A Tribute Comic…
It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been ten years, but it’s true. February 12th, 2010 is the tenth anniversary of the death of Charles Schultz.
Peanuts has always held a special place in my heart. My grandparents had this collection of comics from the sixties, that I used to read all the time. It didn’t matter that I had read them all before. I still loved them.
In my local paper, Peanuts was positioned on the top left of the funnies page. It was the first comic you would see, and the first comic you would read. It always made me laugh, and I always thought it ruined the rest of the comics page for me. Because, aside from Calvin and Hobbes, nothing else came close, for me.
But, then, Peanuts left and I realized that it didn’t ruin the comics page. It was just the only thing on there that was any good.
I still feel that way. I read the funnies page, and I don’t even crack a smile. The local paper had a comic called “Cow and Boy”, for a while, and that was pretty good. Not a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments, but the comic had a lot of heart. Which is something I think most comics are missing.
And dogs sleeping on dog houses. There’s not nearly enough of those in modern comic strips.
December 5th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Its about freakin time there was a new comic!
December 6th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I hear ya, Chris. Watterson and Schulz could tug at the heartstrings will simultaneously making you laugh like no other. It’s not just the nostalgia talking, either. Those comics simply had heart.
December 6th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Darbus – Indeed, it is about time. Those jerks who make this comic are slackers.
Jan – The Comics page is truly lacking without those two. And it’s amazing how much every bit of their work still stands up, today. I’m not sure Beetle Bailey or Blondie can say the same thing. They wrote absolutely incredible things, that appeal to every time frame. And that’s why they’re awesome.
And don’t even get me started on the Family Circus. Maybe it’s because I don’t have kids, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actual joke in that comic. There’s a difference between subtle humor and lack of humor. And I’m not sure Family Circus sees that.
December 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Family Circus well … Bill Keane tries. I’ll give him that. And yeah, I’ve never laughed at it either.
Nor have I ever liked Garfield. Jim Davis seemed to me the very opposite of Bill Watterson. Unfunny, unoriginal, and very much a marketing whore.
There are some purely ‘ha-ha’ funny comics out there. Foxtrot and Brewster Rockitt come to mind. But Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes actually made you care about comic strip characters, and that’s amazing.