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Ryan Maxwell
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12960
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 1:10am | IP Logged | 1
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Bloom County. Ack! Thbbft!
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9006
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 2:25am | IP Logged | 2
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Calvin & Hobbes.
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Joseph Vecchio
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Joined: 26 October 2024
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 3:56am | IP Logged | 3
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I'll go with Calvin & Hobbes over Peanuts as personal favorites, even though Peanuts was much more influential, because in my opinion Watterson had the good sense to let go of the strip while it was still on top, Schulz felt you had to keep on working, long after Peanuts had gotten stale.
I'm also a fan of Doonesbury, have been since the eighties. He only does Sunday strips now. Bloom County was also a favorite. I missed out on a lot of Milton Caniff's work, as well as Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and the great E. C. Segar.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 36087
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 5:36am | IP Logged | 4
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I have the Fantagraphics collection of PEANUTS strips from the beginning until 1996. Just four volumes short! This after I had already bought all those small paperback collection of strips they used to sell in the 70s. They are, in a word, magical. For about 30 years, the Peanuts captured something I don’t think any other characters in any medium were able to do. I thought it was a great strip in the early 70s when I became a fan, but it had already been going for 20 odd years before my time. We in Minnesota took it as a point of pride that Schulz started in Minnesota with Lil’ Folks (the precursor to Peanuts) appearing first in The St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1947 and, hey, Schulz is a Minnesotan. As a child of the late 60s, born just a little over a year after A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS first aired on CBS, Peanuts is ingrained in me. Love many of the other strips mentioned here, but none come close for my money and many owe a huge debt to Schulz.
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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12767
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | 5
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The Fantagraphics collections are... fantastic! I think Schulz was extraordinary for more than a decade from the strip's debut. Less so, gradually, from the mid-60s and on. But even toward the end of his remarkable run, he could produce a day's work that would hit it out of the park.
If I may recommend two books: [1] Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis, and [2] Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings, which include the entirety of his "Li'l Folks by Sparky" series.
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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 6
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Following up on JB's post, Kliban is absolutely among the greatest humor cartoonists of all time. Just non-stop absurdist genius that's almost purely cerebral but manages to land every time. My favorite panel of his:
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James Best
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Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 895
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | 7
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Tough call for me as my comic strip reading went through some large peaks and valleys over the last four decades.
During my college years it was a toss up but I would give THE FAR SIDE the edge over BLOOM COUNTY.
Then there was a long gap while I wore an Army uniform and moved around a lot so that I didn't get the chance to read a daily newspaper.
I didn't discover CALVIN & HOBBES until long after it had finished its run and I had retired from the military. But I quickly made up for lost time.
Nowadays I enjoy catching up with both old and new strips from NON SEQUITUR by Wiley Miller.
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Brian ONeill
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Joined: 04 July 2024
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | 8
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The David Michaelis biography of Schulz is excellent. It forever changed how I looked at the Lucy-Schroder strips.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | 9
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Michael Penn wrote:
| If I may recommend two books: [1] Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis, and [2] Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings, which include the entirety of his "Li'l Folks by Sparky" series. |
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Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve got the Michaelis book sitting on my shelf but have yet to read it. The second book appears to be out-of-print as the only copy I could find is $150 on Amazon. Just searched eBay and it recently sold for $96. As much as I love Schulz, that’s too rich for my blood!
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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31288
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| Posted: 10 November 2024 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | 10
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Thanks for that Michaels recommendation. I’ll be ordering it shortly.
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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12767
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| Posted: 11 November 2024 at 3:22am | IP Logged | 11
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You can buy the L'il Folks collection directly from the Charles M. Schulz Museum for $30. :)
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Andrew Davey
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Joined: 27 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 12 November 2024 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | 12
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Bloom County with Calvin and Hobbs a close second.
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