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Welcome to the 23nd Something Awful Comic Strip Megathread! For almost two decades, this thread has been the forum equivalent of rifling through the newspaper for the comics section before your parents could get their hands on it. Despite the name, this thread is home to more than traditional newspaper comics. Syndicate websites now have comics which exist exclusively in that space, and artists whose work appeared in print in the past may now post their current output online. Exceptions may be made for some particularly beloved strips and artists, but traditional webcomics in the vein of Penny Arcade or Ctrl+Alt+Delete are generally excluded, as well as graphic novels. If you’re interested in posting something new and aren’t sure if it fits the thread, feel free to ask! You might add yourself to the ranks of true heroes who slave over hot keyboards day in and day out to bring us fresh content from a stale medium! Past Megathreads:
Thanks to Hippocrass and Selachian for contributing their knowledge to some of the comic intros! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Chickweed Lane is banned from this thread. There’s a difference between hate-reads and comics everyone just hates to read, and Brooke McEldowney crossed that line a long time ago. 9CL had become notorious for its love of “gams” at the expense of everything else, including other anatomical features, realistic portrayal of human relationships, and general good taste. Google at your own peril - I hope you like teeth! Andertoons  A simply-drawn panel that continually finds fresh takes on what would otherwise be comic cliches. Archie  America's favorite teenager, from the 1940s to today. If you only know the characters from Riverdale, you may be surprised at how rarely they have sex. The Argyle Sweater  Panel comic that regularly features Far Side eyes and strained puns. Arlo and Janis  A&J has a lot of thread goodwill due to its wholesome portrayal of a long-married couple still madly in love with each other. #Relationshipgoals in comic strip form. A Sketchy Life  Not its own comic per se, but a catchall title for various old magazine cartoons. Bad Machinery  Set in John Allison’s “Bobbinsverse”, Bad Machinery chronicles the adventures of six mystery-solving teens in the fictional British town of Tackleford. Its cast has appeared in several other Allison projects both before and since. Bardiche Hotel  The latest from Japanese artist Q-rais, who also created thread favorite Nekonaughey. Baron Bean  The immediate followup to The Dingbat Family from George Harriman, who would go on to create Krazy Kat. This strip follows the adventures of the titular Baron, a down on his luck nobleman who mooches around town seeking a free meal. He eventually gains a “butler”. Big Nate  A long-running newspaper staple, Big Nate has drawn some ire in the past for its namesake being a lovely friend, but modern Nate seems to have outgrown this habit. Bizarro  Pretty much the sort of comic you would picture this man creating, although it is now drawn by whatever a “Wayno” is. Blind Alley  A webcomic drawn by an illustrator who works with The Globe and Mail, so technically thread-appropriate! Breaking Cat News  A beautifully illustrated strip based on the artist’s ever-expanding household of cats. In the past year, it has tested thread patience with an over-long story line, but it has now settled back into the central conceit suggested by the title. Brenda Starr  Long-running soap opera strip (so far these threads have covered the first 12 years of a 71-year run) about the adventures and romances of the Midwest's worst reporter. Buni  A mostly wordless comic that updates three days a week. Calvin and Hobbes  The classic that inspired a generation of comic artists! Currently being rerun so we can catch gags that went over our heads as children. Caption It!  The name isn’t a suggestion  Closer Than We Think!  What folks in the late 1950s thought the future held for them, including such amazing possibilities as jet pack mailmen, inflatable airplanes, computer-controlled farm equipment, and being able to watch TV shows from other countries. Compu-toon  Imagine someone gave your grandfather a pen and asked them to write a comic about that newfangled technology, the “personal computer”, and you basically have Compu-toon. Somehow feels like it was passed through Google Translate despite originating in English. Crabgrass  Set in the 80’s, Crabgrass follows two best friends from different sides of the tracks. A thread favorite that has undergone an art style change in the past year. Crankshaft  After thread mainstay Funky Winkerbean ended in 2022, there was much concern that we would no longer have a venue to extol the virtues of random pizzerias in nowhere Ohio. Well, that monkey’s