Dear Readers:
On a recent trip to Boston, Dr. Ink bought a Sunday paper and was surprised at how many comic strips in the Boston Globe were different from those in his hometown paper, the St. Pete Times. In general, Doc liked the Globe’s collection much better, perhaps because of the novelty of being exposed to strips he had never seen before.
But first, Doc offers this critique of the funny papers in the Times:
Pickles: Grade: A — Funny, well drawn, cranky old couple.
Doonesbury: Grade: A- — Suffered through a Clinton slump, but seems energized by George W. and his happy camp of warmongers.
Dilbert: Grade: B+ — Fine satire of the workplace, but the art gives Doc a headache.
Mother Goose & Grimm: Grade: B — Dog rules, human drools.
Shoe and Peanuts: These remain classics, but Doc says “May they rest in peace.”
Doc rarely reads: Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Cathy, Blondie, Marmaduke, Gasoline Alley, Snuffy Smith, Hi & Lois, Marvin, and Garfield.
These strips in The Boston Globe caught Doc’s roaming eye:
Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley: clueless human surrounded by edgy animals.
Adam @ Home by Brian Basset: chorus of kids comment on shaggy dad in wired world.
Stone Soup by Jan Eliot: mischievous daughter plays for attention of busy mom.
Rose Is Rose by P. Brady: Mars and Venus hook up, oddly. No dialogue.Very well drawn.
Monty by Jim Meddick: man gets into traffic accident with small car full of circus clowns. Nice gag.
Arlo and Janis: Doc really liked this one, a riff off of Hamlet and Yorick, using a Jack-o-Lantern instead of a skull.
Now, Doc well understands the tumult caused when a newspaper drops a comic strip. Chances are that even a tiresome strip (remember the stultifying Dondi?) probably has a small, devoted, and well-armed posse of readers. But, please, St. Pete Times. Your town is no longer considered the world’s largest outdoor mausoleum, the home of the newly wed and nearly dead. But you won’t rid us of that rep until you ditch Snuffy Smith and give us Boondocks, until you whack Cathy and give us Zippy the Pinhead.
