A weekly highlight throughout my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood were the Sunday comics in the Oregonian. I would sometimes take a look at the abbreviated, black-and-white weekday strips too, but that weekend version was vastly superior, at least in my eyes.
Not completely sure why, but somewhere between my mid-20s and now I just sort of discontinued my involvement in comics — except for glancing at them once or twice a week when I proof the page they appear on.
Comics have sort of been on mind lately, though. First off, on Sunday I took part in a Fences for Fido project in which the canine client’s name was Odie, like the dog from Garfield. And then while looking at Today in History on Wednesday’s editorial page, I noticed that July 21 is the 62nd birthday of Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau.
So, putting those two things together with the fact I needed a Top 7 topic, I came up with the idea of ranking my favorite newspaper comic strips/panels. Here we go:
1. Peanuts, by Charles Schultz. The undisputed king of comic strips. btw, with a penchant for somewhat scraggly specimens, I am told every winter by my son Bob that he does not want us going home with a "Charlie Brown Christmas tree."
2. The Far Side, by Gary Larson. The undisputed king of the panel comic. btw, my longest-term friend -- we went to school together from kindergarten through OSU -- still on occasion calls me "Thag" after one of the Far Side cavemen.
3. Beetle Bailey, by Mort Walker.
4. BC, by Johnny Hart.
5. The Wizard of Id, by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart.
6. Blondie, by Chic Young.
7. Bloom County, by Berkeley Breathed.
1 comment
dainsma says:
Jul 23, 2010
Calvin and Hobbes? I adored that strip and now love reading compilations from the perspective of a parent.
These days I like Pooch Cafe and the Duplex, not sure if you run them in Albany.
The Far Side was sublime.