoes — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:05:44 -0800

BTW, "Pickles"?? What's the matter, Kansas, Marmaduke too secular for ya? I work at the paper that did that survey. We're currently testing some potential replacements for the four strips that we decided to cut after seeing the results of the first survey. This afternoon, I got to look through the reader comments so far. I was surprised at the lack of consensus, but the most common responses seemed to be "NOOOOO, DON'T DROP PEANUTS! CHANGE IS BAD!" and "I'm 75, and I don't want you to drop that six differences thing because my wife and I use it to keep our minds sharp." Seriously, the old folks love Slylock Fox's six differences. We're trying to get some new strips that are a bit fresher, but people seem to hate anything that isn't, uh, Peanuts. I'm hoping we'll get some positive votes for Pearls Before Swine, but people here hated it the last time we tried it out (apparently -- I didn't work at the paper back then). But Pickles is great.

By: diddlegnome

diddlegnome — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:06:47 -0800

Speaking of single-frame strips with a bit of an edge, look at this. I don't know if Bliss is this good all the time, but I may have to start paying attention to it.

By: vernondalhart

vernondalhart — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:08:39 -0800

Seconding 9 chickweed lane. So... classy.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:13:25 -0800

"Let me finish... let me finish." Only Pogo had Simple J. Malarkey, and on the "other" side of the ideological divide, the Cowbirds, who wanted to "share, to share what others have".

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:13:36 -0800

newsprint is dead Exploding Dog Argon Zark Schlock Mercenary Order of the Stick

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:20:50 -0800

Very Important Things

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:21:06 -0800

I just noticed that the link I posted above was via this great comics blog by MeFi's own jdroth. Nice work! Sorry katieinshoes, I didn't mean to goof on Pickles. I've just never heard of it before, and I try to keep track of this stuff.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:22:47 -0800

My #1 vote goes to Peanuts, more specifically the '50s strips. Not that Schultz didn't put out some good work after that, but it did start to stagnate in the '60s.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:24:50 -0800

And my favourite recent strip is the Perry Bible Fellowship, which I discovered thru MeFi.

By: wumpus

wumpus — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:28:53 -0800

dudes, dilbert is hil-a-rious; i mean - memos? hahaha! awesome, Dilbert, awesome.

By: WinnipegDragon

WinnipegDragon — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:29:03 -0800

Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine are the only things worth reading now, although Sherman's Lagoon can still be quite amusing. The best in the comics page since Far Side and C&H went away.

By: Gucky

Gucky — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:30:42 -0800

As much as I'd like to third Zippy, it was Life in Hell that made me what I am today. I'd take For Better or Worse over Pluggers or Mary Worth any single day. But yeah, egads does that demonstrate the most hideous taste imaginable.

By: speug

speug — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:32:32 -0800

There are any number of good comics - but best? 1. Pogo - Plenty of contenders, but nobody has topped W.K. 2. Single panel? Again plenty to choose from. But Herman has to be near the top. In re-runs for almost 15 years - and Jim Unger still hits the funny bone.

By: beagle

beagle — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:39:24 -0800

All the people, male or female, in For Better/Worse look exactly the same to me. I'll third Zippy. if Gucky won't.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:39:55 -0800

Actually, uosuaq, I learned a lot of what I know about the history of the 70s from a big box of Doonesbury books I bought as a teen at a thrift store.

By: nightchrome

nightchrome — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:41:30 -0800

It saddens me immensely that people out there even read For Better or For Worse. It is the most incredibly boring and lame crap a person could put into comic form.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:49:33 -0800

Color me old, but I gotta go with Doonesbury. Sharp writing, clear characterization and funnier than anything since Watterston let discretion be the better part of ego. I give Watterston the edge over Larson, but I've yet to see a one-panel that beats Far Side for me. On a completely different note: Does anyone else here remember the Family Circle comic featuring Zippy the Pinhead? (Not making this up. I used to have a clipping of it saved somewhere.)

By: karmaville

karmaville — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:52:33 -0800

Before my mom died, Pickles was one of those strips we would always call each other to see if the other had read that day's strip. I can remember at least five instances in which a conversation my parents had was later presented in the strip. If you are, or have parents, of a certain age, it resonates like Calvin and Hobbes did to most of us when we were teenagers.

By: Iridic

Iridic — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:52:58 -0800

Something Positive is like a For Better or For Worse with brains. (Not to mention humor.) And when it wants to bring the heartbreak...

