Favorite & Best Comic Strips Ever?

[Lee Nordling]

Okay, this question is harder than it sounds; it requires your personal criteria.

Sometimes we love what we know are bad movies, and we don't care.

Sometimes we appreciate that Citizen Kane is the best movie ever--something I believe and can defend--but we really prefer to re-watch Transformers (in my case, Hidden Fortress) over and over again.

So, what is your FAVORITE comic strip?

And what do you think (for whatever reason/criteria you choose to use) is the best comic strip ever?

I'll start.

My favorite comic strip is Calvin & Hobbes; it's also close to the best, because it's ten straight years of laughter and poignant insight at a consistently high quality. It didn't run for 45 years, something Peanuts has over it, but it didn't dip in quality the way Peanuts did in later decades; this is a puzzle I'm still sorting out.

My choice for the best comic strip ever, but first my criteria.

Krazy Kat is the Citizen Kane of comic strips, the one that UNIVERSALLY is noted as transcending the medium. I appreciate it, but I don't love it...and find it inaccessible.

Peanuts dipped too much in quality, specifically with Spike and Peppermint Patty (she gets worse than a D- in my book), though if this discussion were for the best "ten-year run" I'd give it to it (once I figured out WHICH ten years I preferred).

Segar's Popeye held my number one slot for decades, but a recent reading of the complete run made me realize it's episodes were up and down.

If Little Nemo In Slumberland were better written it would never lose the number one slot; McCay carved the way for so many of us.

My bizarre choice (which many of you might not know): Barnaby.

I have the very rare Del Rey strip collections from the '80s, or at least the first five--can't afford to buy what I've seen #6 selling for.

Barnaby is the story about a perfectly normal boy who's visited by Mr. O'Malley, his fairy godfather; to put it mildly, Mr. O'Malley is a troublemaker. Always trying to help, O'Malley gets Barnaby caught up in the oddest fantasy adventures involving numerous unforgettable fantasy characters.

Crockett Johnson, the creator of Barnaby, is probably more well known as the author/cartoonist of Harold and the Purple Crayon--the first in a series of fun books.

Barnaby is also typeset, not hand-lettered...but it works with the art.

Johnson was a typesetter, so this was the easy thing for him.

When Barnaby was reconfigured as two books, Johnson did a magnificent job of deleting the panels that fell into the gag-a-day structure and smoothed the stories out into something that worked for books.

Barnaby is as accessible today as it was when it was written.

It was Dorothy Parker's favorite strip; did you KNOW she had a favorite strip? (For those who don't know Parker, Google is your friend.)

So, I begin this discussion with a dark horse; I don't think Barnaby is going to be on anybody else's Best list, and that's fine.

I look forward to reading thoughts from others.

--Lee

[Nate Owens]

You are spot on.
Calvin and Hobbs - Best ever and my personal favorite all time.
I could quote your reasons as being mine too.
All I could say is that if I did strips, I would say "I wish I had done that" about this one.
Nate

[dan reynolds]

Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side in their respective character and non-character-based comics.

Btw, in reference to the last forum question, I'm Dan Reynolds. I do a single panel cartoon seen on gocomics called REYNOLDS UNWRAPPED. I am a greeting card cartoonist, a Reader's Digest cartoonist, my older work appears on gocomics at http://www.gocomics.com/reynoldsunwrapped, and my work is in many other, too numerous, to get into here.Oh, I also offer a my work as a daily email to subscribers.

If anyone is interested, you can check out some of my work in a documentary on tomorrow morning at 11:30am on the Science Channel. It's on a show called Weird Connections. (Tuesday June 23rd)

[Rod McKie]

Comic strips as the US knows them are a very small part of UK culture. The Scotsman newspaper will run one comic strip at most, and a lot of UK paper's have none. Having said that the one British newspaper strip that knocked my socks off was Garth. I have some samples on my blog:

http://rodmckie.blogspot.com/search?q=garth

As a youngster I really grew up surrounded by the sort of full page comics that ran recently in The New York Times, like those of Norwegian cartoonist Jason, so Claire Bretecher's strips in Punch were a favourite, or with full Bande Desinee like the Tintin books, Corto Maltese and Asterix. I did a piece on Corto Maltese here on Forbidden Planet:

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=9582

Over all, my favourite comic strip would be Peanuts, and the best comic strip ever created would be Tintin, or Corto Maltese.

