I’m a big fan of comic books but not such a big fan of the comics’ page in the newspaper. The only writer/artist left who I think has any talent whatsoever is Scott Adams, but I can read his strip on the internet. Incidentally, Scott has recently begun an extremely funny blog, which I find far funnier than “Dilbert.” He can print strips the newspapers won’t allow, like these two.
I can tell you the exact date I stopped reading comics in the newspaper. It was December 31st 2005. That was the last day Calvin and Hobbes appeared in any newspaper. By that point Gary Larsen and Berke Breathed had stopped writing, and when Watterson pulled out comics simply died for me (Our newspaper didn’t carry Breathed’s “Outland”)
Today I discovered that Berke Breathed has entered the strip world again, and in 2003 began publishing “Opus” in the Washington Post. Since I only read Post articles on the internet I wasn’t aware of this.
As much as I missed Opus, I think I missed the supporting cast just as much: Steve, Milo, Binkely, Oliver, Hodge-Podge, Portnoy, Cutter John, Bobbi, Loloa, Rosebud, Milquetoast, and last and quite likely dead, Bill the Cat. Here’s this week’s strip on Breathed’s web site.
This call for a celebration!