Broom-Hilda celebrated her birthday this week, the strip debuted 53 years ago. Other than a very, very, verrrrry short period when he tried out a gag writer (didn’t work out, more trouble than it was worth), Russell Myers has been the sole cartoonist to work the strip. Which, as far as I know, is a record for one man on one strip.
From three years ago is a career-spanning interview with Russell.
Have I not been paying attention? Or maybe it’s my imagination, but Hagar the Horrible seems to be more monochromatic or dichromatic lately than in times past.
That is not a criticism – I happen to think it looks great.
Speaking of coloring…
Scrolling through those comic strips with bright primary colors on Friday Macanudo with the muted hues stood out. Even today’s rainbow was subdued. Again, an observation not a criticism.
Synchronic Stacking
Stacked panels in daily comics are not unusual, but Friday’s three-peat in Rip Haywire, Nancy, and Red and Rover was noted. And then Rip Haywire doubled down in Saturday’s strip, which had as many panels as most Sunday strips. Then again it wasn’t the first eight panel daily for Rip Haywire this past week, the strip averaged six panels a day for the six days, though it started out with only four.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to comic strips in rerun status, but Rudy Park came up in my Counterpoint email. And I thinks to myself, “What is Rudy Park doing in a Counterpoint daily mail?”
Well it seems that Counterpoint is syndicating the Rudy Park comic strip now, and has been for quite some time! I traced the switch from Washington Post Writer’s Group to Counterpoint Media to September 1, 2022.
I am unaware of Rudy Park appearing in any newspapers, so maybe it is syndicated strictly to websites?
Not quite Big Daddy Roth but today’s Slylock Fox has at least one commenter who was reminded of Rat Fink.
Edited To Add:
From left: April 9, 2023; April 16, 2023; July 25, 1943. Notice the difference?
Beginning this month the Prince Valiant team of Mark Schultz, Thomas Yeates, and Thomas Scott Roberts have begun capitalizing all the words of the “Next” title, just like Hal Foster used to do.
No, I’m not that observant. Hat tip to the Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant” Purists Facebook page.
the feature image comes from Barney & Clyde © Weingartens & Clark
RE: Hagar’s new coloring. Could this be due to Chris Browne’s passing, and new colorist[s]’ experimentation?
I was gonna say, maybe it’s a reflection of the Northern Lights?
I like the Northern Lights idea 🙂
My understanding is that Chris hasn’t been involved in Hagar for years – possibly the strips went through him for approval? Still waiting for Gary Hallgren’s signature to start appearing on the strips.
I thought Rudy Park folded into Candorville since 2018!
You thought right. Like Peanuts, Tiger, and others these are reruns.
If you have been wondering about the coloration in Macanudo, you should check out the Sunday strips as they appear at Arcamax. For example, here:
https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/macanudo/s-2811996
This monochromatic error has been going on for several months, but nobody seems to care enough to get it fixed.
Is that Rip Haywire strip about something? Does it have a storyline, or a punch line? Or is it just a bunch of random panels? Zippy is my idea of surreal absurdity, but this thing may have overtaken Griffy.