paw curled itself into a goddamn sphere, as artist Tom Batiuk (aka “TomBat”) has been slowly crossing over people and locations from FW into his other daily Crankshaft, ensuring thread misery for years to come. Curtis  Mostly known for its mundane “kids these days and their hippity-hop” style of humor, occasionally the artist swings for the fences, notably with his yearly Kwanzaa fables and Sunday strips featuring ostentatious church lady hats. Daddy Daze  Ba ba ba. Ba ba? Ba, ba ba ba. Dark Side of the Horse  Simple and absurd, this Finnish creation has plenty of sight gags. Dick Tracy  Ye gods! The Dick Locher era of Dick Tracy from the 2000s is notorious for tiny arms and nonsensical villainy. Dilbert is banned from this thread for its continual contempt for a) the very concept of art, and b) anyone who isn’t a straight white genius like Scott Adams. The Dingbat Family/The Family Upstairs  George Harriman's first successful strip, The Dingbat Family follows the Dingbats as they go through their day to day lives. The strip will be quickly retooled to introduce the never seen Family Upstairs and the trouble they cause the Dingbats. Also some cat and mouse show up or something. They never become important. Dok's Dippy Duck  The story of a smartass Seattle-based duck hanging out on a street corner. Sometimes he picks fights, sometimes fights pick him. Dustin  If this comic is bad, it's the millennials' fault for being so lazy. Everyday Movies  A slice-of-life comic panel set mostly in and around New York City. Notable for the amount of detail the artist packs into each panel. F Minus  Contrary to the title, the art and gags in this panel are generally worth at least a C+. The Family Circus  Boy, these kids sure can’t talk right! Guess we’ll milk that premise for 50 goddamn years. The Far Side is a treasured classic and immeasurably influential on modern cartoonists, but due to previous DMCA notices, it has been banned from this thread. You can find cow tools at your local library or bookstore. Fingerpori  Proof that Finnish is the Calvinball of languages, Fingerpori is a thread favorite for its inscrutable puns and wordplay which are often untranslatable. Viperless milk is the prototypical example. Flash Gordon  Still new at the end of 2023, this reboot is winning thread acclaim for its skilled artwork and snappy pacing. Footrot Flats  A New Zealand strip about a nameless dog’s adventures on the titular farm. For Better or For Worse  The comic that inspired it all! Now in rerun hell, “Foob” is the original thread hateread. Artist Lynn Johnston’s attempt to portray a fictionalized version of her own family has become especially notorious for rewriting the actual lives of her children and portraying motherhood as martyrdom.  Garfield  Still loves lasagna, still hates Mondays. Aside from Jon finally getting together with vet Liz, not much has changed in 40+ years. Gasoline Alley  The longest running American strip still in print, Gasoline Alley evolved over the years from a slice of life strip to something close to a soap with aging in real time. Get Fuzzy  An early 2000s whose detailed art sets it apart from other talking pet strips. Gil Thorp  I’ll bet you didn’t think the fast-paced action of sports would translate well into a plodding daily comic strip. You would be correct. Hagar the Horrible  Without a doubt, the most wholesome Viking-themed comic in print today. Heart of the City  Heart has gotten a new artist and writer in the past few years, and their main innovation has been never providing a satisfying conclusion to literally anything. Heathcliff  Where the Man Eating Giant and Garbage Ape get their “MEAT” helmets. Home Free  Finally finding the lighter side of being a homeless family. Intelligent Life  Ugh. Into Ilves  Originally running 1949-54, this Finnish strip centers around a young man traveling around the countryside helping the needy and distributing vigilante justice. Invisible Scarlet O'Neil  The first super-powered woman in comics, Scarlet possesses the power to become invisible by pressing a "strange nerve" in her left wrist. This leads her into constant adventures; past plots have involved gangsters, spies, unscrupulous heirs, evil orphanage directors, lady wrestlers, rigged beauty competitions, lovelorn couples, hardhearted millionaires, amnesiac singers, con artists, robot builders, dognappers, sports fixing, and more. Jucika  A thread legend which sees regularly reruns. This Hungarian strip from the 60’s somehow manages to be risqué and wholesome at the same time. Junk Drawer  A chuckle-worthy panel with an erratic update schedule. Kevin and Kell  One of three strips drawn by Bill Holbrook (along with On The Fastrack and Safe Havens), K&K has inexplicably been running since 1995. The setting is a world where predator and prey live among