Comic strips

Let’s Bother with The Funnies

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D. D. Degg Published: July 17, 2025 2 minutes 7 comments

This week Greg and Karen Evans are bothering me.

I’m used to King Features and Comics Kingdom updating the copyright dates on their reruns. And at least Patrick McDonnell erases the original copyright year without replacing it with the current year.

I do give Greg and Karen credit for giving fans a heads-up.

A couple weeks ago Wiley changed the date (though the year was wrong) of his Non Sequitur during a week of reruns, which was a first for him that I know of. Paired with this week’s Luann makes me wonder if the copyright updating is some new Andrews McMeel/GoComics policy.

Before leaving the reruns those last two panels of the new story line introduced in Tarzan this week (originally 1951) had me thinking Bob Lubbers was channeling his inner Milton Caniff and Terry and the Pirates.

Something brand new!

I recently picked up a copy of the Boot Barn’s June catalog and was pleasantly surprised with a four part Western comic strip – I’m a sucker for comic strip Westerns. Even more delightful is that “Till the Bitter End” by Chris Hunt is available online so I can share it with TDC readers. That last vertical episode is how the entire sequence was presented in the catalog. More Chris Hunt here.

Last Sunday’s Dark Side of the Horse had me thinking it was a Steven Wright routine. That’s a good thing.

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From Jonathan Lemon because I can’t find it on my Facebook feed:

This is an amazing deal if you like your comics ad-free. US$10 includes *both* my daily strips plus some actual proper features that you’ve heard of, including the entire runs of Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, Doonesbury … plus G******d, Ziggy, and hundreds more. I did the math(s). That’s just 3 cents a day!!!

Normally $34.99. Ends Sept 30!

Here’s the GoComics subscription page.

For the record the Mike Curtis story ended last Saturday (ran May 18 to July 12, 2025). With the July 13, 2025 Sunday page Eric Costello returns as “guest writer” of Dick Tracy though he wasn’t credited on that July 13 strip.

Peanuts Worldwide.

Peanuts Worldwide takes it official name literally, like these Royal Mail stamps being released next week.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang are back – this time with a delightful British twist. To mark the 75th anniversary of the beloved Peanuts comic strip, Royal Mail has unveiled a charming new set of stamps. Expect postboxes, seaside sandcastles, and even Buckingham Palace cameos.

Not often, maybe once a month, but Loren Fishman has taken to disrespecting Dear Leader in Mallard Fillmore.

Luann entered the Top 30 by gaining 4 papers over last year; it debuts at number 29. Falling out of the Top 30 was Rose is Rose which lost 2 papers since last year. Big movers this year were Mutts, which moved up 4 spots to 26, and Get Fuzzy moving up 3 spots to 23. Both Jerry Scott strips moved up; Baby Blues moved from 19 to 16 and Zits moved from 10 to 9.

Jeffrey Lindenblatt’s Paper Trends reaches 2004 in his latest installments at Allan Holtz’s Stripper’s Guide. Jeffrey covers how the Rookies of 2003 were faring, the biggest circulation winners and losers, and the overall circulation figures for all the comic strips in his 248 papers survey.

feature image from Li’l Abner by Al Capp – March 27, 1972