By: tdismukes

tdismukes — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:53:38 -0800

I can't believe only one person mentioned The Spirit. Eisner was a cinematic genius on the same level as Walt Kelly and Bill Watterson. My top list would have a lot of ties: 1) Calvin & Hobbes/The Spirit 2) Pogo/Krazy Kat* 3) Doonesbury/Peanuts etc. I like For Better Or Worse a lot, but given the competition I'd have to put it barely in the top 10 at best. * I actually don't enjoy Krazy Kat as much as some other comics, but I give it extra points for sheer visual inventiveness and stretching the boundaries of the art form.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:56:11 -0800

you can fill a page with as many good daily laughs as I remember you ever could. eh. okay. You know, when I used to read peoples' lists of favorite comics, I used to go, "you're insane! stupid! pathetic! what is wrong with you?" Now I'm just vaguely glad somebody likes that stuff.

By: jenovus

jenovus — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:58:18 -0800

Hey, everybody, I'm an older person who likes this thing that's been around since I was younger, even though it's probably not that great, and I probably don't pay attention to it anymore! I sure would be angry if it disappeared, though!

By: thecjm

thecjm — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:59:18 -0800

Everyone who doesn't have Krazy Kat in their top 5 hasn't read it yet. 1. Krazy Kat 2. C&H 3. Pogo 4. Little Nemo 5. Dick Tracey from the late 50s/early 60s when it was set in outer space.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:01:45 -0800

Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, and even the old Gasoline Alley really belong to a different category, I think. They're more important as the forebears of the modern book-length comic than the daily strip, what with their innovations in layout and narrative. The daily strip is a different beast; Pogo is awesome, but I think you have to look to Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes as the real exemplars of the modern form....

By: mygothlaundry

mygothlaundry — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:07:26 -0800

Doonesbury will always be my favorite, then, now and forever, although I do like FBOFW and it probably hits my top five along with Zippy and the Far Side and Dilbert and Mother Goose & Grimm, who nobody else has mentioned but who I think can be genius. At least the artists are alive, or I think they are: zombie comics make me nervous. Sometimes I wonder, what's worse, the actual zombies writing Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, Blondie and Shoe or the living dead who write B.C., the Wizard of Id and Hagar the Horrible? Except for Mary Worth, who might be created by armies of zombies and who cares? Mary Worth is as a goddess! Bow down before the amazingness that is Mary Worth! She never changes; she lives in a terrible alternate universe and she continues. . . slowly. . . on. I love Mary Worth.

By: mendel

mendel — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:11:44 -0800

I seriously cannot get why anyone would enjoy Pearls Before Swine. There is no effort put into that comic at all, not in the art, not in the characters, not in the writing. It's the most halfassed strip on the comics page, even more than the strips that we know are phoned in, like Mort Walker's properties. Then again, I've had to explain why Get Fuzzy is funny to lots of people, so I may just be entirely missing it. My five? Tough call, but limiting myself to print strips that are still getting new strips drawn: 1. Get Fuzzy 2. Bizarro 3. Foxtrot 4. Zits 5. Mutts or Zippy, tough call

By: mkhall

mkhall — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:12:47 -0800

I want to go back and add Pogo to my list, please. And while I know it belongs in the same murky proto-comics category as Little Nemo and Krazy Kat, surely I'm not the only person who feels the love for Popeye's original home, Thimble Theatre?

By: mendel

mendel — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:17:32 -0800

Oh, I meant to mention -- FBOFW has a creepy Internet underground to go with it, which I've written about before.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:20:31 -0800

Your favorite comic sucks. [Man, I can't believe we've gone 109 posts without someone saying this.]

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:23:51 -0800

Oh, and "Far Side" all the way, man.

By: hipnerd

hipnerd — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:29:33 -0800

Actually, I mentioned The Spirit as well, but the image I linked to got pulled for exceeding bandwidth. The Spirit, Calvin & Hobbes and Little Nemo's Adventures in Slumberland -- in any order.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:31:16 -0800

FBorFW isn't very funny any more. It's more boring than not. I've been really enjoying L'il Abner lately. I think Doonesbury is a must-read. For independents, I highly recommend Sinfest and The Order of the Stick. And though it's no cartoon, I think everyone should view Cute Overload each and every morning. Even grumpy hate-AM me feels better for seeing a cutesy duck or kitten.

By: elendil71

elendil71 — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:36:40 -0800

Pogo, hands down, no argument. If you dont agree, you simply havent read it. Walt Kelly was nothing short of a genius and revolutionary. But that venerable comic departed in the early fifties, so what do we have since then? Calvin and Hobbes is a clear grandchild of Pogo, and a beautiful strip. Doonesbury gets kudos for what must be the longest running political strip in history. I like For Better or For Worse for its consistent storyline but it does get a bit preachy. Top Five? 1. Pogo 2. Krazy Kat 3. Calvin and Hobbes 4. Doonesbury 5. Far Side Should also point out that there are many many wonderful webcomix out there. I'm a big fan of the more consistent ones, so PvP and ScaryGoRound top my list. Pogo still rules though.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:39:22 -0800

Calvin and Hobbes, and Pogo. I would have said The Far Side a few years ago, but going back and looking at the comics, they just aren't that funny anymore, for the most part. I'm not sure why, but they aren't as screamingly hilarious as I used to think they were. I guess my sense of humor changed.