each other, hunt each other, but also sometimes marry each other? The rules are extremely loose and often change from one strip to the next. Krazy Kat  One of the original greats of the comics page that has been inspiring prospective cartoonists for over a hundred years. Legend of Bill  Ugh with a loincloth. Little Lefty  A Depression-era kid-gang strip which was literal US Communist counterprogramming to the hyper-capitalist Orphan Annie. The Lockhorns  A harrowing look into an alternate history America where no-fault divorce has been outlawed. Luann  Luann is arguably the worst part of Luann. Once about high schoolers, now about college students who act like high schoolers, with only one walking pose to be shared among all characters. Macanudo  Too inoffensive to be interesting, but not profound enough to be memorable. Mandrake  A comic about a magician with wildly inconsistent powers of hypnosis. Showcases the dangers of legacy strips as its canon requires regular use of names like “Narda” and “Cockaigne”. Mark Trail  Hasn’t had a competent artist in decades. Its run under James Allen aka “Jamesallen” was notorious for copy/pasted art and Allen’s own thin skin. Its current artist Jules Rivera seems to be performing comic art speedruns, resulting in a slapdash approach to story progression and creative interpretations of human anatomy. Mary Worth   An older woman dispenses pearls of boomer-approved “wisdom” over muffins or dinner at the Bum Boat. Monty  A man and his hairless cat do things. Mutts  It’s cute. Cute dog and cute cat do cute things. Largely inoffensive, although not afraid to take a stand for animal rights. Nancy  A legacy strip that has been featured in three unique incarnations over the years:
 Features Dethany (from On The Fastrack) who is the only cog keeping the titular office afloat. Another Bill Holbrook travesty, this mess features infinite visual “gags” and unwavering deference to authority, no matter how abusive. Our Boarding House  Apparently all people did before the invention of television was stand around in parlors and smoke. Out Our Way  A panel focused on small town life that ran over 50 years in the mid 20th century. Overboard  A comic about pirates drawn by someone who really wishes they had made a comic about dogs instead. Peanuts  The inescapable, all-time comics page juggernaut. The Phantom  A long-running saga about the latest in a long line of fearless guardians protecting the African jungle. The current run is in the midst of a lengthy storyline that has been testing reader patience despite its focus on thread favorite wildcard Savarna. Phoebe and Her Unicorn  Originally created under the far superior name Heavenly Nostrils, Phoebe and Her Unicorn is about the titular Phoebe who plays the straight girl to a narcissistic, sparkly unicorn. Pickles  Depicts the lives of retirees who lovingly bicker with each other and mess with their grandchild. A true inspiration. Pluggers  A panel that mostly serves to make goons rue the encroaching specter of death as they identify with Pluggers more and more. Pogo  One of the classics of the comics page, full of extremely dense wordplay and obscure allusions delivered by a cast of swamp critters who mostly speak in thick Southern dialect. Inspired the likes of Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, among others. Pooch Cafe  Garfield with a dog. Popeye / Olive and Popeye  This current incarnation is drawn by Randy Milholland of Something Positive infamy on Sundays and Thursdays, and Emi Burge on Tuesdays. Vintage Popeye is also posted as Thimble Theater. Got it? Positive Polly/Polly and Her Pals  The adventures of a teenage girl and her family, Polly became a prototype for other flapper era strips such as Edgar Martin's Boots and Her Buddies, Chic Young's Blondie and Larry Whittington's Fritzi Ritz. Polly would end up surrendering much of the spotlight in her own strip to her family, the titular “Pals”, though she would never be “Barney Googled” by barely featuring in the strip named after her. Prince Valiant   A beautiful serial from the days when comics were printed large enough to show off intricately detailed and expressive artwork. Drawn for decades by the brilliant Hal Foster, it follows the adventures of the titular prince of Thule and knight of the Round Table in a semi-historical, low-to-no magic Dark Ages setting. Posted both in its classic form (scanned from the excellent Fantagraphics collections) and modern iteration. Rae the Doe  A web-based syndicated comic by a trans artist usually based around pain-inducing puns.  