Fri 5 Jun 2020
Rating the Comics: HARTFORD COURANT (June 2020).
Posted by Steve under Comic Books, Cartoons, Comic Strips[30] Comments
I’ve been meaning to do this for quite a while. I don’t go to the comic pages in my daily newspaper first everyday, but they come close. The ratings below, on a scale from 0 to 100, are totally subjective, and if I were to do this again a few months from now, they’d probably change, but not by too much, I hope. I won’t describe any of them. If there are any you’re not familiar with, well, that’s what they invented Google for. Feel free to comment, however, and if you have any favorites that the Courant doesn’t carry, I’d like to know about them.
PEANUTS Charles Schulz. 98
CLASSIC DOONESBURY Garry Trudeau. Not read.
GARFIELD Jim Davis. 90
SHOE Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly. 90
DUSTIN Steve Kelley & Jeff Parker 90
PEARLS BEFORE SWINE Stephan Pastis 94
MUTTS Patrick MacDonnell 92
ARCTIC CIRCLE Alex Hallett 40
JUMP START Robb Armstrong 30
GET FUZZY Darby Conley 10
BLONDIE Dean Young & John Marshall 95
DILBERT Scott Adams 98
GIL THORPE Neal Rubin & Frank McLaughlin Not read.
MARY WORTH Karen Moy & June Brigham Not read.
REX MORGAN, M. D. Terry Beatty Not read.
JUDGE PARKER Woody Wilson & Mike Manley Not read.
BALDO Canu & Castellanos 88
FUNKY WINKERBEAN Tom Batiuk 20
LIO Mark Tatulli 20
WIZARD OF ID Johnny Hart & Brant Parker 80
RHYMES WITH ORANGE Hillary Price 70
MONTY Jim Meddick 25
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE Lynn Johnston 80
B.C. Hart 85
BEETLE BAILEY Mort, Greg & Brian Walker 92
HI & LOIS Greg & Brian Walker and Chance Browne 92
HAGAR THE HORRIBLE Chris Browne 94
NON SEQUITUR Wiley Miller 10
CURTIS Ray Billingsley 85
PICKLES Brian Crane 99
ZITS Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman 92
ROSE IS ROSE Pat Brady & Don Wimmer 40
MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM Mike Peters 92
ZIPPY Bill Griffith Not read.
Ha! Not as easy as I thought. I’ve changed some of these numbers several times already.
June 5th, 2020 at 2:37 pm
Can’t say I read the comics much (or ever, do they even print newspapers anymore?) but I used to love the Calvin And Hobbes comics.
June 5th, 2020 at 3:08 pm
Calvin and Hobbes? 110 !
June 5th, 2020 at 3:39 pm
No Kerry Drake, Mandrake, (were they related?) Phantom, Sweeney & Son, L’il Abner, Terry and the Pirates?
What is going on here?
June 5th, 2020 at 3:51 pm
All adventure comics are long gone, as far as the Courant is concerned. I don’t think any of the ones you mention, all favorites of mine, are still running anywhere, but you probably know that. (Please correct me if I’m wrong!) The closest is Gil Thorpe, which is about high school sports only, and very boring. Are things any better in your newspaper?
June 5th, 2020 at 4:20 pm
David P. sent this along as an example of a Calvin strip he’s especially fond of. It’s a Sunday strip, and probably too large to read this small, but here goes:
June 5th, 2020 at 5:18 pm
Steve, in a single word, the answer is,and you guessed it, no.
June 5th, 2020 at 5:57 pm
Your newspaper comics page is dying from neglect. You have four strips running repeats (DOONESBURY is original on Sunday only). The youngest strip is DUSTIN at ten years old.
Newspaper comics strips are my first love. I have collected comic strip originals (the original art of the cartoonist) since I was six. One of the most important influences in my life was Charles Schulz’s PEANUTS. Remember Steve, one of my earliest reviews was SPEED WALKER a comedy strip about a PI? https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=7070
You can find most of the comics you seek online. Gocomics.com has CALVIN AND HOBBS and around five hundred other comics. I read 100 comics there including PEANUTS CLASSIC (from the 70s), PEANUTS BEGINS (from the 50s),PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, ARLO & JANIS, ADAM @ HOME, TANK MCNAMARA, and bizarre OVER THE HEDGE. Gocomics also has new and old versions of BC, WIZARD OF ID, and THE NORM. They also have the best new comic WALLACE THE BRAVE and some of the best webcomics such as SKIN HORSE , SWAN EATERS, and MEXIKID STORIES.