By: I Foody

I Foody — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:42:48 -0800

I love dinosaur comics so hard. Calvin and Hobbes is my all time favorite. I read for better or worse for a couple weeks and it is like a bad TV drama that creeps on at a few minutes a week. Ghastly.

By: TedW

TedW — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:52:50 -0800

Lodurr: Here is an interview with Bil Keane where he mentions actually drawing his characters for Bill Griffith.

By: Zephyrial

Zephyrial — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:53:23 -0800

While I agree with the author's personal opinion that FBoFW has been consistently readable and consistently enjoyable, I don't think he has any grounds to say it's better than Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes. Geez.

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:54:58 -0800

You're not the only one, mkhall. I'm a big Segar fan too.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:55:47 -0800

I can't believe this thread is over 100 comments, and no fan of the The Katzenjammer Kids has piped up. OK, here I am to represent. My paternal grandfather liked the Kids. My Dad thought they were hilarious. I liked them from the time my Grandad read them to me. I've read them to my kids. Pogo is great (and Walt Kelly was a genius), but the Kids have been making smiles since 1897.

By: allkindsoftime

allkindsoftime — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:55:56 -0800

What eriko said about Calvin and Hobbes. When they went sledding down that hill, they took most of my interest in comics with them - as far as I'm concerned they're probably still sledding down that hill. Other than that only the Far Side ever came close.

By: TedW

TedW — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:58:30 -0800

More on Zippy meets the Family Circus (scroll down to near the bottom; no HTML anchors that I could find); a crossover panel is here.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:04:27 -0800

Bob the Angry Flower. I'm disappointed but not suprised at the weak reasoning behing why some comics are not good. If Terry/Pirates isn't good because of the ethnic stereotyping and the era it came out in, then Pogo can't be good for the similar reason of stereotyping, and dated politics. I don't buy it. Then, I never liked having to choose the single best thing in anything. It's too exclusionary and myopic. Choosing the worst, however is fun in a cruel sort of way. (see Family Circus)

By: tdismukes

tdismukes — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:15:32 -0800

"I seriously cannot get why anyone would enjoy Pearls Before Swine. There is no effort put into that comic at all, not in the art, not in the characters, not in the writing. It's the most halfassed strip on the comics page, even more than the strips that we know are phoned in, like Mort Walker's properties. Then again, I've had to explain why Get Fuzzy is funny to lots of people, so I may just be entirely missing it. " mendel - I had the exact same reaction to Pearls Before Swine whenever I saw it in the newspaper. I just didn't get it - everything about the strip seemed lame. Then I started reading one of the collections in the bookstore and something suddenly clicked. All of a sudden my brain clicked over into Pastis's demented worldview, and I started finding it hilarious. Maybe I just had to see enough of the strips at one time to catch on.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:46:32 -0800

PBS works for me. More so than GF. Different strokes, folks.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:48:08 -0800

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:48:17 -0800

By: karmaville

karmaville — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:50:44 -0800

fandango_matt, you forgot to make them blink...

By: sdrawkcab

sdrawkcab — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:54:44 -0800

Awesome, fandango_matt, awesome.

By: wfc123

wfc123 — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:03:02 -0800

They're not blinking, though. The blinking adds to the overall comical experience of the cartoon. Have them blink while they boink.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:13:26 -0800

You are an evil, evil man, fandango_matt. Thanks!

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:16:39 -0800

What, no love for The Outbursts of Everett True?

By: danb

danb — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:18:11 -0800

I'm partial to Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts myself.

By: jewzilla

jewzilla — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:22:42 -0800

Fuck that Farley-killing whore. Someone had to say it.

By: brujita

brujita — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:32:03 -0800

Ernie Pook's Comeek when Marlys was a pill.

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:46:23 -0800

As far as quality of illustration goes, I have to give Rose Is Rose some props. Not terribly funny, but usually interesting to look at, particularly the Sunday strips. I love the wet cat in the last panel of this one.

By: gompa

gompa — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:52:51 -0800

Lynn Johnston lives in Callander, Ontario, a very small town just outside North Bay, which is three hours and a partial lobotomy north of Toronto. The North Bay Arts Centre at some point installed life-sized statues of the For Better or For Worse characters on benches in the lobby. All through high school, every time I went to a play or a concert or even just the annual Warren Miller ski film, I had to walk past life-sized For Better or For Worse characters. My top five, in no particular order: Bloom County Peanuts Calvin & Hobbes The Far Side That Comic Strip That Played In My Head So Many Times In High School Where Someone Took An Acetylene Torch To The Lobby Of The North Bay Arts Centre

By: spock

spock — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:59:40 -0800

My favorite:

By: Bureau of Public Secrets

Bureau of Public Secrets — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:02:47 -0800

Hey, what about Little Lulu? That's certainly one of my all-time favorites. Others include Krazy Kat, Pogo, Jules Feiffer, Bill Mauldin, Robert Crumb, The Furry Freak Brothers, Mafalda (a delightful Argentine comic), The Far Side, and most recently This Modern World. Brief comments on each are posted here.