Retail  Posted in reruns after its conclusion in 2020, since retail hell is never-ending. Rex Morgan MD   A serial about the extremely slow-moving “adventures” of the titular doctor, except when it’s about country musicians and scam artists. Rhymes With Orange  Another long-running gag-a-day strip. Rip Haywire  A throwback to old adventure serials, Rip plays up the silliness with more stylized art and parodic onomatopoeia. Safe Havens  Another Bill Holbrook creation. Originally about a daycare center, Safe Havens has morphed into the kind of strip where the main characters go to Mars, time travel, and perform debatably-ethical genetic experiments with Sally Forth  A relatively sane (for the comics page) take on modern American family and office life. Scary Gary  A collection of not-so-scary ghouls and ghosts in a suburban neighborhood. Scary Go Round  Another member of John Allison's “Bobbinsverse”, this webcomic dates from the early 2000s and features the origins of many characters that would feature in his future work. Skippy  An extremely popular early 20th century classic that inspired Peanuts with its unvarnished portrayal of childhood. Smokey Stover  Dad puns, slapstick, and screwball comedy featuring a wacky firefighter and his family. Take It From The Tinkersons  One of the more divisive strips in the rotation, readers will either love it for its gags or hate it for its artwork. Thimble Theater  The original Popeye strip from the mid-20th century. Thorn  The college newspaper strips that served as a prototype for the epic graphic novel Bone. Toonerville Folks  Rickety trolleys, town characters, and a proto-feminist icon who could snap a fool like a twig if she wasn't so good-natured. Us Boys  A gag-a-day, slice of life strip following a neighborhood of children, often focusing on the titular boys and baseball. Information about the strip and its author are limited; it appears in archives infrequently until the end of 1911, after which it starts running almost daily. The Virtue of Vera Valiant  A parody of soap operas from the mid-70s, with maximum drama in every line of dialogue and plot twist. Written by Stan Lee of all people. Wallace the Brave  A consistent delight, Wallace is much loved for its dynamic and detailed art, irrepressibly spirited protagonist, and positive family relationships. The best friend you wish you had growing up. The Wandering Culinarian  Brand new to the 2024 thread, this Korean comic from the late 2000s looks poised to make us all hungry. We Are Reproducing  A Japanese strip that takes a frank look at the process of giving birth and caring for a new infant. Zippy The Pinhead  No one know what th’ hell is going on or what th’ hell they’re talking about in this cult …classic? Zits  Teenagers! They eat too much! They grow too fast! Their music is too loud! You know… teenagers!
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Jan 1, 2024 17:10
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Nicely done! I will not be posting 1940’s Nancy or Pluggers. If anyone wants to take them up, go for it!
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Jan 1, 2024 17:16
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Ever Vigilant Favorite Edit HAPPY NEW YEAR MOTHERFUCKERS IT'S HELLWORLD TIME        Oh god I actually sorta remember this series of strips. I think this is the introduction of Onk? The gyre is widening! The center cannot hold!  You and Me Both, Fulton, Minus The Working Part 
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Jan 1, 2024 17:24
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This year is the year I read the whole thread.
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Jan 1, 2024 17:24
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There's a lot more comics in the thread than I remember there being.
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Jan 1, 2024 17:24
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Thanks for making the OP! And thanks all for posting comics, especially the bad ones. Pickles  Hagar the Horrible  Zits 
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Jan 1, 2024 17:26
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Retail  Popular Comics, or Popcom, is an anthology magazine which ran from February 1936 to September 1948, collecting popular comics (surprise!) of the day(s). I tend not to read these before posting, due to scaling issues on my screen, but I do white balancing and color enhancement of the pages before posting them, since my source tends to be fairly yellowed from age. Since I don't read them beforehand, some racist, misogynist, or otherwise offensive material may be present without warning, and I apologize for that.   I may add some new comics to my rotation in the coming days, but for now, disis waddigot.
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Jan 1, 2024 17:40
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Bizarro Bonus game: find the hidden symbols in every Bizarro! The Family Circus  Slylock Fox  Flash Gordon  Okay, this gimmick could be a lot of fun.
