Post-Dispatch comics poll time, again

The Post-Dispatch (disclosure: my employer) has decided it’s once again the season for weeding out the comics.

I have to admit, this time around I think they are going about it the right way … or at least they picked the right strips to put on the chopping block.

Basically they have taken ten comics and split them into two groups. Readers are being asked to vote for one strip in each group which they would like to see replaced with a new strip.

Here are the comics which have been nominated for elimination, along with links to the actual pages where you can vote.

Group one

  • Blondie
  • For Better or Worse
  • Garfield
  • Hagar the Horrible
  • Hi & Lois

Group two

  • Drabble
  • Family Circus
  • In The Bleachers
  • Marmaduke
  • Ziggy

I think they could replace all of these and I wouldn’t be broken-hearted.

But since it comes down to just two, it’s got to be Hagar and Ziggy. Two strips that have been phoning it in for decades and are never even remotely amusing.

(Following close behind would be Garfield and Hi & Lois (sorry, Mom), two more phone-it-in legacy strips)

I do still enjoy Blondie, FBOFW, and Family Circus. I have a soft spot for Drabble and In The Bleachers can be zany. But it wouldn’t bother me if any of them were cut.

My taste in comics is pretty wide (I love Mark Trail and Pearls Before Swine, for example), but honestly in this day of newspapers with shrinking page counts, there’s no way to justify keeping stale comics.

I would like to see fresher, funnier stuff on the comics pages, and I think it’s long past time to dump strips like Hi & Louis, Beetle Bailey, and Hagar the Horrible in favor of something funnier, more genuine, or more artistic.

P.S. One other thought: I wish Lola and Mallard Fillmore were nominated for elimination. My feelings toward Lola are well-known. But Mallard Fillmore bothers me a lot, too. Ostensibly it’s on the page to appease conservatives. But it’s a terrible comic: never funny, frequently dumb, poorly drawn. I am a conservative myself, but I have to say DUMP THE DUCK!

5 Replies to “Post-Dispatch comics poll time, again”

  1. “My feelings toward Lola are well-known.” Love it!!
    But I have to disagree and say it’s decades past time to dump For Better or For Worse.
    The reruns of this strip are so dated as to be culturally embarrassing. They argue about whether a woman can balance a checkbook, whether the wife should work outside the home… I mean, come on, even Blondie has a job!!

  2. Oh man, listen, im not sure where I get the compulsion to do this, but I read the comics every day. I like to think that my opinion is at least informed. With that in mind, im not sure I like this splitting-into-groups business since list 2 is SO much more awful as a whole than list 1 (except for Drabble, which I actually rather enjoy). Ziggy, Family Circus and Marmaduke are all on the same list and I can only pick one? And In the bleachers has a gem once in awhile but the characters are so horribly drawn that I don’t like to look at it. Frankly id be happy to sacrifice Drabble (it’s good, but I’ve always thought of it as a less funny Fox Trot.) If it meant the other 4 on the list would go.
    As for group one, im having a hard time choosing between Hagar and Hi & Lois (ANOTHER one about the frickin’ sunbeam? Come ON.).
    And I didn’t know anybody liked Mark Trail. Guess I was wrong about that.

  3. Jennie, don’t forget the husband’s sexist friend.
    D. Mike, yes, there are Mark Trail lovers out there. You’ve got to start following it. The plots are so ludicrous, the dialogue so hilarious. There are so many things to enjoy each day… Are Mark’s dialogue balloons pointing to an animal or an inanimate object? What monster-size animal will we see depicted in the middle panel?
    Right now, Mark’s neighbor has fenced his property, which prompted Mark and crew to wonder why. Why on earth would someone fence their property?
    Turns out there is a nefarious reason. The neighbor is running for governor, and he plans to invite powerful friends to come hunt tame game animals on his property. Apparently this hunt will somehow cement his being elected governor.
    The neighbor’s wife is now demanding Mark do something to make her husband stop.
    Oh, and I almost forgot, the would-be-governor’s daughter brought home a fawn she found in the woods, thinking it had been abandoned by its mother. Little does she know what her father has planned…

  4. Well Josh, I have no love lost for Hi & Lois, Garfield,Hagar,or Ziggy. I take issue with Mallard Filmore, though. I think it is often very funny and pokes fun at the ridiculous attitudes that pervade the media. But I am sooo done with Funky Winkerbean!

  5. It’s time for some new comics! Interesting groupings to vote on who should be eliminated. Now for who should be added…DRUM ROLL…AGNES. Wonderful comic strip we need for a daily belly chuckle and reflection on life today. I voted a comic out, but, more importantly, am voting Agnes in.

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