Newspaper Comic Strips

I have never laughed at “The Family Circus.”

Each panel seemed like a daily bamboozle.

Bloom County always made me laugh -Peanuts never did.

Does The Far Side count?

Hi and Lois never were much of a laugh riot.

Calvin and Hobbs. Bill Watterson is the only comic strip writer who actually understands how kids think

Ack!

The Far Side was the funniest. Peanuts and Garfield are nostalgic favorites even though they stopped being amusing a long time ago.

There are many candidates for least funny, but I always had a special hatred for Andy Capp and Gasoline Alley.

GET FUZZY can be amusing some days.

Pearls Before Swine made me laugh. Le Danse de Pearls Before Swine! And the Far Side had many memorable comics. But I'm a Peanuts kid, Schroeder was my man, and I religiously read Mutts in my inbox daily. Did anyone follow the freeing of Guard Dog? I cried like a big MARY!!

Between 1955 and the early 70s I think Peanuts was the best written comic strip in the US.

But my favorite comic strip bar none was Walt Kelly's Pogo.

Hey B.C. and The Wizard of Id had their satirical moments before Hart went off the rails.

Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes were great. Check out Achewood for adult-themed comics that are not what is usually meant by "adult themed".

Hi & Louis and Beetle Bailey were laugh-free. Heathcliff was vomit. Cathy was terrible. But Family Circus remains the single unfunniest thing ever committed to newsprint.

"The Dysfunctional Family Circus" on the other hand...

Doonesbury was probably my favorite. Then came Calvin & Hobbes. Garfield was fun, but I'm a lasagne lover.

I don’t think Family Circus was supposed to be laugh out loud funny, just a cute thing you might smile at and forget a minute later. I liked Cathy, but I liked the ones where the characters aged, grew, and evolved like For Better or Worse, Funky Winkerbean, Sally Forth. I liked a little suspense mixed in.

The Family Circus has never been funny.

Calvin and Hobbes was funny enough that I bought all the books of collected strips. Sally Forth is supposed to be a take off on what exactly? Self absorbed nitwits? It’s routinely awful.

I read Pickles and Mutts every day. I cried over Mutts during the Guard Dog story line. Pickles is just silly and fun.

I read others when I have time but there's some that are not funny at all like Rex Morgan and some Viking drama that runs in the Sunday edition. I laughed at Dilbert on occasion but our paper dropped him for his racist remarks. I also used to laugh at Calvin and Hobbes.

I love Fat Broad.

An Achewood strip where they prank-call Marmaduke.

Always laughed: "The Far Side"

Never laughed: "Apartment 3G"

I LOVED the Dysfunctional Family Circus, where sickos would take original FC panels and write new captions.

My favorite was Daddy talking to a bearded neighbor over the back fence, while Dolly tells Billy, "Daddy's slutty new shorts are a real bear magnet."

^ It's true 😂

[quote]Never laughed: "Apartment 3G"

I don't think you were supposed to.

Someone explain "Drabble" to me. It's been around for 45 fucking years, has never been funny even once, and looks like it was drawn by a 10-year-old.

Calvin & Hobbes made cartoons into a high art form

Bloom County, Peanuts, Doonesbury but best of all Calvin and Hobbes.

R23, ahem.

Aww r8, I've completely forgot about Get Fuzzy. Thanks. Loved Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbs too.

Kids today love Calvin and Hobbes. I tried to keep the books in my classroom library, but they were usually gone within a week. A testament to the writing that forty years later kids still relate to the characters -even if they can't quite recognize things like television sets, telephones, VCRs, and other cultural remnants.

This little gayling had a major crush on...Kerry Drake.

R21 A3G was hilarious when 92 year old Frank Bolle could only draw stick figures.

Untrue, R13. It was funny in the first two years. They came out with a collection about 15 years ago and I was surprised how much better it was in the beginning.

Doonesbury was a rollercoaster of emotions and definitely topical in ways that surprised, infuriated, and entertained millions of people.

I can remember the debates (and sometimes reader demands) that it shouln't be printed with "the funnies" but be placed on the paper's editorial pages - it was seen as that "adult" and political.

I've got three collections of Trudeau's works. He was singular for many, many years.

For really funny, definitely Calvin & Hobbes, Get Fuzzy was (is?) great - I haven't read it in years.

*

[quote]Krazy Kat, and Little Nemo, a hundred fucking years ago

Oh please, r25. Not even close.

No DL love for Hagar The Horrible?

It was Married with Children before that show was ever conceived -

The Born Loser was better than most =

Favorites were Bloom County and Far Side, with honorable mention to Wizard of Id and Hagar the Horrible when I was a kid.

The others ranged from meh to cringe

^ Oh, and Ziggy too.

Oh man, Ziggy... there's a comic character I haven't thought of in decades. Is it still drawn? Drawn by the same person? Down an internet rabbit hole of google searches I could go...

For Better or Worse wasn't the best but it's worthy of mentioning. It was very pro gay when Lawrence the friend came out in the early 90s. And the strips are a really good read in anthologies and you can see everything progress in order. Also a good introduction to Canada for the Americans!

^ That's another plus for Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin has a Gay uncle who looks surprisingly like Bill Watterson

Fritzi Ritz

I liked Zits as a teen boy. Is it still around? It felt very late '90s.

Comics I like: Pearls Before Swine, The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes

Don’t like: Family Circus

Nancy.

I never got the impression that Max in Calvin & Hobbes was gay. I did think he's presented as a bit of a lost soul.

^ The character of Calvin's uncle Max was written Gay as is the creator Bill Watterson... "Lost soul"? You bible-thumping fraus are the only "lost souls" around here 🤨

R46, I'm a gay man and saw no such reference. If you could provide a citation that would be great.

Bible-thumping? Not me.

The strip where, discussing Hobbes as an imaginary friend, Max admits to Calvin's mom that sometimes he feels as if all of his own friends have been imaginary seemed a tip-off that his life was not as stable as he might have hoped.

"I'm a gay man... just like you"

Go away

Ballard Street was refreshingly different, a sort of Zen bizarrerie at times.

Andy Capp it spoke of a Low class English couple. Andy Capp was always at the pub avoiding his wife. They bickered constantly. The creator got his material from his daily experiences with the absurdity of English life.

The Far Side always made me laugh.

BC never made me laugh.

Love Is...

Loved and still miss Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. Not as well known but Mr. Boffo also was a favorite

When I was a little kid I sed to laugh my butt off at "Gasoline Alley" and "Moon Mullins". Of course it could have been the way my Dad read them to me. When I got older I laughed at " Bloom County" and "Arlo & Janis" and "Doonesbury". Oh, and "Shoe".

Used. Oh dear. Also forgot to mention Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes. Dilbert was a scream until he let his inner Nazi out.