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Jan 1, 2024 17:52
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Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon
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Jan 1, 2024 17:53
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Buni Rhymes with Orange  Get Fuzzy 12/30-31/03   Brenda Starr 5/8-10/52 is currently wrapping up a story where a lost heiress, raised by hillbillies, is marrying a poor but honest soda jerk and meeting his family of Italian stereotypes.  I wonder if Messick was aware of that other meaning of "the Mob."  Abretha invents the Egg McMuffin 20 years early.  I usually post Smokey Stover here, but I can't find the December 7, 1958, strip so I'm skipping it for today. Everyday Movies 2/6/37  "The Specialist." Invisible Scarlet O'Neil 11/5-7/42    Closer Than We Think! 12/7/58  Everything working by push-buttons was a common theme in 50s expectations of the future. Bonus Ad!  I just like the little trident-wielding Viking and his fish chef buddy.
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Jan 1, 2024 18:03
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So I'll probably get banned for posting something this big, but here goes: I've been posting the current webcomics of John Allison, who is best known for Scary-Go-Round and Bad Machinery, which are also posted in this thread, as well as the print comic series Giant Days, which won two Eisner awards. Allison currently has two websites where he posts his comics:  Steeple.church is where, appropriately enough, Allison posts his comic Steeple. Originally released in in 2019 as a 5 issue print comic, Allison would continue the series as a webcomic, initially just collecting them by story/chapter (a la Scary-Go-Round), before settling on releasing the comic in a series of 22 pages "issues". The initial five issue run was published by Dark Horse, who also published two collections of the webcomic. Unfortunately Dark Horse decided to pass on a fourth collection and Allison stated that this next issue will be the last Steeple story. Steeple is set in the Cornish town of Tredregyn ("Bad Mischief Town") it focuses on best friends Billie Baker and Maggie Warren, who work for rival churches, as they deal with the various supernatural forces that sometimes threaten the town. Allison also has a guide to the characters here. Here is a list of the stories, with links to the ones on the Steeple website Issue 1 - "Arrival" - Billie Baker arrives in Tredregyn as the new curate. She befriends Maggie, meets Rev. Penrose & Mrs. Clovis at the old rectory, and finds out about the various monsters that threaten the town at night. Issue 2 - "GODSPLANN" - Billie takes up the parish work that Rev. Penrose had been neglecting by organizing a group of local teens to clean up garbage by the shore. A series of encounters leads to Billie seeming to end the conflict between Penrose and the "mermen" he fights at night. Issue 3 - "NIMBY" - With no monsters to fight, Penrose and Billie investigate the new wind farm in Tredregyn. When they discover that the farm's owners, a pair of Charismatic Christians, have ulterior motives, they must ally with the members of the Church of Satan in order to put a stop to the plans. Issue 4 - "Witchfest" - The annual Witches festival comes to Tredregyn and Billie agrees to help Maggie host. Meanwhile Warlock Brian and Magus Tom look for a place to drink while Mrs. Clovis gets her vacuum repaired at a questionable repair shop. Issue 5 - "Influences" - Due to Billie's saintly influence, Maggie leaves the Church of Satan and seeks sanctuary at the old rectory. At the same time Billie, due to the influence of a hexed vacuum cleaner, joins the Church of Satan. Epilogue / Prologue - A short four page comic, in which Billie and Maggie settle into their new roles and re-affirm their friendship. Issues 6 & 7 - The Silvery Moon - Maggie deals with a "mystery shopper" at the church, while Billie plans a sing-a-long with the members of the Satanic Church. They both have to put their plans on hold when the moon interferes with Brian's psyche. Issues 8 & 9 - Secret Sentai - Maggie, Clovis, and Penrose have to deal with a strange arrival at the rectory and Magus Tom leaves a Christmas "present" for Penrose to discover. What are the odds that's it something nice. Issue 10 - Christmas with Clovis - Maggie and Billie spend Christmas Day with Mrs. Clovis at her house, but have to shake an uninvited visitor. Special - Author Unknown Part 1 - Shelley Winters, the famous children's author, has come to Tredregyn for a book signing. When she goes missing it's up to her intern, Charlotte Grote, to track her down. This issue also counts as Solver issue 3. Special - Author