[Mike Cope]

Good question, Lee!

My criteria for this one is: "What did I enjoy as a kid?" (circa 1980).
My reason being relatively simple, but relevant: "Because this is the period when I first got hooked on comics."

Garfield would be near the very top of this list -- probably #2. Not only did it have comical looking drawings and slapstick jokes to attract a young, immature mind (ex. How many times have we seen Odie get kicked off the table??), but it also had an animated Saturday morning cartoon. The real kicker was that our local newspaper didn't have a Sunday edition, so we'd always get our full-color supplements on Saturday morning ... Talk about "Odie-ing" on Garfield every weekend :)

One thing to keep in mind here is that by grade 3, I enjoyed drawing cartoons just as much (if not more) than I did reading them. And so, there were many strips that I didn't understand, but certainly appreciated SOMETHING about the drawing style -- even though I couldn't tell you what it was at the time. Still, these would be the Sunday comics that I'd turn to and try copying the characters of ... Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Hagar, Shoe, Duffy, Broom Hilda, Disney's Scamp, and Family Circus -- There was also a strip called "Boomer's Song" or "Boomer's Sang" ... Anyone familiar with this one??

Speaking of Family Circus, whenever we visited the library, I always made my way to the paperback section and was amazed by the little books filed with the single panel FC cartoons -- Our paper didn't run the weekly B&W versions, so the circular panel always got my imagination going. Nowadays, whenever I see one of the strips in that format, I immediately remember the smell of those yellowing paperbacks :)

Now, before I get to my #1 strip, I must admit that I very much regret that I never read Calvin & Hobbes while it was originally running. Our local paper didn't start running it until I was in high school (1990), and by then, I was going through a phase where superhero comic books and video games were my staple. The kid next door just loved the strip and always talked about his book collections, but he and I rarely got along because he was, in many ways, just like Calvin ... And so, I think I avoided the strip because I detested him so.

It wasn't until after high school that I finally started reading the strip. Ironically, the first comic strip that I had published in my university's newspaper was on Nov. 30, 1995, and it was printed on a page dedicated to Watterson's retirement. They published 6 highlights from C&H at regular size, and then my strip about 1/2 the size and right on the center fold :)

But the #1 strip that really got me hooked was definitely Peanuts. In fact, even during my superhero phase, I would still finish a nighttime read with my mother's original hardcover copy of the Peanuts Treasury. This was the book that kept me company whenever I was at home with the flu, chicken pox, or other reasons why kids play sick. What's even better is the fact that, no matter how many times I've read each strip, I still find something new as the years go by. Not a new strip, but a new understanding (or rather) a new level of appreciation.

Thanks, Lee -- I think I'll call it a night, but grab that book before I head upstairs!

[ZingerSteve]

Mike, great comments about Garfield. I feel the same way about it from growing up in the 80s. I wouldn't call it my favorite or the best (especially given how flat and commercial it's become) but back then, it was certainly one of the most influential comic strips of my life. Heck, one school year I used to draw Garfield or Odie on the chalkboard in homeroom every single morning before classes begun.

[ZingerSteve]

My all time favorite is by far Pogo. I think only Watterson has rivaled the artistic craftsmanship of Walt Kelly's brushwork. Pogo is one of the most stunningly beautiful strips ever drawn. As for characters, writing and humor, Pogo broke ground in characterizations with dialects, backstories and intertwining/revolving relationships with a huge cast. It pushed the boundaries of political satire and actually pulled off "physical humor" within the timing constraints of a comic strip.

I believe it's one of the few historic strips that have truly shaped modern day comic strips. (Peanuts deservingly gets most of that credit but as a result, other strips like Pogo are often overlooked for sharing their influence.)

Krazy Kat comes in second place for me. It's brilliant!

[Brian Fies]

Favorite: Pogo.

Best: Pogo.

