Thursday

Does anyone still read the "funny papers"?

I learned about the simple pleasures of what might be called "common humor" from Daddy. He loved the comics, especially Dagwood. He always called the "Blondie" comic strip, "Dagwood". I continue to read Dagwood most everyday, and I always think that he and Daddy were "birds of a feather". Poor Dagwood. Whether it be his problems at the office with Mr. Dithers, his hot-and-cold relationship with the neighbor, Herb Woodley, or looking through the window to the neighborhood youth in Elmo, Dagwood epitomized the veritable Everyman (and still does for me).

I really don't remember much of an event from weekday comics, but the Sunday comics were a big deal. Daddy would read them to my sister Rosemary and me after Church while we sat on the living room couch, under the religious picture of The Guardian Angel that hung on the wall behind the couch. I think he enjoyed the comic strips as much as we did.

Today's comics are not all that interesting to me. Besides "Dagwood", I usually read Beetle Bailey, Funky Winkerbean, and For Better or Worse. The local fishwrap dropped Hagar the Horrible, The Wizard of Id, and B.C. several years ago. The modern replacements have not captured my eye.

Like most Boomers, I also read a lot of Peanuts. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the crew definitely established a unique place in our culture. (I don't read the re-running of the strips in today's papers.) Calvin and Hobbes came along later and was pretty good as well. But the author elected not to continue the strip in the mid '90's. Doonesbury's Trudeau was/is so intent on making political statements that the strip was never a fav, and I haven't paid it any mind for years.

I suppose that the combination of illustrator and humorist is not all that common. While both skills may be in "the arts", and therefore work the same side of the brain, drawing requires mechanics, while humor is a more mental function. And with newspapers struggling to stay above water today, the delivery system for new "panel artists" has to be the Internet.

Thanks to 1 for her recent comment. It's always good to hear from the peanut gallery.

BCOT