I think the character design of the WM is the best thing about this strip; not to say that the rest has no value…but brrrr it’s all SO dated: the history of the American comic strip is varied; I’m a fan: Segar, Harriman…Walt Kelly especially…but while those seem ‘old’ to me: they also feel a hell of a lot more modern than this example.
But, as has been mentioned before: we forget the masses of grist and gravel and detritus that bring forth the rare precious nugget of genuine creativity: ‘Little Nemo’ as mentioned above being an excellent example of the form.
I still read a paper fishwrap regularly: Mutts takes a second to read, a simple throwback, but done lovingly. Doonesbury, helps maintain my Liberal credentials. Luann (god help me); but it actually has momentum over time, unlike that perfect fossil with the cat and the dog and the idiot.
Besides Bizarro which has been damn great for a shitload of years, used to share billing with The Far Side in my local paper; I really just read -in order of interest- Lio, Non Sequiter, Bucky/Sachel/ the Canadian…and finally my favorite: Pearls Before Swine.
That still leaves more than half I’m not willing to give my eyeballs the extra 3 seconds to receive.
I guess it has always been thus…with many things.
-GOD I miss Calvin and Hobbes!-
