Just a short post about my favorite comic strips. I’ve been reading comic strips for approximately 67 years. In fact, here’s an earlier post I wrote about the saddest moment in comic strip history, for me anyway. But yes, first in newspapers and now these days, thanks to technology, on the Internet. I’m a big fan of RSS (Really Simple Syndication, but also sometimes known as Rich Site Summary) and have been using it since I first got on the Internet 30 years ago to have content I want “pushed” to my reader so I don’t have to go looking for it every time.
I currently have 17 different comic strips delivered to me 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I used to have 25, but dropped some that stopped being as funny to me as they used to.
Of those 17, I have 3 that are my favorite comic strips.
Calvin and Hobbes
It’s funny to me now, but the first few times I read Calvin and Hobbes back in the mid-to-late 80’s I didn’t like the character Calvin AT ALL. But somehow, over time, he and Hobbes, along with their supporting cast, came to be the strip I always looked for first thing in the morning because I KNEW I could start my day with a laugh.
Technically, these are all “re-runs” now as artist Bill Watterson stopped producing new strips on December 31, 1995 AND I have The Complete Calvin and Hobbes 3-volume box set packed away in our storage room while we travel. But I still like to read this strip every day, even if I remember exactly how the gag will go (though I don’t always, which is one of the benefits of old age they never frame as a benefit, lol).
Pickles
I think the big draw of this strip is that the main characters, Earl and Opal Pickles who are a retired couple in their 70’s, remind me of Cindy and I. Sometimes painfully so. ‘Nuff said!
Zits
If Pickles reminds me of Cindy and I, Zits recalls the joy of parenting teenagers through their formative years. It makes me laugh almost every day, or at least shake my head in remembrance.
Honorable Mentions got to Garfield, Mother Goose and Grimm, and Pluggers.
What are some of YOUR favorite comic strips?
