The Sunday comics were so sacrosanct in the twentieth century that when there was a newspaper strike in New York in 1945, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (yes, that La Guardia) took to reading the comics aloud on the radio. At its peak, Peanuts had an estimated readership of 355 million.
But the golden era of newspapers is at an end. In these days of 24/7 coverage, newspapers are full of yesterday’s news. And, although timeliness doesn’t necessarily play a role in comic strips, their readership is plummeting as well: newspapers are their delivery system. To paraphrase Gloria Swanson from Sunset Boulevard, “Comics are big, it’s the newspapers that got small.”
This is rectafiable. You can go out to Go Comics, and get lost in the world of comic strips for an hour or so. Or you can register and build a specific page with three of your favorite comics. Or, for ten cents a day, you can build multiple pages and get email notifications when a comic strip has a new entry (which will be every day, that’s the way comic strips continue to work).
But where to start? Here’s a list.
New Favorites
Pearls Before Swine is the most consistently funny modern comic strip. Doonsebury-type humor using anthropomorphic animals with the occasional insert of the author (usually preceded by the buildup of a god-awful pun). Sample …
Frazz is about a janitor/songwriter/runner and his relationships with the elementary school students and teachers (and his girlfriend) where he works. Fun fact: Jef Mallett often has Frazz wearing a local run t-shirt. Sample …
Non Sequiter is a free wheeling strip with multiple recurring characters, often involved in outlandish situations. Wiley Miller’s artwork is incredible and his characters, particularly the goth girl Danae and her horse Lucy, are endearing. Sample …
Luann is a storyline script that follows the life of Luann and friends as they make their way in the world. The characters age in this strip, albeit slowly (it took Luann a l-o-o-o-n-g time to get out of high school!). Sample …
Red and Rover is about a boy and his dog. And, although it’s not always obvious, it’s set somewhere in the past (1970 or so). Fun fact: I sat next to Brian Basset on a plane once. He got very drunk. Sample …
Old Standbys
These strips are no longer active, but Go Comics puts out retro, “maybe new to you” entries. (Editor’s note: if you want some really old-tyme comic strips, there is another site to check out: Comics Kingdom (think retro like Mark Trail not Little Nemo in Slumberland).
In physical papers these retro comics (Calvin and Hobbes excluded, it is not in papers these days) are frowned upon since they take up space that might be used by an up and coming strip. But on the Internet … rules are different.
Well, if you don’t know Peanuts, I’m not sure I can help. The definition of an iconic comic strip. You can also get a Spanish version if so desired! Fun fact: back in the day a friend of mine was a big collector of original comic cel art. He got a line on someone who might have some Peanuts cels, called the number and the voice answered “Sparky here.” He was talking to Charles Schultz! Sample …
Calvin and Hobbes is simply the best. Sample …
Doonesbury is a highly political strip with many recurring characters. He still produces new content on Sundays so there’s a weird time warp between the retro daily entries and the modern Sunday ones. Sample …
For Better or Worse is another storyline script with a gentle Canadian feel to it. It is just now approaching the end of the series but I suspect it will then restart at the beginning.Sample …
Outliers
These strips don’t exist in the Go Comics universe.
The Far Side lives on in merchandising. Gary Larson keeps tempting new content but I suspect the fear of deadlines still keeps him awake. He does put out daily retro strips at this site. Sample …
Mr. Joshua will be interesting to watch. He’s contemporary, extremely funny, and experimenting with a different approach to make cartooning economically feasible. The best way to see his content is via his Instagram page. I wish him the best! Sample …
