TS - Krazy Kat vs. Peanuts vs. Pogo vs. etc. what is the greatest newspaper strip of all time

Krazy Kat
Pogo
Bloom County
Doonesbury
Calvin & Hobbes
Mutts

I actually think the artwork in C&H alone justifies it as I do for Mutts.

I was recently turned onto the Gasoline Alley sunday pages in the Drawn and Quarterly collections, which are as beautiful as anything I've ever seen, and am curious about the daily serials...it may be another contender.

real answer: Krazy Kat. every few months i go through periods of being obsessed with it.

I pretty much named my top three in the thread title, but if you add weekly strips in the mix, I'd probably also cite Lynda Barry and Jules Feiffer. Little Nemo and Calvin and Hobbes definitely go in, too. I'm one of those guys who think that Bloom County was ruined when Opus became the center of the strip, which was pretty early. I like it a lot up to then, though.

When you ask google images for "Hagar beer," you never know what'll show up.

Still, i think we'd have to argue eras.

Early, darker Peanuts vs post-sabbatical C&H vs mid-period Bloom County, etc.

calling it "dark" is fundamental point-missing.

the complete Calvin & Hobbes collection is one of my major Christmas requests this year, but I've also been toying with the idea of asking some kind soul to pick me up a KK collection as well.

As per the thread question C&H, Krazy Kat, and Bloom County have long been my untouchable trifecta of comic perfection. While I enjoy Peanuts it never resonated with me the way those did. Likewise for Pogo (though I still think it's top of the heap as far as strips go). And Windsor McKay and Little Nemo get an honorable mention for artistry alone.

Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Doonesbury, C&H. It is really impossible and pointless to compare Peanuts and KK; they are doing totally different things.

I agree, but somehow "The Godfather" and "Singing in the Rain" always end up on the greatest movie ever lists, so it's the kind of wierdness we're just going to have to learn to live with.

were you never a child????

I'm not sure what there is to explain about C&H - some of the greatest humorous cartooning ever, lots of good gags, a distinct and intelligent sensibility, several great characters. What more do you want?

I think the single volume KK book is, if it's the one I think, about KK rather than being specifically a collection. I note there is a hardback collection of the Sundays from 1925-34 available, and that would be a pretty peerless volume.

calling it "dark" is fundamental point-missing.

yeah, everyone says peanuts is dark but i have yet to meet someone who actually finds it depressing!

i have a few pogo collections and they're certainly beautiful and funny but i sort of have to be in the right mood to enjoy them, otherwise i'll get a little annoyed at how the stories never go anywhere. i like the quasi-political satires best.

I like McDonnell's retro-styled art in Mutts a lot, and his gags are pretty good for the most part, but he doesn't really seem inspired or imaginatively gifted, which is all the diff. He does have real craft and a love for the medium, though, which puts him ahead of most everyone else, but there's definitely something missing that I can't really call him a great.

It's over 10 years gone, but Sam Hurt's Eyebeam could've been a contender. It was too weird to make it, though, and he started up a spinoff strip that was more or less a copy of Calvin and Hobbes ("Peaches, Queen of the Universe") I think it was cancelled after less than a year.

*raises hand* I would never call it one of the greats and it's pretty much in an endless rut now, but it captured the dynamics of home life with more than one kid (as opposed to Calvin, him being an only child) way the hell better than most. (You look at strips like Hi and Lois and wonder what alien planet they come from.) Also, Jason is essentially me at 10 years old.

want

Best current strip is Cul de Sac, btw.

otm!

It has Calvin & Hobbes levels of brilliance, imo. Happy to see I'm not the only one who knows about it!

last time i mentioned it on ILX, that doof shakey mo said the dude cldn't draw so i kind of gave up repping for it after that

He probably was just mad because nobody famous died that day.

http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=945176559126de68e0096518b74125ac

his blog is really gd, too:

richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Non Sequitur - when Wiley is on, he's totally on fire, but then there are these long periods where he seems to get involved in some story arc that's not as interesting to me (as well as somewhat confusing). This could possibly be remedied by looking through everything in one go instead of pulling things together serially as I have time, but as it stands I never know whether I'm going to love it or end up curling my eyebrows up and going "huh!"

last time i mentioned it on ILX, that doof shakey mo said the dude cldn't draw so i kind of gave up repping for it after that

still think this, sorry. that's just some really sloppy cartooning imho, totally grace-less

that Tiger Tea book is really sloppy and incomplete FYI - a bunch of strips aren't included bcz they just didn't bother finding copies (some are left out on purpose too)

I think cul de sac is one of the top two or three strips right now but I don't read the comic page much, except when I'm visiting my grandparents.