ComicsKingdom is home for King Features and for $19.95 offers their lineup for current newspapers (that can be found for free at certain newspapers online editions) and vintage comics. The current group includes PARDON MY PLANET, PROS AND CONS, RHYMES WITH ORANGE, and surreal MACANUDO and SALLY FORTH. Their current story comics include the very good THE PHANTOM and JUDGE PARKER and the very bad story strips such as MARK TRAIL and REX MORGAN MD. ComicKingdom pay level has vintage strips THIMBLE THEATRE (POPEYE), RIP KIRBY, JOHNNY HAZARD, BUZ SAWYER, MANDRAKE and BEN BOLT.
The new DICK TRACY can be found at both comic sites and likes to feature old characters long gone such as Steve Roper and Mike Nomad.
Some of the best comics are webcomics. I once was the submission editor for a webcomics group called Full Tilt and never stopped finding great strips for all tastes. Facebook has sites for many comics including my favorite MAN OVERBOARD and an occassional update from BLOOM COUNTY. Others include QUESTIONABLE CONTENT, SOMETHING POSITIVE, BUG MARTINI, and XLCD. There are graphic novels that run a page a day such as GIRL GENIUS and SPACETRAWLER. FAR SIDE repeats are back. There are personal comics such as ANNE AND GOD, PH.D and PIGEON GAZETTE. Comics you can read by email from the artists such as BOBBINS and CAT AND GIRL.
It is a great time for the comic strip reader not only can you read every syndicate comic available (instead of a handful the local newspaper editor picks for you) but you can read comics from the past as well as today.
June 5th, 2020 at 6:23 pm
Thank you, Michael, thank you. This is the kind of comment I was hoping for, and more. As you can tell with the number of strips I rated in the 90s, I’m reasonably happy with the choices I’m given. But yes, CT is the land of steady habits, and even ones I usually get a laugh out of, like Blondie, I have to admit are old beyond belief. Dagwood’s office now has computers but the jokes are still over 60 years old, and more.
Most of the ones you mention, Michael, I do not recognize at all, and yes some of them sound interesting, but I just don’t have the time to search them out online. I don’t enjoy them that way, but then again I never thought I’d own a Kindle, but I do.
June 5th, 2020 at 7:26 pm
I understand Steve but you would find either gocomics or comicskingdom sites easier than you think.
You can read for free at gocomics but both have services worth paying for. Both offer a free trial to new readers. The pay scale is $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. For that you go in and select the comics you want for your personal comics page. Gocomics offers more comics but for your needs I recommend comicskindom. Set up the comics you want (you can change your list as often as you like even just keep it the same forever). You can read that at the site but I would recommend you have the list emailed to you. If you are like me you visit your email a lot. There you will find your comics waiting for you in your email instead of your newspaper. You can continue reading your newspaper but this will give you a chance to read those you don’t currently get anytime you want.
June 5th, 2020 at 8:11 pm
I used to love reading comic strips, but somehow lost the habit.
Still read comic books.
ZIPPY is one of the supreme achievements of the comics medium.
JUDGE PARKER, GIL THORPE, and REX MORGAN MD were around when I was a kid in the LANSING STATE JOURNAL. Am amazed to see them still going.
June 5th, 2020 at 8:15 pm
I have many print books of old THIMBLE THEATRE (POPEYE). It too is a gem!
ARLO & JANIS is fun too.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:14 pm
Zippy is one of those strips that either you get, or you don’t. I gave up a long time ago.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:12 pm
The Phantom is actually as good as it has ever been since the days of its original run, and Prince Valiant has better stories than it has for years as well as brilliant art by former Zorro and Tarzan artist Thomas Yeates.
Of the humor strips I get, a few match yours, but I really like Sally Forth and Red and Rover. No few of the strips are reruns of classics in the Washington Post too, but it is still nice to see them daily. Some I only read once in a while and a few like Spiderman and Mark Trail not at all.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:20 pm
I’d love to see The Phantom at work every day. I had no idea he was still around. The Courant still carries Prince Valiant on Sundays, but the space they give it is tiny. Not like the old days, when many strips such as PV had full pages to themselves.