By: emjaybee

emjaybee — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:17:22 -0800

Is there no love for David Rees?? Get Your War ON Bitches! Also I share the Lynda Barry love; you can find her stuff here.

By: flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:25:21 -0800

I disagree with anyone who says Bloom Country's humour is dated. I was born the year before Bloom County ended -- gee, that dates me, huh? I found it hilarious in my early teens, despite barely getting most of the references. It got funnier every year. Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side are at the top of my list, with Peanuts close behind.

By: uosuaq

uosuaq — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:25:44 -0800

Glad to see a little more (ever-lovin', blue-eyed) Pogo love since I last commented. Once you go Pogo, you'll never go back. But really...don't take comics so *serious*, son...they ain't *no how* permanent.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:39:45 -0800

My late dad loved the Katzenjammer kids and used to read them to us kids, which I liked. A gazillion years ago when I looked at comic strips I liked Dick Tracy, Popeye, Prince Valiant and Blondie the best.

By: Iron Rat

Iron Rat — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:50:44 -0800

Don't forget how Jack Chick helps us to lead moral lives! Also hothead paison and clear blue water

By: ramix

ramix — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:01:26 -0800

Umm...you're all wrong! The best comic strip of all time is Andy Capp.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:08:55 -0800

I'd probably put Calvin and Hobbes on top, with classic Peanuts, The Far Side, and my fading memories of Bloom County on top, but I also like Rhymes with Orange and Get Your War On.

By: pgoes

pgoes — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:29:49 -0800

Life in Hell. So true.....

By: maryh

maryh — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:42:56 -0800

Hey ramix.... You know who also loves Andy Capp? Conagra! And, of course, wife-beating drunks.

By: HighTechUnderpants

HighTechUnderpants — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:49:20 -0800

Calvin and Hobbes has always been my favorite. Few comics manage to be as visually beautiful, profound, warm, and humorous at the same time. Farside's genius too, but it never hit me on as many levels as C&H did.

By: turducken

turducken — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:35:05 -0800

For sheer longevity, and best batting average (by far) in terms of brilliance/humor, it's gotta be "Peanuts." Fifty years, bitches! Rookie of the Year: "Get Fuzzy." Joe Charboneau award: "Mutts." Used to be snarky and smart, but something happened a few years ago. The strip got stupid, unfunny, and sock-monkey cutesy. Blecchh. *Honarable mention to "Andy Capp," who taught me all I know about marital relations and hydrogenated fats. (They were called "Pub Fries" when I was a youth, and I downed a lot of 'em.)

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:35:07 -0800

Calvin and Hobbes at #1, without comparison. When I was six years old, my dad brought Yukon Ho! home for me after a business trip. He never brought anything back for us after business trips, because my parents didn't want their returns greeted with, "What did you bring me," but this time he did, and I think it quite literally defined my childhood for me. In one of the links, a commenter writes that "Calvin may not have been the boy I was, but he's the boy I remember being." That's about right. While Calvin's vocabulary was far beyond mine (obviously) I quickly picked up the slack, and read that strip like a monk reads the Bible. Pogo is great, sure, and Krazy Kat is... well... at least it was innovative, but no other strip has done as much with the medium as C&H, nor done it so perfectly, so sublimely. In place of Lucy pulling the football away - a brilliant running gag of optimism in the face of futility - we had the sled and wagon strips, with Calvin and Hobbes debating philosophy while hurtling towards destiny at breakneck speeds. I didn't get all the jokes, to be sure, but I understood just enough to really want to get them all, and to learn more so that I could understand more, and the same with all of my friends. In short, not only was C&H drawn more beautifully than any other strip ever has been, not only was it better written than any other strip ever been, but it understood childhood, from a child's point of view, better than I did as a child. Oh, and it was funny as hell too, when it wasn't heartbreaking. Honorable mentions: The Far Side - it didn't invent the single panel, but every single-panel strip since then has been a pale imitation of it, with the possible exception of Pluggers, which is an admirable idea in theory but doesn't really play in practice. I particularly loved the index in one of the books - I think it was Weiner Dog Art, where every letter aside from "T" was empty, as all of the titles were along the lines of "The One About Patrick Henry." Martha Kaufman, you know you stole that joke, and it's time to give it back. Bloom County - If C&H taught me about life and vocabulary, then Opus and Steve Dallas taught me about current events. I wish I could remember my dad's face when I - all of seven years old - looked up from my comic book and asked him who Lee Iacoca was. I only hope that I can have a similar moment with my own kids one day. Pearls Before Swine - I guess I can understand how people can simply not get it, and when the Daily News started running it, they got letters from that particular group which entered the realm of sheer hatred. For me, well, it doens't work every day. Scott Adams once said that if he could write one funny strip in a week, then he'd get a pass for the other six days. Pastis often writes gags that are so bad they make you chuckle at the fact that he even attempted them, but when he hits it, the goodwill from that one laugh can last for months. My personal favorite: Rat: What do think about doctor-assisted-suicide? Pig: I'm against it. Rat: Why? Pig: Because doctors are good, and we shouldn't help them kill themselves. Rat: ... Pig: I think I'm getting smarter. Also had to love it when Rat was visiting other strips to hang out with the animals, and came uppon the FBoFW family, asking them if Farley could come out and play. That was awesome. Then he went to Get Fuzzy and realized that he and Bucky were a perfect match. For Better or For Worse - The jokes are lame, and the blinking should simply not be allowed, but for some damn reason or another, I care about the characters. I don't get it either. And xkcd is the best comic on the web, IMHO.