Unknown Part 2 - Lottie continues her investigations with help from Reverend Penrose. This issue also counts as Solver issue 4. Issue 11 - Clotted Crime Part 1 Brassic - Needing money, Billie turns to Baphomet for financial help. However her desire not to be selfish results in a freak hailstorm striking Cornwall, forcing the detective TV show Clotted Crime to film in the only town spared, Tredregyn. Issue 12 - Clotted Crime Part 2 Two Backs - Billie, as well the rest of Tredregyn, has gotten a job as an extra on Clotted Crime. She also gets the attention of young male actor, Rupert. Meanwhile Rev. Penrose tries to deal with a nest of sea devil eggs, but is stopped by Maggie. Issue 13 - Clotted Crime Part 3 Daddy - Billie and Maggie attend Maggie's father's birthday party, while Penrose relocates the sea devil nest with the help of Brian. When events at the birthday party go south, Billie calls Penrose for assistance. Issue 14 - Clotted Crime Part 4 Jason - Filming of Clotted Crime concludes. Billie turns down a relationship with Rupert and negotiates her job position with Tom. Penrose has a vigil for the prior curate, Jason, and receives an unexpected visitor that night. Steeple Light - Brian's Insides - A short series of short comics. When Brian breaks the toilet after one of his morning "visits", Billie becomes concerned for his health. Issue 15 - Steeple Summer Special: Reverend in Love! - A Gumroad exclusive with art by Max Sarin. Shelley Winters returns to Tredregyn and goes on a date with Reverend Penrose. Issue 16 - Hell on Wheels Part 1 - Penrose goes shopping for a new car, but he may have bought more than he bargined for. Issue 17 - Hell on Wheels Part 2 - Penrose and Billie try to send Penrose's new car back to it's home planet. Issue 18 - Maggie's Party Part 1 - While Mrs. Clovis goes on a holiday, Maggie house sits for her. She hosts a small party / seance to stave off boredom but has to deal with several unexpected guests. Issue 19 - Maggie's Party Part 2 - After the revelations from Maggie's seance Billie has deal with her newfound knowledge. Meanwhile Penrose has to deal with the attentions of two witches.  Allison's other site is badmachinery.com which is the home for his side comics. Most of the comics are part of the Solver series, which follows Charlotte "Lottie" Grote from Bad Machinery and the short-lived Wicked Things comics. Allison also posted a comic were his Giant Days characters meet Batman (which he has since taken down), and a Marvel "doujinshi" starring Wolverine and Kitty Pride. Solver series Issue 1 - Circus Windows Part 1 - Depressed after the events of Wicked Things, Lottie is visited by Mildred who gets her interested in the workings of a traveling circus in order to life her spirits. Issue 2 - Circus Windows Part 2 - Lottie and Mildred continue to investigate the mystery of the circus that has come to Tackleford Issue 3 & 4 - Author Unknown Parts 1 & 2 - See above. Issue 5 - Spring Special 2022 - Feeling that Lottie has been lacking direction, her mother has her consult with freelance careers advisor Glenn Durgan. This helps Lottie when she visits her friend Claire, who is unhappy as a student at the London School of Economics. Issue 6 - Autumn Special 2022 - Claire has transfrered to the Univeristy of Sheffeld and Lottie has been living with her. Lottie still feels that she lacks direction however and after encountering Glenn again she embarks on a new venture. Issue 7 - Green Door - At their new living quarters, Lottie and Glenn have been wondering about the identity of one of their flatmates. Meanwhile Claire keeps having to deal with a talkative woman each time she takes the bus. Issue 8 - The Urn - Lottie and Glenn advise a pair of bickering siblings about what to do with the ashes of their father. Holiday Suprise 2022/ - A short comic in which Lottie reunites with Shauna while waiting for their trains from Tackleford. Issue 9 - Boys Like Fun Part 1 - Lottie has been neglecting her solving business for her new boyfriend, Nero. Issue 10 - Boys Like Fun Part 2 - Lottie has decided to work as manager for her boyfriend's British K-Pop band. John Allison Doujinshi Theatre Kit + The Wolf - It's 1985ish and Kitty Pride has gotten tickets to see Brick Sprigstern and his 10th Avenue Band for her birthday. Inviting Logan along the two of them have to save Springstern from the machinations of Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. If you want to send Allison some money, he has a Patreon where for $3 a month you get early access to pdfs of his comics. He also has a Gumroad store where you can by his self-published comics, mainly his Scary Go Round and New Bobbins books, but also some one-shot comics he's done over the years. Again, sorry for the long post.