I have a big Krazy Kat anthology type book (the cover is black and orange I think). That strip isn't very funny but it's good in some other ways like ingenuity... I'm not really a fan

I read 4 really old Donesbury books and it was interesting seeing how that strip started. I never read the strip much when it was in the newspaper but now that I'm older and I started from the beginning, I can see how people got into the many different personalities in that strip. And ofcourse it was ahead of it's time in op-ed portrayal of politics

(Please excuse the typos - sometimes I forget to edit when I'm posting with my BlackBerry)

Been looking for this one forever.

http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~eshannon/comicsCourse/summer08ComicsReadings/gasoline%20alley2.jpg

was that not in D&Q vol 3 or 4?

it's in that huge expensive sunday book for sure

Does anyone read the modern Gasoline Alley? It's totally goofy.

there's a MODERN Gasoline Alley?! why?

xpost I just meant I could never find a copy online.

Yeah, they probably should have ended it before all the original characters would logically be dead.

There was a plot line a few years ago that was enjoyably loco – Slim was angry at these kids playing basketball near his house. iirc, a meteor landed in his yard around the same time, and he had some several-week plan to stop the basketball playing by destroying the court with a meteor. I don't remember it very well – I only saved the last strip to my computer:

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/1068/i070825gasall.gif

Slim was institutionalized!

I feel kind of shameful showing you that.

I had no idea Little Orphan Annie was still going until its ending was just announced.

haha awesome!
http://www.schulzmuseum.org/exhibits/permanent/Christo/christo.html

answer to thread question is Thimble Theatre for dailies, probably edged out by Acme Novelty Library if weeklies count

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Fantagraphics-to-Publish-Crockett-Johnson-s-BARNABY.html&Itemid=113

Such good news! Not that I'm caught up with any of the other reprints, mind you, but this gives my about a year and a half to get my shit together.

yay! it's the thing me and j.d. wished for way back at the beginning of this thread. i've still never read the whole series, because the last reprint effort stalled out after 4 or 5 books, i hope this collects the whole thing.

Glad this was revived given the Krazy Kat content:

http://www.dustygroove.com/browse.php?kwfilter=george+herriman&x=0&y=0&incl_oos=1&incl_cs=1

wow those are good prices

VERY good prices. Already went ahead and ordered most of them.

Not an expert but <3 Doonesbury and Calvin and Hobbes. Like Far Side but it does seem a different beast. Totally hate Dilbert and actually don't get Peanuts.

I would think that Zippy the Pinhead belongs in this discussion. I haven't seen it in years, though.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3p6uthbmkusf2ja/MASTABA%20SNOOPY.html

You are an explorer...

...

It is horrid...

so a friend sez F'graphics is 'done' w/ Popeye? How long did Segar do it?

really enjoy Katzenjammer Kids

Segar died in 1938. So Thimble Theater was about 20 years, with Popeye appearing about 10 years in.

i'm hoping they'll go back and reprint at least some of the earlier stuff -- from what i've seen it was pretty good for at least a few years before popeye showed up.

xp Yeah, they only started collecting TT from Popeye's first appearance on. I do really wish they'd go back and collect the rest.

Yeah, I'd buy them.

Write-in vote here for Dick Tracy. Every volume I assume before reading is going to be my last, every volume pulls a superb story out of the bag, every new volume pre-ordered without thinking (saying it's going to be the last one).

I've enjoyed the Alex Raymond period of Rip Kirby a lot, but I'm not continuing into the Prentice years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS0vUbWdNxg

getting a little concerned that Pogo Vol 4 will never come out, every time I check the status the publication date is pushed back another 4 months.

every time fantagraphics starts some reprint project of a strip that went on for decades i always find myself wondering if it'll actually make it to the finish line. the "complete" dennis the menace reprints they were doing sputtered out after a few volumes. it felt strange to see the last peanuts book came out -- still remember the excitement when that series was first announced. makes me feel old.

I, sadly, did not have the money to keep up with their Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge reprints

they made it all the way to the end of Peanuts, didn't they?

yeah peanuts just got done... 26 volumes.

Their Nancy series also seems to have petered out after three volumes - two in 2012 and one in 2014.

Bloom County's first several years were good, but not great (Breathed's a mediocre artist, and the whole shtick was very Doonesbury-derived).

BC's cast were and are far more memorable than any of Doonesbury's pile of white yuppies

Sad grimace at the respect accorded Scott Adams, back when we were young

hey Pogo vol 4 is finally out, the publishing delay was apparently due to the death of Carolyn Kelly.