By: ktoad

ktoad — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:50:40 -0800

mkhall - Great call on Popeye/Thimble Theatre! So many funny, bizarre adventures in there. I'm really excited for this fall's new reprint. Hopefully it'll be the first of many.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 01:44:15 -0800

"Wombat", and "Dry Shave" by Rod Filbrandt. (click on 'Comic Strips')

By: johnny7

johnny7 — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 02:27:27 -0800

Doonesbury.By a country mile.

By: heylight

heylight — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 04:42:19 -0800

I just read exactly five strips from For Better or Worse and have concluded that it's extremely lame. Maybe someone should link me to some strips that aren't, well, extremely lame. Meanwhile I'll nominate Dinosaur Comics, Perry Bible Fellowship and Achewood as some of the best comics on the web, and probably ever.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:08:57 -0800

I'd also like to give the nod to Calvin and Hobbes. Runner-up used to go to the Far Side, but it's tarnished a bit over the years. Like the Simpsons--the jokes just become part of your life, and you stop finding them funny. Since my sense of humor grew more macabre, I switched to The Parking Lot is Full. Nowadays there's nothing to fill the void... sad, really.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:12:55 -0800

Sample:

By: GhostintheMachine

GhostintheMachine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:40:41 -0800

What, no love for "Rose Is Rose"? I kid, trust me. Peanuts belongs with Garfield, Wizard of Id, Hagar, Beetle Bailey, and all those other tired retread strips, where the pinnacle of their achievement is mild amusement and bland consistency. Their longevity relates more to their innocuousness than their high quality. Pogo, The Spirit, Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side... these I can read over and over. Nothing beats the feeling of anticipation you get reading one for the first time. I can vividly recall many individual C&H ("Calvin! What are you doing?!?!" "Is that a trick question?") and Far Side ("Wait, wait... It says first the cereal, THEN the milk.") strips, whereas I can't seem to recall a single specific Peanuts strip. But I think I'll go check out some of these new suggestions, because there's no joy in creating a "Best of" list if you're not open to revise it every so often.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:08:45 -0800

Peanuts belongs with ... The genre-definers? The innovators? No, with 'the bland.' Hmm. Have to chew on that one. Bear in mind that no Peanuts you see now is less than about ten years old, and most will be much older than that. You won't be seeing anything "new", in other words. Ever. And no, it's never had any edginess, though in its time it was quite groundbreaking in the type of stories it would tell. (I mean, who wants to read a comic strip about a bald, depressed eight year old who gets picked on all the time? Come on, what a downer.) Anyway, judgements of 'Peanuts' against modern strips is quite unfair, just as judgement of 'Popeye' would be. 'Peanuts' has to be understood in context. At the time, there was nothing else like it. It was the harbinger of minimalist cartooning, and Schulz in his prime (which lasted a long time) was consistently funny and original, even if not to everyone's taste. If you look at Doonesbury, Calvin, Life in Hell, "King of the Hill", much of Far Side, a lot of modern political cartoonists, and the work of Kliban (just to name a few), you see the influence of Schulz's sense of humor. I know for a fact (because I've read or heard them all say it) that Trudeau, Watterston, Larson and Groening all thought they were influenced by Schulz. It's probably fair to say that Schulz inspired a lot of bad artists to get into cartooning. That's not his fault. Anybody who makes it look easy is liable to do that, especially if they make part of the execution easier. You could make as much of a case for damning Chuck Jones. AFter all, he as much as anyone led the charge to using "smear cells" to depict cartoon motion.