I had to give some thought as to whether Pogo or Little Nemo deserved my personal Best slot. Like Lee, I give Walt Kelly the edge for writing, but then it's not fair to judge a strip from the 1920s--when artists and writers were still figuring out what a comic strip was--against the standards of the 1950s-60s (or 2000s). It'd be like criticizing Thomas Edison for not inventing the iPod. Winsor McCay's work was the best of his time and, in some regards, has still never been bettered. Still: I Go Pogo.

Honorable "Best" Mentions: Peanuts of course, Krazy Kat (again like Lee, I respect it intellectually more than love it emotionally), Calvin & Hobbes (IMO the only great strip I was privileged to read first-run in newspapers), Captain Easy, Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, Popeye . . . and one I don't expect to see on anyone's list, Polly and Her Pals. I love that strip. Cliff Sterrett was terrific and is unjustly unknown today.

And Barnaby's not a strange choice at all. It's great.

[Lee Nordling]

I LOVE Polly & Her Pals, and for a brief period it was brilliant, especially the Sundays.

Polly's always among my favorites.

I've got the two color Sunday books, the first year of dailies that was published, the Comic Book Showcase reprint, AND the five daily strip reprint comics from Eternity. I had to really scrounge to find all these permutations; this strip is due for a reprint program. (I'm working on it.)

What's amazing about McCay is that he's from the birth of comic strips...the BEGINNING of the 20th century when there WEREN'T any rules; Little Nemo began in 1905 and ended in 1910.

And, of course, he helped invent animation...drew every image AND its background--this was pre-cell--over and over again.

I have an editorial cartoon of his from the early '20s. Amazing artist.

And thanks for the support on Barnaby, Brian; I'm feeling better about it by the moment. It's just weird to pick a strip that I know a lot of folks may not even know.

The reason I pick it over Calvin is simple: Watterson had the advantage of 80 years of comic strip evolution, and people who are first get extra points.

Calvin doesn't exist without Peanuts, for example.

I may enjoy Calvin more these days, but for my "best" criteria, being first and STILL being great decades later gets extra Brownie points. But that's just MY system.

I look forward to reading other thoughts on the topic...for a special project I'm also working on. Shhh...it's a secret.

--Lee

[Brian Fies]

Yeah, you're right on the dates. I was thinking of the later 1924-27 revival, but the real cool stuff was from 1905-1914 (the Maresca book hits highlights between 1905-10). I think we've talked about McCay before, Lee; my most prized cartooning possession is one of McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" cels (as you point out, they're hand-drawn on rice paper because the hadn't thought of using transparent celluloid yet), the first and only big thing I've bought with my "cartooning money."

[Lee Nordling]

You're right, Brian!

We're in rerun!

--Lee

[ZingerSteve]

Hey, that's a nice treasure to own, a Gertie drawing! I once had the opportunity to buy an original Pogo Sunday from a friend at a price way below market value. I just didn't have the money at the time. Oh well. Someday...

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

I've been torn in my mind between Peanuts and C&H for years. I read that at two different times in my life - Peanuts younger, Calvin older. Peanuts so much reminds me of good times as a kid that it's hard to choose anything else. And I struggled with the thought that the Mighty Schulz could not be as great in the later years. I fought the idea for a long time, especially because when I got older (high school and later) I stopped reading as regularly - so I wasn't as familiar with the 80's on strips til more recently.

But I have to say that The Complete Peanuts has crystallized it in my mind. Peanuts was so on top of its game in the 50s-70s it's unreal. But sadly, as the 80's roll in the strip loses something. He begins to recycle jokes and the strip loses its edge. I agree the the Peppermint Patty stuff became pretty bad, and he began to use her more and more. I actually enjoy some of the Spike stuff, but a lot of it is pretty ordinary or bad. To me, Rerun is the worst character. The strips of him trying to make a basket are awful. And again, ideas seemed to get recycled over and over.

He's still have that gem now and then, but it was sporadic for sure. Watterson never seemed to miss a beat and was on top of his game at the end. So innovative and so fun.

I guess to me they are tied, because the first couple decades of Peanuts was just amazing, as good as C&H in different ways. I can't really choose one or the other.

I still hunt down old Peanuts books, and they are scattered all over my house.

And I have to say, I loved Don Martin's Mad stuff. One day I'm going to get that big anthology of his.