Garfield dropped
2005-01-07 17:50:57.500274+00 by
Dan Lyke
3 comments
LA Times drops Garfield, to much applause:
Gene Weingarten, a humor columnist for The Washington Post and Washington
Post Writers Group, praised the Times decision during his weekly
washingtonpost.com chat yesterday. He said the paper displayed "the kind
of cojones missing in too many places" and described "Garfield" as "a
strip produced by a committee, devoid of originality, devoid of guts, a
strip cynically DESIGNED to be inoffensive and bad, on the theory that
public tastes are insipid. Now we need others to follow suit. Like the
Post."
[ related topics:
Current Events Comics
]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-07 18:40:57.615885+00 by:
petronius
Comix are funny (peculiar). For something so trivial and disposable folks get very territorial. Every couple of years my local paper (Chicago Tribune) does a survey of comic strip readers. "Doonesbury" for example, often gets very high marks in both the Best Loved and Most Hated categories, simultaneously. When a strip that has been running quietly for years disappears some people threaten vengence and suicide.
What doesn't get said very often is that strips have a lifespan, and they usually outlive it. Garfield may have been funny once, but after a while it went on automatic pilot and became boring. The same thing happened, in their day, to Andy Capp, Sylvia, Peanuts, Dennis the Menace and any other long running strip you can mention. Every artist eventually runs out of ideas. I rather respect those people like the Gary Larson or the guy who did Calvin and Hobbes who finally decide to bail out instead of letting decline settle in.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-07 23:04:37.173668+00 by:
Diane Reese
"the guy who did Calvin and Hobbes": Bill Watterson. Brilliant and spot-on, and so much fun to read still to this day.
If the guys who write Zits (Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman) ever run out of ideas, I probably won't care because my boys will be grown. Right now, with two teenaged boys in my house and evidence of a direct line between the artists and some holy font of aware-parent behavior, it is by far one of my most favorite comic strips ever. Five stars.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-11 21:14:33.08582+00 by:
crasch
Oh hell yeah. When Schulz died, I thought, "Hallelujah, some fresh blood." Instead, a lot of papers still run "classic" Peanuts reruns. Arrrgh!