Ha ha ha, he's such a BIG AWKWARD DOG. And that's what makes it FUNNY! In an unusual appeal, the Kansas City Star has asked their readers to pick out which comic strips get the boot:
Not to be critical, but our daily comics pages are feeling a little stale to us in FYI. And when that happens, it’s time to ask you, our readers, for help.
Below is a list of 10 comics that are no longer authored by their creators or are revisiting old story lines, are similar to others on The Star’s comic pages, or that we think are tired. Which ones could you live without? Pick five you could let go of and let us know. We’ll use the results to help make room for promising comics we’d like you to see.
Our goal today is a mix of styles and story lines that entertain and speak to our values as well as our times. Please help us get there.
B.C.
Beetle Bailey
Bizarro
For Better or for Worse
Cathy
Mark Trail
Marmaduke
Real Life Adventures
Shoe
Wizard of Id
Ha! He's the laziest mofo in the army! 4315 war casualties in Iraq!
That's relevancy!
Now, the idea is to pick 5 you think should go.
(Imagine if comic books did this to figure out who gets canceled?)
This is great. Does anyone like Marmaduke? I can't think of any other onees, but that's probably because I don't read the paper. :/
ReplyDelete(Imagine if comic books did this to figure out who gets canceled?)
A girl can dream.
I thought the entire point of newspaper comics was a quick, soul-free laugh. So I don't understand why they all of the sudden care.
ReplyDeleteCathy needs the dirt nap, ditto Beetle Bailey. Basically, any comic strip based on eating and/or laziness jokes, and/or giant dogs, and/or Far Side rip-offs, need to go.
ReplyDeleteAnd little neurotic children with big heads.'Nough of that.
I doubt anyone would miss it if they removed all of them. I don't know about Bizarro or Real Life Adventures, but every other one of those has been around since at least when I was a kid, and except for Mark Trail*, I think they just run one of their 3 different jokes every day**
ReplyDelete*Mark Trail doesn't do jokes
**ok, I have some real respect for For Better or Worse, especially in comparison to the others
Maybe the editor should just grow a pair, do his job, and axe the one's he doesn't like. What, is he afraid of the inevitable Marmaduke letter-campaign? (Marmaduke does have a movie coming out, after all.)
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if columnists got the same treatment? Readers! Whose opinions and urbane ramblings can you do without?
They should dump all the strips on that list. Also Garfield and Dilbert, if they're running those. Then, instead of adding a lot of new ones, they could add just a couple and run the remaining strips at a larger size and give the artists more room to express themselves.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they keep "Ziggy," though. That's all I care about. Ziggy and all things Ziggy-related.
In an unusual appeal...
ReplyDeleteNot so unusual; the Louisville Courier-Journal's been doing that for years. Surely they're not that ahead of the curve!
(Imagine if comic books did this to figure out who gets canceled?)
Well, they kinda already do, with their wallets...
Let's see. Five? I'd axe:
ReplyDeleteBizarro
Cathy
Mark Trail
Marmaduke
Real Life Adventures
I never laughed at Cathy or Marmaduke, and I never heard of any of the others!
I'd cancel all of them except Bizarro & 4B/4W. The rest are just soul-suckingly awful.
ReplyDeleteFor Better or Worse is one of my favorites from my time reading newspaper comics, but I think that the re-doing of old storylines is rather stale...but I think there are a bunch that are just terrible.
ReplyDeleteBeetle Bailey, Marmaduke, Cathy, B.C. and Bizarro are by votes.
Basically anything that a forty-year-old will turn to and smile at out of nostalgia value but which makes a child stare at blankly, and thus widen the generation gap further...
ReplyDeleteI believe almost all the listed ones can go. I am not sure why Shoe is on that list unless it has changed writers or is reprinting old strips. Haven't read it (or a daily paper) in years. I remember it as being good. Ditto For Better or For Worse, although I understand that is currently retracing itself from scratch, so that can go as well. Also, for some reason, Wizard of Id occasionally gets a smile from me.
ReplyDelete"What, is he afraid of the inevitable Marmaduke letter-campaign?"
ReplyDeleteI dunno, the Marmaduke fan contingent is a pretty edgy bunch...
