So true, so universal.

As my previous post indicated I chose Calvin & Hobbes. I think they have an advantage though. The entire run/series was about the same characters. It was a relationship with them that a reader created. Far Side is more a collection of various one-liners that are independant of each other.

I was disappointed when I found out Far Side was ending. But I was down-right sad and hurt the day I learned there would be no more Calvin & Hobbes. I know I felt a certain affinity with Calvin and I'm sure others did too.

Of those two, The Far Side. I like Dilbert best of all though.

Calvin and Hobbes I don't like at all. It's not the worst, though--that honor will always be held by Family Circus.

I really liked Bloom County, but the new Opus(?) comic is just not funny (nicely drawn, but not funny).

ditto. And add Duplex on to that list.

No. The worst is Fred Basset. End of discussion.

Sorry to mention this again, but doesn't anyone like Sherman's Lagoon? I think it may be my favorite current strip, although Pearls Before Swine is rapidly gaining on it.

Bloom County! Check the nick and sig. - From the start to about 90% towards the end. It went downhill in Outland. Berkeley was starting to rehash some jokes and concepts ... but still my fave overall.

Coming in a very close second is Calvin and Hobbes. The character development and the conveyance of imagination is amazing with Watterson. Probably would be my number one if it weren't for the fact that the family newspaper funnies that we got didn't carry C&H. The rival newspaper that was less substance/more fluff carried C&H so subsequently I read it far less.

Same with Far Side. I do agree that the character development is substituted to a greater extent for a diverse range of humor and situational pieces in one comic frame.

on the poll i chose far side, never been a big fan of C & H.

other cartoons...


one of the best right now!

I dont know why but 'for better or worse' is pretty funny.

When I was really small I loved Garfield the most .. collected all the books up till 25 before I stopped.

My favorite comic is still Calvin and Hobbes, especially the ones where Calvin is on his sled while philosophizing with Hobbes. I hope that B.W. will draw C&H again and that the current break is only a very very long sabatical.

My current favorites are Get Fuzzy and Fox Trot. Get Fuzzy because the humor and the comic remind me of Garfield (only for a PG-13 age group this time) and because Fox Trot is one of the few comics which use current events as gags (e.g. the few strips with RoTK themes when the movie premiered)

I'd have to give a slight edge to the Far Side.

I don't read comics much, but I always also l iked Garfiled, the Lockhorns, and The Pirahana Club (and it's former incarnation which I believe was called Ernie or something like that).

Back in 1996, Bill Watterson did say that he wasn't going to abandon Calvin & Hobbes. Since the only "new" C&H project he's been involved in since then was the Calvin and Hobbes Sunday Pages book that came out in 2001, I doubt it's ever going to happen. He was never big on the celebrity of it anyway... I think he wants to be known for his art and not himself.

Calvin.

My current favorites though are:

Fox Trot, a worthy successor to Calvin

and

Speed Bump, a worthy successor to Far Side

Calvin and Hobbes by far. Just the imagination and thought put into that strip is amazing. Truely a genius among comic writters.

I like For Better or Worse you get attached to those characters as well.

Fox Trot is also good.

I too have lately seen a bunch of crap being published. It seems like there really hasn't been nothing to note for the past ten years.

The Far Side

Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic

Followed closely by Bloom County
Fox Trot

And I'm surprised to see that there's no one talking about The Boondocks. I think it's a hilarious comic with some real wit and satire to it.

"B.C." might be the worst comic being published -- and that's saying a lot. The guy's become this totally bigoted right-wing crank who seems to think dumb semi-racist jokes and his unfunny Christian prosteltyzing are worth wasting ink on.

I'd be able to overlook his agenda if it was even a successful comic. It's just crap. It doesn't even have anything to do with the so-called theme anymore, life with prehistoric man - every joke is based on something modern (hint - the strip's title means "Before Christ," maybe doing all these Christian strips doesn't fit very well with that theme). Just godawful stuff, pun intended.

Two newspapers substitute ``B.C.'' comic strip
Friday, January 9, 2004
©2004 Associated Press
(01-09) 12:17 PST LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Two New Mexico newspapers have refused to publish an upcoming installment of the caveman comic strip "B.C.," which makes a potentially insensitive remark referring to two Asian characters who fail in their attempt to build a working airplane.
The strip, by artist Johnny Hart, makes a play on words about the first flight of the Wright brothers, with the punchline "Two Wongs don't make a Wright," said Ray Sullivan, publisher of the Clovis News Journal and the Portales News-Tribune.
He said the papers will run substitutes for the Jan. 19 strip.
Creators Syndicate President Rick Newcombe said such switches are common.
"That happens a fair amount, especially as people are getting more sensitive," he said.


...It's not even a new joke! It's a stupid joke AND a ripoff.

I disagree on B.C.

While far from the best strip, it is nowhere near the worst.

He has made what, maybe 2 possibly racist strips in over 25 years of cartooning?

And I don't think he preaches that much, and some of the 'Christian' strips he comes up with are ingenius, even if you disagree with the message.

It's tons funnier than several strips in my local paper.

Just because you don't agree with it doesn't make it a bad comic. Just not your tastes.

I usually can't stand Doonesbury, but can appreciate its exceptional cartooning and jokes, even though I don't agree with it.

Well said Tanman.

I like them both, but gotta go with The Far Side

I agree. I think some of the religious ones are excellent.

Worst would have to be Dennis the Menace, Marmaduke or dare I say it, Garfield. I used to like all of these, but damn they ran out of steam years ago. It is the same strip day in and day out, nothing new, just the S.O.S. Oooh look Marmaduke is on the couch again. -- I haven't read that 10,000 times before. OMG, Garfield just ate Jon's food again & Jon can't get a date. lol. Dennis, oh yeah, he's bothering Mr. Wilson again. Sheesh. These 3 should be put out of their misery.

I agree. Much better and less racist than La Cucaracha, which is basically racist practically every day of the week.

I also don't like strips where they have this "I'm a victim" defeatest attitude about them. (Again, La Cucaracha and I know it's sacrilege, but put Peanuts in that category.)

BTW, how is "Two Wongs Don't Make a Wright" racist anyway? Maybe stereotypical, but not really racist. I mean look in a chinese phone book, there are bound to be a few 'Wong's' in there.