LONG LIVE LIBERTY MEADOWS! DOWN WITH THE WASHPOST COMIC EDITOR! BOOO!!!

That's all I have to say. So sorry to intrude. You probably don't even know what Liberty Meadows is.

I know what Liberty Meadows is/was, and I'll bet that most people who visit this site do too, Lori. And I gotta say, I don't miss it.

Back to the point at hand, these comic synchronicities always crack me up because they always seem to involve the two least likely strips. Someday, of course, there'll be on Big Synchronicity involving every strip on the page. Then boom, Time will start over and the clock'll be reset, and the comics page will feature the Katzenjammer Kids or the Yellow Kid, or maybe Rudolph Topffer's stuff. And eventually it'll culminate in Frank Cho coughing up more Liberty Meadows. That's my theory.

I am a fellow Garfield hater. If you haven't seen this, it's well worth the time to check it out.

garfieldminusgarfield.net/

...you know Frank Cho took Liberty Meadows out of the comics pages himself, right?

The wonderfully drawn elephants make Zits the winner in this one.

I agree that "Zits" has the greatest aesthetic appeal of any strip these days. In fact, it is the biggest reason that I started reading it (I am attracted by decent graphics and shiny, sparkley baubles).

I also agree that, after "Bloom County" went its way, "Liberty Meadows" (which I couldn't remember the name of yesterday - thanks CentrevilleMom) was a decent stand-in. I was pretty peeved when Cho took a climaxing storyline out of the paper to promote his comic books. (sigh) Maybe we can convince him to come back, and lend some of that graphic-novel-feeling that people have been mentioning to the funny pages... maybe it's just an online thing that he does? hmm?

Having 2 boys aged 16 and 18 I will say Zits hits the nail right on the head. Sometimes I post it on the fridge just to tick my kids off cause they know how close to home it hits. We still find it funny, however.

Comics can be either funny (Dilbert) or well drawn (Garfield) or both (Zits), but a comic like Cathy that's neither is a bane on existence.

BTW, that reminds me, didja ever notice how some strips like Zits have a shoe fetish--that guy LOVES to draw shoes--but FBOFW has a sock fetish? Don't they ever wear shoes in Canada?

Didn't Waterson walk because he wanted to get out before his strip started to go lame? He didn't have the responsibility of keeping all those support companies in business. Not sure I could walk away from the all the scratch Garfield brings in.

How do we know that Zits and Garfield don't have a side bet going?

The best way to enjoy Garfield:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Really. It's MUCH funnier than the original.

Cho left strips to get into comic books which is apparently where he really wanted to be. He currently draws for Marvel Comics.

Zits is great, and consistently so.

Garfield is bad, but in the last, say, four months or so has been generally pretty decent (by its own standards).

The "We're bachelors, baby" storyline was palatable; gotta give 'em props when they deliver, since unlike some strips it is not ALWAYS bad.

Liberty Meadows was beautiful, but never once funny. He seemed more interested in drawing Brandy than actual humor.

favorite is SHOE. Peanuts can be deleted.Zits is fabulous. Baby Blues is a hoot even for us over 65's with no kids.
Like this now blog...keep up the good works.

Thanks RCR and f2 for the G-G link -- hilarious! I always thought it really wasn't such a bad strip, turns out that eponymous cat was the real problem the whole time.

As for Garfield vs. Zits this week: yeah, it's not Zits best week. But at least Zits only does the gag for a week and not 30 years...

Another strip that's a treat just to look at is Frazz -- that's probably why I started reading it originally, but it's clever and funny too.

And for what it's worth: my vote for combined worst drawn and least funny is, without question, "Close to Home".

Am I the only one who thinks Get Fuzzy is the best drawn strip out there? I would certainly be willing to rank Zits second, but still.....

"Good Grief", do we have to quote other strips when we talk about the funnies?

Dan,
I do NOT think "Get Fuzzy" is at all well drawn. I couldn't even figure out what creatures were supposed to be depicted when the strip began appearing in my hometown paper. Now that I've got the characters pegged, I still hope that it will be funny someday

Mutts and Get Fuzzy are far better strips than Garfield! As is Dog Eat Doug(http://www.gocomics.com/dogeatdoug look it up)

Also last week was Pearls Before Swine's run about deaths of comic characters.

On that note If Jim Davis made Garfield seriously ill(obesity anyone), and eventually killed him off, making the strip basically Garfield- Garfield. Jim could coast taking garfield out of old strips.

and Jon having a girlfriend is pretty bad, there's no tension he's built up John to be this loser, and yet it seems nothing he does makes his girlfriend think twice..

personally I think Zits does the gag better, I think of it more like I'm watching a animation and his mother is trying increasingly louder plans to get Jeremy awake.

And echoing a comment earlier better just for a week than 30 years.

Try these cartoons out for size.
http://humorousmaximus.com/

does jim davis even have anything to do with this strip anymore? isn't it all mass production by underlings now??

Can someone e mail me when we start talking Judge Parker?

Thx,

JkR: does that mean you're all set to give judge parker some love, or serious derision?!

I think Watterson put it well when he noted that "great writing will save boring artwork better than great drawings will save boring ideas." This seems to me to be Zits' problem.

Even though the strip is well drawn, the jokes are not well done and the characters only serve as a medium to set up gags on a daily basis instead of as a tool to build up a unique identity. There is nothing specific about Zit's main cast, that is to the say the family, so it builds on generalities and as a result, each day's joke is inseparable from the first time Zits told that joke.

Garfield at least has no pretentions about its quality, so at least mocking it is viable.