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The best Family Circus I ever saw was a parody in the college alternative paper, titled "The Family Circle Jerks". In it, the surprised mother overhears her daughter telling her friend: "My Mommy uses incest to make the house smell nice."

Rob P wrote:Garfield, for its first few years, was a deeply weird comic strip. The ambiguous relationship between Jon and Lyman was just one of its precious delights.

When I was younger I read it every day, but whenever I've tried reading it lately I just think "this isn't very funny".

When I was younger I read it every day, but whenever I've tried reading it lately I just think "this isn't very funny".

It stopped being funny a while ago. I finally just gave up on it altogether.

Like a lot of strips, it started out funny, and lost its edge. "Peanuts" ended up the same way, even though if you read the early stuff, from the 50's especially, it's fantastic. I guess that's why I like some of the newer strips like "Get Fuzzy" and "Fox Trot." I guess you've got to give credit to guys like Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) and Gary Larson (The Far Side) for ending things while they were still good.

But on another note... you read "Cathy"? Bleah! Maybe I shouldn't laugh, though, because I read "For Better or For Worse."

I tend to read it all, just because it's there and it takes two seconds.

I'm reading the new Complete Peanuts series, and yeah, those early strips are incredibly good. So much *life* in the art. Highly recommended. The third volume comes out next month.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/peanuts/peanuts.html

Ryan

lukpac wrote:When I was younger I read it every day, but whenever I've tried reading it lately I just think "this isn't very funny".

I agree, Garfield has been such a waste for years now.

Ryan, the Peanuts reissue books look incredible. I'm glad to hear they don't disappoint.

They even have indexes.

"Snoopy, first thought balloon: Page 189"

You can get 'em on Amazon for $19 a pop. The only bummer is that the Sunday strips aren't in color, but supposedly that's the way Schulz preferred them (he apparently was never happy with the way the color Sundays looked).

I'm really looking forward to the 70s era, when Schulz would go off on amazing weeks-long story arcs. AFAIK, those complete runs have never been collected (the compilation books were never complete).

Ryan

Rob P wrote:The best Family Circus I ever saw was a parody in the college alternative paper, titled "The Family Circle Jerks". In it, the surprised mother overhears her daughter telling her friend: "My Mommy uses incest to make the house smell nice."

Back in grad school a bunch of us spent a stoned evening writing new captions for a paperback collection of Family Circus cartoons. The resultl became a pass-around classic. This was around the time 'web browsers' had just been introduced...so we didn't have competition yet from all the smartasses online.

The only strip I read every day is "Arlo & Janis." I don't think it's all that widely syndicated, and it's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it is smart and (for a newspaper comic) sexy.

krabapple wrote:Back in grad school a bunch of us spent a stoned evening writing new captions for a paperback collection of Family Circus cartoons. The resultl became a pass-around classic. This was around the time 'web browsers' had just been introduced...so we didn't have competition yet from all the smartasses online.

Online smartasses...the NERVE!

They're the WORST.

If even a staunch conservative like Billy is wavering, the Republicans are in serious trouble.

I'm disappointed to see that Billy's not writing a book report on My Pet Goat.

Bennett Cerf wrote:

1) pencil instead of pen
2) writing is different
3) pad of paper is different color
4) face is different
5) chair is different
6) piece of blue paper

Oh, you mean this isn't Hocus-Focus?