Not Rex Morgan! NOOOO!
ReplyDeleteAny strip running reprints from a dead artist or any legacy strip.
ReplyDeleteYes, although it's not on the list, that would include Peanuts.
I with our local paper had used this approach (Picking some older strips with this criteria) rather than the old "Here's all our strips" ballot they did when they cut down from two pages of comics to one.
ReplyDeleteWe lost Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine and are still getting the Born Loser and Snuffy Smiff.
Shoe is being continued by Jeff McNelly's estate.
ReplyDeleteKeep Bizarro, For Better or for Worse. Put the rest on the website. (Gee... why isn't Hagar the Horrible on this list? Or Fred Basset?)
http://www.kansascity.com/comics/
(They could tally how many hits the website comics get each year, and use that as a poll.)
I think this is the wrong method. They should instead vote for which ones people CAN'T live without, then axe the lowest vote getters. A vote like this will mean that the least objectionable, most bland ones will survive where any that might be divisive at all will be cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if they attempt to cancel Beetle Bailey I will picket the paper personally dressed like Sarge and with my dog dressed like Sarge's dog. Beetle Bailey isn't about the army, it's about life. I think it should be on the front page instead of the entertainment section because it's realer than real, in a Baudrillardian sense.
I constantly refer to it. When my friend says something I'll be like "you're so Plato" or "oh my God that was such a General Halftrack thing to say". At work I told someone that their work needed "a little less Corporal Yo and a little more Miss Buxley".
I just appreciate the fact that the editor is actually being honest that yes, some of the strips in our paper suck. When does anyone just come out like that any more?
ReplyDeleteTo go:
Cathy
B.C.
Marmaduke
Beetle Bailey
Bizarro
(Although I do think the world would be just fine with all of them gone.)
I'm not familiar with Mark Trail or Real Life Adventures, so they're safe. Beetle Bailey, Cathy, and Marmaduke have always been terrible. I was never wild about Shoe. I can take or leave B.C. and Wizard of Id. So basically, For Better or for Worse is the only genuine keeper, while even the poor man's Far Side, Bizarro, is at least remotely challenging.
ReplyDeleteTorsten,
ReplyDeleteI would surmise Hagar has already been dropped or never was part of the Kansas City Star selections. Also, as I noted, while I agree that FBoFW is a good strip, they are merely reprinting the entire run from the beginniong at this point. I would rather see some new cartoonists myself.
I know the Cincinnati Enquirer did this a few years ago (and does it every couple years, I believe), and I've seen at least one or two other papers do this recently. FYI
ReplyDeleteFor Better or for Worse - 25+ years running successfully in papers is plenty. Give it the axe.
ReplyDeleteCathy - Sexist bullshit that makes my blood boil. Give it the axe Lizzie Borden style.
Beetle Bailey - Considering actual wars are being fought where people are dying, military "hilarity" seems really inappropriate. Besides, Generation Kill is a million times better/more relevant.
Marmaduke - Ssiiiiighhhh...and then Yawwwwwnn...
Real Life Adventures - This thing is still alive? This boring crap should've gotten the axe years ago.
I know it's not on the list, and it's quite messed up of me to say as a hispanic, but I freaking HATE Baldo. Anything that has to beat its readers over the head with the whole "hey, look at me, I'm ETHNIC!" line is a tremendous failure.
Okay, that's enough ranting out of me.
I don't know what relevancy has to do with the comic section. Shouldn't it be as irrelevant as possible? Relevancy is for political comics, not comics aimed at least partly at kids.
ReplyDeleteSomeone apparently missed the whole point of the phrase Laughter is the Best Medicine. The problem isn't people making jokes about war, the problem is people telling others they can't make jokes about war.
I can't believe some of these comics are still going.
Shoe was never funny. I hated this over 30 years ago and still do.
Cathy is just a bunch of sexist fat girl jokes. So maybe sexist fat girls think it's funny, but if I were a fat sexist girl I'd still be offended by it.
Marmaduke also not funny, never was.
I've no idea what Mark Trail or Real life adventures are, so I say axe them for being so unmemorable.
It would end up like the Jason Todd fiasco if comics did that to decide. You'd end up with angry people like me.
ReplyDelete