By: GhostintheMachine

GhostintheMachine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:51:31 -0800

So show me, lodurr. Show me a genuinely funny Peanuts strip. Show me primetime Schulz. I've read some very old Peanuts strips, and nothing I read rose above "happiness is a warm puppy" in quality - they're nice in the most damning sense of the word. I don't mind being proven wrong. Come up with a Peanuts strip that you find funny, and we'll let those still reading this post judge. As for groundbreaking, it certainly wasn't the first strip about a "bald, depressed eight year old who gets picked on". Yes, I know many others, including some I admire, were influenced by Schulz. So what? As you basically point out yourself, it's what you make of that influence that matters.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 07:04:19 -0800

GhostintheMachine...check these out before you judge too harshly. There's more to Peanuts than that "Happiness is a warm puppy" crap.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 07:09:38 -0800

Best comic strip you've never heard of: The Perishers. Specifically the Collins/Dodd strips from 1957-1983. At the top of its game, it was second to none.

By: Melinika

Melinika — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 07:22:00 -0800

AFAIK Lynn Johnston doesn't draw the FBOFW strips anymore. She has people doing it for her. (Eyesight issues.) In 2001, Johnston announced plans to end the strip in 2007, when her current contract ends. In explaining her decision to retire, she cited her neurological illness (dystonia) and medication, difficulties with her eyesight, growing difficulty in understanding today's young families, and desire to have more free time for other interests. She also noted that, given the complexity of her stories, it will take a few years to wrap up plot lines. (source)

By: prostyle

prostyle — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 07:25:46 -0800

People love shitty soap operas. News at 11. See: FBOW, Funky Winkerbean, etc

By: lodurr

lodurr — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 07:51:07 -0800

Ghostinthemachine, you don't think Schulz is funny. That's fine. (Though the fact that you can gloss Peanuts as "happiness is a warm puppy" clearly indicates that you haven't read much of it.) But the fact that you think that doesn't mean that it is 'innocuous'. All it means is that you think it is. Wait, I forgot. It's your day to decide what's cool....

By: fet

fet — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:06:48 -0800

No love for the Lockhorns?! (I was devastated when Bloom County ended. The followups -- Opus, Outland -- kinda sucked. Bummer.)

By: pracowity

pracowity — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:22:34 -0800

Gahan Wilson was always pretty good.

By: GhostintheMachine

GhostintheMachine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:30:59 -0800

Ease off on the snark there, lodurr. My day to decide what's cool? If that's the case, why would I challenge you to find a funny strip, and let everyone else decide if it truly is funny? Again, find me a good old Peanuts strip. The old ones are hard to find online, so I'll accept a description of one. I'll grant you they're better than Family Circus, but that's faint praise. Honestly, sincerely, and truly, I swear I'll approach this with an open mind. My reading of Peanuts dates back to the mid 60s, so there's a good 15 years of content I've missed (which is five years longer than the full run of C&H). Next time I'm in a bookstore or library I'll look for those complete Peanuts hardcovers The Card Cheat referenced above (I don't plan on buying one, mind you...). It is unfair to judge a comic based only on its last 35 years. But considering most of the early ones have been long out of print, I doubt there are many others who are judging it based on a different experience than mine.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:51:45 -0800

I've never read Pogo (but will today), but as far as modern comics go, Calvin & Hobbes just beats the bejeezus out of the others. I love Bloom County and the Far Side, but Calvin is the only one that I'd call true art (not for its awesome visual art, but for its insight into the human condition). (Not that I want to start a debate about what art is). I used to carry a Peanuts strip around with me to show to people, trying to figure out what the joke was. It was (I think) Charlie and Franklin, and Franklin says: Panel One: My grandfather says he'll never understand life. Panel Two: Just last week he bought a new car ... Panel Three: ... but he got the flu anyway! Is the joke that grandpa's senile? Or is there some kind of pun that I don't get? Seriously, this thing has haunted me for over a decade.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:58:51 -0800

I suspect Peanuts and some of these other strips are sentimental favorites that people might not like so much if they started running as new strips today. I don't recall Charlie Brown ever making me laugh.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:01:51 -0800

Is the joke that grandpa's senile? Or is there some kind of pun that I don't get? No, man! Peanuts isn't a jokey, punchline kind of humor. It really is all the things that pretentious comic nerds say about it: existentialist and universal, all about failure, rejection, dissillusionment. I think that strip is hilarious. It's funny because of our irrational expectations and post-hoc reasoning. Buying a car didn't change anything about his life, but we invest so much of ourselves in those kinds of dreams. There's nothing to "get", it's not a set-up, it's just funny. Well, explaining humor (almost) always makes it worse. I can't imagine how people read Peanuts and come away with Family Circus++. Schulz was a master. But I doubt I can explain why if you don't already agree.