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Jan 1, 2024 18:05
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That ceiling mounted robotic chair would not encourage slim people.
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Jan 1, 2024 18:05
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What the heck are comics?
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Jan 1, 2024 18:12
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we just don't know
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Jan 1, 2024 18:14
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Steeple 20: Extreme Freaks That's not an ominous cover or anything... John Allison's Patreon John Allison's Gumroad store Steeple website John Allison posted:UNHAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR READER! Steeple returns tomorrow for the final story, “EXTREME FREAKS”. My Patreon subscribers can read it in its entirety, right now. Normally I end up reading the pdf before the comics finish on the website, but for this one I'm going to try to hold off so I don't get ahead of the thread.
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Jan 1, 2024 18:17
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Into Ilves is soon reaching the end with the final strip coming in February.  Nancy  Dustin  Mandrake 
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Jan 1, 2024 18:21
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Jucika (yoo-si-ka) by Pál Pusztai ran from 1957 to 1970, "featuring a young, independent woman, frequently in risqué situations." It was rediscovered by the internet around 2020 and the obvious quality of humor and risqué situations made it a cult classic. It can be read in full at Jucika Daily and Jucika In Order, both on Twitter and where I quote translation notes from. I will be finishing the current run to about 550-560 and giving it a rest for awhile. Jucika "474 - Jucika And Dog Friendship"  "475 - Jucika And The Newbie Car Mechanic"  "Rear engine...If I remember my Top Gear correctly, cars like that behind the Iron Curtain were light-weight, low-powered, and used a gas-oil mix. They were notoriously unreliable, and when the wall fell, people would leave them abandoned with the titles inside." Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon how does this guy never miss  Kennel posted:Mandrake Twilight Mandrake is really scuffed but I'm tickled pink that Lothar did exactly what I wanted him to. 
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Jan 1, 2024 18:32
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1981 comics is an assortment of comics I pull from scans of the St Petersberg(Florida) Evening Independent. There's nothing notable about the paper itself except that it doesn't do Sundays, which is mostly only a problem for Spiderman. Every once in a while I'll post other stuff that catches my eye from it, but this is the Reagan era so a lot of the paper is just kind of depressing.      Dick Tracy  Footrot Flats  The Lockhorns  Computoon: Origins is specifically Computoon ages back, to see if it's ever made sense. (it has not) Currently we're in 2005.  New to my rotation this year, Mexikid Stories! Written and drawn by Pedro Martin, it's a memoir of his childhood in the 70s and 80s. I'm posting it because it gives me lowkey Marlys vibes. (Hosted on Gocomics, so it counts for the thread) It's been going since 2019 but with an erratic schedule.  Professor Wayne posted:Zits Powered Descent posted:
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Jan 1, 2024 18:40
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Reposting my batch into the new thread.  Daddy Daze  Take It From The Tinkersons  Macanudo  Dark Side Of The Horse 
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Jan 1, 2024 18:52
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manero posted:Nicely done! I will not be posting 1940’s Nancy or Pluggers. If anyone wants to take them up, go for it! I suppose I should take Pluggers lest the new thread title be immediately outdated. 
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Jan 1, 2024 19:01
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Oooh I’m looking forward to Mexikid!
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Jan 1, 2024 19:08
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Kennel posted:What the heck are comics? Hell of an OP so I'm going to  F Minus  Mark Trail  Mary Worth  The Phantom   Pooch Cafe  Rex Morgan MD  Andertoons  Watch out! I think he'll use it! Apartment 3-G  I'm guessing an ulcer.
