Comic History Comic Strips

Assorted, Mostly Sunday, Funnies

GoComics still shuffling the deck

The top tiers for some Andrews McMeel Syndication strips have returned (Adam @ Home and Big Nate) while others are still not being made whole (The Born Loser and JumpStart). I was particularly happy to see the Little Oop and Dark Side of the Horse top tiers restored as I have enjoyed Lemon’s little side illustrations at the right side of the title since he and Sayers have taken over the strip, and the top tier of Horace the Horse’s Sunday strip always includes one or more gags of the four or five found there every Sunday.

A strange shuffle was the eight panel version of Doonesbury finally including the title panel, but then cutting one of the other top tier panels. For everyone’s edification here is what should have been the third panel in the half page nine-panel grid:

Doonesbury by G. B Trudeau may 4, 2025 dropped panel

Not the top tier of a three layered comic strip, but…

Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn – May 4, 2025

The first three panels of Breaking Cat News struck me as what could have been drop panels for the strip today. It sort of was an introduction to and at the same time separate from the main strip.

Return with us to …

Mike has put up the entire (meaning the black plate) Non Sequitur which is apparently set on a twelve hour delay at GoComics as this Sunday and last Sunday the black lines were added late in the day.

Non Sequitur by Wiley – May 4, 2025

But is nobody questioning the massive supersizing of the vertical Sundays lately?

Flash Gordon by Dan Schkade

I’m not betting my 1960s King comic book run of Flash Gordon on it – because, even though we know Ming will return sooner of later, Dan Schkade is becoming well-known for throwing curve balls – but is this the return of The Emperor or some other Flash nemesis of the past?

Herman by Jim Unger – May 4, 2025

Today’s Herman comic strip brought to mind Addison’s (Mort Walker’s) Boner’s Ark.

the first Boner’s Ark by Addison – March 11, 1968

Of course Boner’s Ark was already in my head because Allan Holtz had recently given us the last week of the comic strip that ran 25 years ago this month, making this a first and last post.

Boner’s Ark by Frank Johnson – May 27, 2000

On the subject of comic history:

Maria’s Day by John Zakour and Scott Roberts – May 4, 2025

You know I just love the kind of background information that Scott Roberts give us today as to the creation of Maria’s Day by John Zakour, Andre Noel, and Scott Roberts.

Judge Parker by Francesco Marciuliano & Mike Manley – May 4, 2025

I would like to know if it is my imagination or if artist Mike Manley has a different assistant helping him with this Sunday’s Judge Parker. The lines seem different (thicker) than I think of Manley’s finishes.

While comics are not news as Kevin proclaims in Crabgrass, they are part of The News unless you are some Old Gray Lady. Some are educational while some are just laugh out loud funny as shown in Hi and Lois. Does anyone recognize any of the strips taped to Hi and Lois’ fridge?

Go Fourth and …

My grandson asked if I would be posting about Star Wars today. I told him that was more a comic book thing but that there would certainly be some newspaper comic strips about it. And, naturally, there were:

The Barn, Day by Dave, Foxtrot, Off the Mark, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Rhymes with Orange, The Saga of Brann Bjornson, Palurdeando, and others.

Two surprises: Mark Trail had a Star Wars connection and Thatababy went long ago it didn’t go far away.

And another note about the GoComics and Comics Kingdom changes.

For Comics Kingdom it seems that any “Vintage” comic strip that has a current counterpart are not being uploaded to the premium daily favorites. For example the Judge Parker above is only Judge Parker we receive now – no longer getting the vintage daily or vintage Sunday Judge Parker comics we used to get.

And the newspaper online portals for GoComics, which used to carry the last month of archives now only carry the previous week in their archives. That means I have to check Biographic every week so I don’t miss when Steve McGarry features The Kinks, and again I need a weekly check on KidTown so I can keep track of when Luke McGarry subs for his dad on that weekly feature (as he did this week).

KidTown by Steve McGarry and Luke McGarry – May 4, 2025

GoComics/AMS helpfully informs us to “To view the full archive of this comic go to www.gocomics.com,” unfortunately GoComics hasn’t carried those two features, among some others, for years now.

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‘Francis’ Belongs to the Ages

Comments 4

  1. I’ve been asking the GoComics tech about the supersizing of Non Sequitur on Sundays and he said they’re working on it. I’m probably the first cartoonist in history to ask for my work to be run smaller, but it’s so big that it comes out fuzzy.

    But here’s the weird thing…if you click on the comic, you’ll get a more proper version. I don’t understand any of this.

  2. Regarding the strips taped to the fridge – it’s clearly Hagar the Horrible in the upper right corner. Just to the right of the door handle, it’s Charlie Brown (head obscured but shirt visible) and Snoopy.

  3. Hi and Lois….. I see Hagar at top right and 3rd down on right looks familiar but can’t place it.

  4. The round borders indicate that there are two Family Circus panels on the Flagstons’ fridge.

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