By: Ber

Ber — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:08:40 -0800

Does anyone have a link to an online Pogo collection? I never got it when I was a kid (except for the Spiro Agnew character) and I think I need to review it. Until then: Bloom County, C&H, Far Side, Peanuts. PVP and Foxtrot get me through these barren years.

By: Jupiter Jones

Jupiter Jones — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:14:04 -0800

My list, in no particular order 1) Achewood 2) Bloom Country 3) Calvin and Hobbes 4) Scarygoround 5) The Far Side

By: gramschmidt

gramschmidt — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:04:15 -0800

Dan Bejar's Family Circus, courtesy of the guy at The Catbirdseat. Reload for a different caption. Arcane and absurdist, much like Fred Bassett.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:19:56 -0800

Very well, Ghostinthemachine. Here are two scenarios from The Card Cheat's link:

Lucy sets up her booth and offers her first five-cent psychiatric counsel. (Her advice to a forlorn Charlie Brown: “Get over it.”) For the very first time, Linus spends all night in the pumpkin patch on his lonely vigil for the Great Pumpkin (although he laments that he was a victim of “false doctrine,” he’s back 12 months later).

As sonofsiam notes, these aren't jokes with punchlines. They're just situations that are funny. Standard Lucy "Therapist is in" gag: Charlie Brown keeps talking, but she stops hearing him as soon as his nickel's worth is up. I get a smile just thinking about the "Red Baron" schticks, which went through many versions and revisions. Woodstock appearing in WW-I era infantryman's garb to play Snoopy's foil. Then appearing later with a whole collection of relatives dressed just like him, and implicitly over-ruling Snoopy. Or the way that Woodstock "spoke" only in vertical lines: "||||||| |||| ||| |||| |||||." If I have to explain why it works, as sonofsiam noted, it stops being funny. But so does anything. Case in point, explain why this is funny:

By: sluggo

sluggo — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:38:47 -0800

Can you SEE the shock on my poor stubbly face? FOR SHAME!

By: davelog

davelog — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:11:18 -0800

Case in point, explain why this is funny: Because in reality, cats can only sing in Dutch?

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:16:37 -0800

Again, find me a good old Peanuts strip. The old ones are hard to find online, so I'll accept a description of one. I'll grant you they're better than Family Circus, but that's faint praise. "Peanuts" is never (at least in my experience) ha-ha funny. But most strips aren't ha-ha funny, either. "Peanuts" is appealing because of its weird, idiosyncratic take on the world and on its cast of strange characters. I would agree that Schulz lost his touch at a certain point, after which he was basically on cruise control for 20 or 25 years. But a lot of his strips from the 1950s and 1960s are amazing pieces of absurdity and art. And again, they aren't ha-ha funny. A lot of the "humor," if there is any, is black humor, almost sadistically black. You have to delve into it to appreciate it. But isn't that true of any "classic" or "best of" comic strip? The ones where you can drop in and out of the strip and take it or leave it each day are a dime a dozen. The ones that demand your ongoing attention and commitment are the ones worth following.

By: ORthey

ORthey — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:45:17 -0800

Every single Calvin and Hobbes strip has a message. They're beautiful, hilarious, sad, thoughtful, and a lot of other adjectives. It's the only one I've ever really considered "art." And he quit while he was ahead! Who does that??? And he never sold out! fBofW is painful to read, IMHO.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:27:09 -0800

Plasticman!

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:33:48 -0800

By: elendil71

elendil71 — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:39:19 -0800

Does anyone have a link to an online Pogo collection? I've not been able to find a decent online link (here are some links to source material) but I would not dissuade you from just going out and buying the books, if you can find them. Almost all the original books are out of print and have been for years. Try Bookfinder. Ten Ever-Loving Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo (Simon and Schuster 1959) is probably a good start for a retrospective and has some great commentary by the author as well. If you can find some of the original compilations, however, they are HIGHLY recommended. The political satire and just down-home sweetness is absolutely priceless. IMHO there are only a mere handful of comic strips of true orginality, clarity of vision and artistry and Walt Kelly's Pogo sits at the throne of that lofty pinnacle.

By: Football Bat

Football Bat — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:39:27 -0800

It's certainly not the best ever written, but someone should at least mention Penny Arcade, for not suckling on syndicate cock.

By: GhostintheMachine

GhostintheMachine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:00:15 -0800

I wasn't asking anyone to explain the humour, nor did I ever suggest a strip had to be all jokes in order to be funny. But comments like "he was basically on cruise control for 20 or 25 years" and "the fact that you can gloss Peanuts as 'happiness is a warm puppy' clearly indicates that you haven't read much of it" (when that 1959/1960 strip is identified in the Complete Peanuts link as "one of the most famous Peanuts strips ever") indicates to me that Peanuts was good for its first 10 years or so, and then settled into its familiar mediocre self. Ten points if you can parse that sentence as intended without getting a headache. So fine, I'll accept that possibility, and go read those first ten years of strips. Maybe you're right, and I will become an aficionado of early, in-his-prime Schulz. This could be the equivalent of defending the acting talents of 1940s and 1950s movie stars based solely on their TV appearances on Love Boat or Fantasy Island. I'm willing to accept that Angela Lansbury circa Manchurian Candidate is a far cry from her days on Murder, She Wrote, and Peanuts may be the same. Although Mikey-san's homage above is perhaps the best Peanuts strip I've ever see.

