Top 5 Favorite Syndicated Comic-Strips
Sparked by the entry about Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks below, I thought I’d post something I actually wrote about six years ago–that’s why some of the references may be dated.
In no particular order (and not counting Boondocks).
Berke Breathed’s Bloom County. Unfortunately, due to it’s not having been published since 1989 (When it mutated into the less-magical “Outland”), this has become something of a forgotten classic. From it’s early, heavily “Doonesbury” influenced days, it grew and found it’s own voice, a voice that could be curmudgeonly & sweet in the same week, and even added a dash of skewed poetry to the comics page. And before all that, it was danged funny.
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. This goes without saying for almost anyone born in the US in the last 45 years or so. “Peanuts” is such an institution now, that it’s easy to forget how truly revolutionary it was in it’s time. Literally, none of the strips on this list could exist if not for “Peanuts”. Schulz was the first to use classical references in a daily, gag-oriented comic strip. Over the years he created one of the most widely varied casts in comics, so that when framing a gag, he always had someone “on call” for whom it would be appropriate. And though the writing gets a lot of attention, at it’s peak there was nothing better than Peanuts for funny pictures.
Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. I will tell you a secret, which probably won’t surprise you. I was Calvin when I was 6 years old or so. Somewhat(!) disconnected from my classmates, living through a fantasy life. Also, carelessly thoughtless (And vice versa, one supposes). My “Hobbes” was not a stuffed tiger but a stuffed Snoopy, otherwise the relationship was much the same. And again, in what used to be a given but is now rare enough to be mentioned, it’s one of the best looking comic-strips in recent memory, in terms of being funny simply to look at ( A picture of Hobbes in mid pounce on Calvin scarcely needs a verbal punchline to be funny).
Bill Amend’s Fox Trot. Nothing like my family, nothing like the way I grew up, but I have no doubt that if I had an older sister, I’d have treated her much the way Jason Fox treats Paige. It’s also one of the only comic strips since Al Capp’s “Little Abner” to parody other comic strips, such as when Jason proposes new twists in “The Family Circus”: “That’s the ghost “Ida Know” exiting Jeffy’s body. See , the ghost took over his body and made him go on a psychotic rampage chasing the dog around the house with an axe. See how the dotted line weaves all over the place?”
GB Trudeau’s Doonesbury. The most influential strip since “Peanuts”, and the greatest satirical comic strip of the day (And arguably of all time). Like Schulz, Trudeau has developed a cast large enough to cover almost any subject that comes up, and personalize it with a neat twist.
As columnist Mark Evanier has pointed out, anyone who can be denounced by both Dan Quayle & Janet Reno, which Trudeau has been, must be doing something right. His influence isn’t just limited to strips that have come up after him, either-the strips’ actually reverberated in the “outside world”. Best of all, unlike much of what has passed for satire & parody in the past 20-25 years, “Doonesbury” has developed a consistent point of view.
Bonus Comic-Strips:
I don’t think it was ever syndicated over here, but I found two books that make me laugh: Sols’ Snake.
It wasn’t syndicated, but in a better world it would have been: Howard Cruse’s Wendel. This ran in the gay magazine The Advocate & was collected in books & a comic-book reprint for those of us who love the strip but have no interest in gay sex ads. Cruse is one of the most acclaimed comics creators of recent years-his elegant comic-book Stuck Rubber Baby was often mentioned as worthy of comparison with “Maus”, the Pulitzer Prize winner, and Wendel is among his best work. Some of the funniest, most likable & recognizable people in comic-strips, gay or straight, are in this story of a gay couple & their friends and family.
