More about cartoons

OK. I am a bit obsessed right now with newspaper comic strips. Not for the first time in my life, but my mornings now have a set time to look at the paper (usually delivered reasonably close to my side door so even in heavy rain I can nab it with only slippers on). So before I feed my 9 month old I can scan the comics. And there are only two I read regularly; Doonesbury, which is sort of like watching 60 Minutes. It’s a habit, and something I feel like I SHOULD do. And For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston. Which is far-and-away the best strip running in American papers today. And what are the other choices? They fall into two categories. Comics with WAY TOO MANY WORDS - it’s like a sitcom writer took over the strip. And comics with Very Few Words. Now, either of these types could be good. But they are usually cliches. The too many word types - drawing sucks, visuals add nothing. The Very Few Words type - usually lame site gags. Well, not always lame, but the kind a cartoonist used to do to finish off a month when he was burned out. Now each day features a throw away. I take out one of my Peanuts collections (my favorite is called The Snoopy Festival - big orange book - see below) and notice that some strips are more talky then others, but there is a balance between wordless gags and character driven dialog strips. I almost never see that in strips that run today. That’s not really displaying much insight to take one of the greatest strips of all time and say ‘Most stuff isn’t as good.’, but I think that ability and willingness to use both methods is key to a great strip.