By: GhostintheMachine

GhostintheMachine — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:01:07 -0800

ummm.... seen.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:17:20 -0800

Mikey-sans' image is actually the fist ever Peanuts strip, for those who don't know. Or, at least, the top half of it is. The bottom half was added, but makes it even funnier. (and if y'all want, I can try to explain why it makes it funnier...)

By: Ber

Ber — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:03:23 -0800

In further defense of Schultz, having a dog put on goggles and flying his doghouse like it was a Sopwith Camel is so far out there for a mainstream comic strip in the 60s, you had to almost wonder what the guy was smoking.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:12:51 -0800

I love it when bullet holes appear in the side of the doghouse. Curse you, Red Baron!

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:18:51 -0800

If MeFi was a comic, would we all be small furry creatures or what? Would we be drawn like Doonesbury? Would it be a one panel or a strip? Would Matt be the lead character? Would it be more than one strip?

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:38:27 -0800

ZachsMind, I'm begging you to put that question to AskMeFi, in the hopes that somebody out there with more html capabilities and artistic talent than me could start drawing up ideas (Matt, obviously, but also Smedleyman, Delmoi, Steven C. Den Beste, keswick, etc.) Please, if you haven't already done so, bring it up in the green. For our nation to heal, we need that thread. Oh, and it would be a multi-panel thing, with the characters in absurd situations, but using the exact dialog from the comments. I think.

By: Ogre Lawless

Ogre Lawless — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:56:37 -0800

Please, if you haven't already done so, bring it up in the green. For our nation to heal, we need that thread. Reason for deletion: meh, chatfilter

By: crataegus

crataegus — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:57:21 -0800

I'm glad someone else mentioned Space Moose.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:09:33 -0800

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:21:02 -0800

If MeFi was a comic, would we all be small furry creatures or what? Angry little periods. Or, ages and ages ago, someone described imagining Metafilter being a bunch of people sitting in chairs, like a support group or something. When someone posts, they get up, proclaim what they're posting, and then sit down. Sort of like that. Harvey Pekar style.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:56:38 -0800

Ghostinthemachine: ... (when that 1959/1960 strip is identified in the Complete Peanuts link as "one of the most famous Peanuts strips ever") ... Um.... read it again. That's not what it says. Though the fact that you thought it was, could explain a lot.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:59:16 -0800

Oops, I misread. Looking for eggwipes, now. I read it as "funniest Peanuts strip ever." Still, though, I'm not sure why that matters. All it says is that it's what people remember. People remember Richard Nixon for "I am not a crook," not dropping thousands of tons of ordinance on Cambodia.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:36:03 -0800

I couldn't bring myself to tarnish the Green with my smut. How about MeTa?

By: augustweed

augustweed — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:27:10 -0800

1 2 3

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:33:33 -0800

I've changed my vote. fandango_matt's are the best comic strips ever.

By: wobh

wobh — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 21:54:34 -0800

GhostintheMachine , I thought the very one you linked to back there was laugh-out-loud funny. I read it four times just now, and each time I laughed at a different frame. I'm chuckling just thinking about it. Really, this challenge you've given is the very stuff Peanuts was made from. Perhaps you'll find it funny. Perhaps you'll say, "I'm sorry Lodurr, but I just don't like Peanuts."

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:32:48 -0800

FoBoFW is hardly ever funny, but it's still a good comic. (I wouldn't say the best by any stretch.) The same was true of Gasoline Alley, some Doonesbury, etc. Incidentally, reading old Doonesbury books is a great, great way to learn about American politics/history of the period covered. It helps you remember stuff about, for example, the Ford administration, that otherwise would be too boring and un-personally-connected, if you were born too late. The same is probably true of Bloom County, if you were born really late.

By: spira

spira — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:44:22 -0800

I think For Better or Worse is the best family strip ever produced. The strip is far weaker than it used to be, as Johnston has implicitly admitted, and I rarely read it anymore. But I followed it every day for year. I'd rank C&H #1 overall. I think Doonesbury's run has been a colossal achievement, though I much prefer the Doonesbury character oriented strips over the purely political cartoons. I got about 10 Pogo books and 12 Pogo comics as a bar Mitzvah present, and have been a fan ever since. And I consider Bloom County to be one of the classics. Breathed's follow-ups have made it clear that doing a Sundays only strip just doesn't work