Another One Bites the Dust
Over the past few years I’ve grown attached to three daily comic strips. After today I won’t have new strips from any of these three to make me laugh on a daily basis.
The Boondocks creator, Aaron McGruder, stepped away from the strip in order to work on a television version as well as other products. In February 2006 it was announced that McGruder would be taking a six month hiatus. However, in October 2006 he officially cancelled any future plans to create any new strips. Reruns are still seen in daily papers, but nothing original.
Fox Trot ran on a daily basis until December 31, 2006. At that point the cartoonist, Bill Amend, decided to make Fox Trot a Sunday only strip. This really disappointed me. Daily strips allow for a continuing storyline. Even though they are in color, Sunday strips just don’t hold the same appeal to me. Reruns can still be ready in daily newspapers.
Today in reading my final comic strip pleasure, Big Top, I came to the realization that it too was ending. Cartoonist Rob Harrell has decided to focus on other ventures and just couldn’t continue. With the departure of Huey’s radicalism in the Boondocks and the daily zaniness of the Fox’s in Fox Trot, I came to rely on Dusty’s addiction to ChapStick and Wink’s crush on Katie Couric in Big Top to keep the comics pages funny. Now I don’t even have that.
I’ve added the final original strips to this message. (In the case of Fox Trot, it was its last original daily strip.)
My daily newspaper reading has just become a bit less fun.
The Boondocks creator, Aaron McGruder, stepped away from the strip in order to work on a television version as well as other products. In February 2006 it was announced that McGruder would be taking a six month hiatus. However, in October 2006 he officially cancelled any future plans to create any new strips. Reruns are still seen in daily papers, but nothing original.
Fox Trot ran on a daily basis until December 31, 2006. At that point the cartoonist, Bill Amend, decided to make Fox Trot a Sunday only strip. This really disappointed me. Daily strips allow for a continuing storyline. Even though they are in color, Sunday strips just don’t hold the same appeal to me. Reruns can still be ready in daily newspapers.
Today in reading my final comic strip pleasure, Big Top, I came to the realization that it too was ending. Cartoonist Rob Harrell has decided to focus on other ventures and just couldn’t continue. With the departure of Huey’s radicalism in the Boondocks and the daily zaniness of the Fox’s in Fox Trot, I came to rely on Dusty’s addiction to ChapStick and Wink’s crush on Katie Couric in Big Top to keep the comics pages funny. Now I don’t even have that.
I’ve added the final original strips to this message. (In the case of Fox Trot, it was its last original daily strip.)
My daily newspaper reading has just become a bit less fun.
Labels: Big Top, Boondocks, comics strips, Fox Trot
posted by IUAngelini at
1:11 PM
1 Comments:
You know, I have a rather weird opinion about this. In each case (as with Calvin & Hobbes), I feel cheated when the artist just walks away.
They spend years building up audience loyalty. They make a handsome profit off of thay loyalty. That is, they profit off of the relationship. Then one day they just walk away.
No matter the troubles with parasocial interactions, we still come to identify with these characters. They are -- in some small degree -- a part of our lives.
And I resent that someone (who has made money) can just kill they off to pursue other ventures. Well, bleep you, buddy. This younger generation of artists does not seem to have any tenacity. They drop off like flies.
Sure it's hard to keep coming up with new ideas, but that's why you get paid, jerk!
Charles Schultz kept going for decades.
I believe that they also might contribute to the death of the medium. As younger readers continue to get spurned, they will be less likely to form these relationships. They will stop reading.
And the print version of the daily newspaper is already in big trouble. That medium hardly needs one more nail in the coffin.
By
Samuel D. Bradley, at 1:59 PM
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