Comments on: Comic page changes for the week

By: Ted Dawson

Ted Dawson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:51:36 +0000

The features editor might not be there to give a response, since the Times let go 40% of its staff this month. Apparently the church has been sustaining the paper and now that the Messiah’s children are running things, there will be no more financial support for the Times and it may cease publication.

By: Shawn Labadie

Shawn Labadie — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:44:05 +0000

Charles Schultz and the Peanuts are and should be honored as one of the greats, but I agree that the precious space “Classic Peanuts” is taking up could be used to place a current talented cartoonist. SERIOUSLY do major television networks re-run old sit-coms in prime time instead of running new one…..wait ABC SCRUBS…..sorry my bad.

By: Jimmy Delach

Jimmy Delach — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:07:10 +0000

Does anybody here know exactly all the comics the Washington Times ran prior to being dropped? I can name a few like Luann, Rose Is Rose, Dick Tracy, Funky Winkerbean, Jump Start, Fred Basset, Heathcliff.

By: August J. Pollak

August J. Pollak — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:26:05 +0000

Argh, second sentence may break language code. Advance apologies and please correct if necessary.

By: August J. Pollak

August J. Pollak — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:24:41 +0000

Honestly, I’ve always been in a harsher camp. If the original artist voluntarily wants to stop drawing a strip, then end the damn strip. Likewise with the papers that still rerun Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes- it’s not like you can’t get those in collected books, and while obviously those are legendarily great cartoons, for godssakes free up some of the precious little space left for new and original cartoonists. I can appreciate the idea of nostalgia, but I’d really love to see more new cartoons in the paper before the entire newspaper become a nostalgic item.

By: Scott Kurtz

Scott Kurtz — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:37:04 +0000

Further research turned up that Pat drew the strip from 1984 to 2004. 20 years is a long run. I don’t blame the guy for being done with it.

Still sad though.

By: Scott Kurtz

Scott Kurtz — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:35:32 +0000

Seeing Rose is Rose being dropped jogged my memory that I miss Pat Brady drawing that strip. No offense to the guy he hired to take over but what’s he so busy with that he can’t draw one comic?

I miss his art so much. It was really dynamic.

By: B.J. Dewey

B.J. Dewey — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:34:16 +0000

Considering the deeply distressed state of printed newspapers, I am nothing but heartened to see any paper pick up new comics. Even better, most of these strips are among the best. As for comics dropped, they can be found online.
Are there any statistics out there showing whether more comics are being added than dropped in U.S. papers? Or any stats on what the comic adds are reflecting? The economy? Higher-quality comics? Any new trends?

By: Darryl Heine

Darryl Heine — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:17:53 +0000

Another comic change you didn’t mention that happened this week: The Chicago Sun-Times dropped “Love Is” in favor of the NEA distributed “Moderately Confused” comic panel strip.

By: Darryl Heine

Darryl Heine — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:13:44 +0000

Classic Peanuts returns to the Detroit newspaper, what a great Christmas surprise. Now I wish the New York Daily News gave Classic Peanuts another chance after dropping the strip in January 2007.

Also: With the Washington Times about the drop the comics page for good. Will it become a clone of the New York Times (a newspaper that doesn’t carry comics) and the only paper in the D.C. area to get comic page access for D.C. residents will be the Washington Post? (Maybe the Post could pick up some comics that were in the Washington Times like maybe Heathcliff, Dick Tracy, Bliss, and My Cage).