The Sunday carries not of the daily ones ply Valiant, Fox Trot, and one other that’s not coming to mind right now. All in only four pages, hidden in the section with all the local store flyers.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:36 pm
If there are life coaches, I am going to volunteer as Steve’s comic strip coach. It will be hard on both of us.
Since he is still reading the local newspaper – for reasons that escape me – we will keep his comics here and use the websites for different comics. Anyone who does not read every comics on the page (even those you hate) means you don’t want to spend too much time reading comics so I will keep the list short.
I recommend you start reading THE PHANTOM (I will use Steves rating system -98) and JUDGE PARKER (92) in your newspaper.
We start with Comics Kingdom current line-up makes up a lot of Steve’s 90+ comics. I would suggest FLASH GORDON (Sat only) and PRINCE VALIANT (Sunday only). I would suggest he sample PROS AND CONS and PARDON MY PLANET. Both score high with me but might not appeal to Steve based on his ratings of others. MALLARD FILLMORE has a new cartoonist currently doing the strip. It is still conservative but it now aims for jokes rather than rants.
The best part of Comics Kingdom is its Vintage section.
It doesn’t get better than JOHNNY HAZARD. It doesn’t get worse than old JUDGE PARKER a bad soap opera.
Others I would recommend are RIP KIRBY, BUZ SAWYER, SECRET AGENT X-9, FLASH GORDON, PRINCE VALIANT (Sunday only) and BEN BOLT. Others you might consider include JUNGLE JIM (Sunday – beautiful but hard to read) BRICK BRADFORD, RADIO PATROL, KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED, MANDRAKE and THIMBLE THEATRE.
I recommend you try DICK TRACY available at both Comics Kingdom and GoComics.
Over at GoComics there are more to chose from but not as many that rate 90+ for you. GARFIELD, BC and WIZARD OF ID are available in new version and in classic rerun version. PEANUTS is available in the newspaper version (strips from the 70s on) and in PEANUTS BEGINS (with strips from 50s, 60s).
Strips I recommend for you are ARLO & JANIS, CALVIN AND HOBBS, DARK SIDE OF THE HORSE, LAST KISS, CITIZEN DOG and WALLACE THE BRAVE. I would suggest you sample THE BUCKETS, FRANK AND ERNEST, OVER THE EDGE, WUMO, and THE BARN. If you know what book the name SKIN HORSE comes from you should be reading the great fantasy webcomic (even if you don’t know the book the comic is worth reading). Webcomics can run uneven, it can be great for awhile then not very good the next. Two webcomics at Gocomics that are in their great period are SWAN EATERS and MEXIKID STORIES.
I tried to keep it short but there are others out there you might enjoy.
June 6th, 2020 at 11:46 am
As I’m sure you realize, Michael, most of these strips I have never heard of. They’re a brand new world for me. I love it! Thanks!!
June 5th, 2020 at 10:41 pm
I’ve been reading comics for most of my life. I attended a session on Superman at the Popular Culture Association a number of years ago. At some point in the session I realized I had been reading Superman for 50 years! When I saw this post today I couldn’t believe you could generate as many comments as you did in such a short period of time, but maybe the times we’re living in require something like the comics to keep us sane.
June 6th, 2020 at 11:55 am
I have been reading comic strips in the daily paper since I was three. The ones a remember are ETTA KETT and HENRY (comic adventures bald-headed boy). Perhaps THE LITTLE KING. I’m not sure about that one. I’m sure I had no idea what was going on in ETTA KETT (teen-aged girl and family) but for some reason I can still picture some of the panels in my mind.
But come to think of it, I never “read” HENRY. I don’t think there ever was any dialogue.
And here’s one more: BIG SISTER.
June 6th, 2020 at 11:35 am
I’d echo the recommendations for PEANUTS, CALVIN AND HOBBS, ARLO & JANIS, TANK MCNAMARA, THIMBLE THEATRE (POPEYE), BRICK BRADFORD, RADIO PATROL, SECRET AGENT X-9.
Do they have that soap opera spoof THE VIRTUE OF VERA VALIANT.
What about golden oldies like POLLY AND HER PALS, BRINGING UP FATHER, SAPPO.
What about that masterpiece KRAZY KAT.
Here’s my little article on RADIO PATROL:
http://mikegrost.com/patrol.htm
As Pop says in POLLY AND HER PALS: “Good Night Nurse!”
June 6th, 2020 at 11:58 am
Thanks again, guys. I think if I wanted to, I could spend all my time scouting out all these strips you’ve recommended and reminded me of, old and new, and have time for nothing else. Right now I’m still playing with my new toy, streaming TV online. Time to add a few more in a day!
June 6th, 2020 at 2:01 pm
Here is the link to Comics Kingdom. Scroll to bottom of page for list of comics they carry.
https://www.comicskingdom.com
You will notice they carry KRAZY KAT, LITTLE KING, and BRINGING UP FATHER.
The great POLLY AND HER PALS is available in book form as many of the classics are – even my favorite old classic KING AROO by Jack Kent.
The movie based on BRINGING UP FATHER is available on YouTube.
No dialog strips such as LITTLE KING today include LIO and (some times talks) DARK SIDE OF THE HORSE.
It has been a long time since I did my Top Five list for comic strips.
PEANUTS by Charles Schulz
TOP OF THE WORLD by Mark Tonra
KING AROO by Jack Kent
JOHNNY HAZARD by Frank Robbins
THE SPIRIT by Wil Eisner (it started in the Sunday comics).
Steve don’t forget to listen to radio and read books as well as watch TV and read comics.
June 6th, 2020 at 3:07 pm
I spend six hours a day on each. The other 12 on blogging about them all.
June 6th, 2020 at 2:04 pm
I can’t believe anyone likes Mutts.
I read many strips.
Alley Oop-Can’t go wrong with a time travelling cave man.
Andy Capp–Actually more subversive now than when it first came out.
Brewster Rocket and Rip Haywire are parodies of adventure strips, and pretty good in that regard.
The Barn, Big Nate, Brevity, Broom Hilda, Close to Home, Daddy’s Home, Drabble, Fusco Brothers, Lio, WuMo, Sherman’s Lagoon, Todd the Dinosaur is a partial list of humor strips I usually read.
June 6th, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Glen Davis, MUTTS has an art style and the sweet greeting card humor many enjoy, but I am not one of those people either.
Do you like the modern version of ALLEY OOP that old fans despise? It is among the growing group of old established strips turned over to new young cartoonist who make old fans cry over new extreme changes. NANCY and HEART OF THE CITY are two others.
Dan Thompson does RIP HAYWIRE and BREVITY as well as LOST SHEEP and HARLEY.
LUG NUTS is done by the guy who does FUSCO BROTHERS.
You might also enjoy SCARY GARY, ANIMAL CRACKERS, MIDDLETONS and THE GRIZZWELLS.
June 6th, 2020 at 5:50 pm
I don’t mind the new Alley Oop.
Harley is all repeats, I believe.
I like Scary Gary, too.
June 6th, 2020 at 6:30 pm
HARLEY may be reruns, I believe LOST SHEEP is reruns of one of his first strips.
June 7th, 2020 at 1:48 pm
Sounds like the comics page is a good place to start reading the newspaper.
June 7th, 2020 at 5:00 pm
No doubt about that, Randy. But sometimes I leave the best until last.
June 7th, 2020 at 11:34 pm
Actually, Steve, that’s what I do, glance through the first four sections of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and then dive into the Variety section and read the comics. I’ve thought about beginning with the comics and then doing the serious stuff, but I might not get to the serious stuff. I also take the Sunday St. Paul Pioneer Press and that has another batch of comics with only a few that overlap.
We also have a very good editorial cartoonist in Steve Sack, but that’s another story.
I enjoy the malaprops in CRANKSHAFT. The first time I noticed them was when the guys were watching football on TV and Crankshaft said that one player had made “a hairy male pass.” One of the women in the room started to correct him and then said “Never mind.” I wish I knew the date of that gag.
January 26th, 2021 at 1:45 am
@michaels: I’m curious what comic strip coach recommendations you’d have for me? My favorites:
Cul de Sac
Calvin & Hobbes
Mafalda
Footrot Flats
Barnaby
Pogo
King Aroo
Pickles
Moomin
The Little King
Agnes
Pooch Cafe
…And what little I’ve been able to still find of…
Franklin Fibbs
Monkeyhouse
2 Cows and a Chicken
Top of the World!
Sir Bagby
Alex’s Restaurant