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Jan 1, 2024 19:09
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Murdstone posted:The Phantom NOOO YOU MOTHERFUCKER
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Jan 1, 2024 19:13
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THORN is Jeff Smith's comic strip that ran in an Ohio State University's college newspaper The Lantern from Fall 1982 through Spring 1985 with an additional final strip in 1986. If you're familiar with his comic series Bone, you'll find a lot in common here (at least during the first academic quarter) as this serves as something of a prototype for it, though Smith notes he's a lot more experimental here. He references and satirized real-world events and people that he doesn't really do in Bone. He likens Thorn to a variety show while Bone is a novel. Anyway, Thorn is a cartoon fantasy about the cousins Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and (eventually) Smiley Bone and their interactions with a strange forest full of rat creatures, a dragon, a sexy young lady, and a Jerry Falwell parody. See the previous to catch up. Tomorrow will be the end of the Fall 1982 quarter. November 22-29, 1982   Note 1: quote:Barely A. Foulword  quote:Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr.[a] (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007)[3] was an American Independent Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist.[4] He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979. We also get the introduction of another pretty major character: The Cartoonist. Fans of Bone will note this is a departure - Thorn will get a bit meta here in a way Bone never does.
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Jan 1, 2024 19:19
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I haven't been in these threads for the past few years but here's something interesting I found (also looked the name of this up in SA's search just to check to see if it got posted before and it seemingly hasn't in these threads): The Fantastic Funnies, a tv special from 1980 (produced by the people who made the Peanuts specials) going over various popular comic strips of the time, including the very first animated appearance of Garfield; features a bunch of comics you probably wouldn't have heard of if it weren't for these threads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnZodlc0UyE
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Jan 1, 2024 19:22
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Digamma-F-Wau posted:I haven't been in these threads for the past few years but here's something interesting I found (also looked the name of this up in SA's search just to check to see if it got posted before and it seemingly hasn't in these threads): The Fantastic Funnies, a tv special from 1980 (produced by the people who made the Peanuts specials) going over various popular comic strips of the time, including the very first animated appearance of Garfield; features a bunch of comics you probably wouldn't have heard of if it weren't for these threads. I'm only 3 minutes in and there's already nightmare fuel: 
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Jan 1, 2024 19:26
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Raskolnikov38 posted:NOOO YOU MOTHERFUCKER Now we reset back another few months and go for round... 4?
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Jan 1, 2024 19:30
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Crossposting from the #blessed pics thread, but someone's living the dream:
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Jan 1, 2024 19:32
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strap in fuckos it's comic's trips again
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Jan 1, 2024 19:49
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Going back to the old FOOB threads, I totally forgot that the strips were animated with blinking eyes. That first thread really picked up on a classic with the firefighter strip
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Jan 1, 2024 19:54
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Haifisch posted:The Lockhorns Ha
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Jan 1, 2024 19:56
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Happy new year, Comic Strip Thread! Let's make it a good one! Luann  Gil Thorp has not yet updated for the new year! Home Free 
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Jan 1, 2024 20:23
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I'm not gonna lie, the intro recap bit about Home Free had me loving dying and this just continues to prove that point.
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Jan 1, 2024 20:35
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Happy New Year everyone! Vintage Valiant (Jan. 08, 1961)  Prince Valiant is a legacy adventure strip that began in 1937. Drawn for decades by the brilliant Hal Foster, it follows the many adventures of the titular prince of Thule and knight of the Round Table in a semi-historical, usually low-to-no magic Dark Ages setting. The strip is Sundays only, so I have been posting the modern strip (by Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates) on Sundays and classic strips otherwise. The classic scans come from the excellent Fantagraphics collections. If you like what you see, please consider buying a few of these books, as they reproduce the strip in a lovely oversized format with stunning color fidelity. Foster's artwork is spectacular and these collections are probably the first time it has been given a format it deserves since first being published in papers. When I was a kid I had trouble getting into Prince Valiant because it had a long backstory and seemed wordy and dense, so I'm including a high level summary of the plot of the classic strips to this point to help those who haven't been following along. You can find that here. As a shorter catch-up, Val and family have recently repulsed an attack on Aleta's Kingdom of the Misty Isles, so conveniently this thread begins right between storylines - and right at the introduction of a new character!
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Jan 1, 2024 20:37
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happy new year  manero posted:Going back to the old FOOB threads, I totally forgot that the strips were animated with blinking eyes. That first thread really picked up on a classic with the firefighter strip im soooo curious if the reruns will include this lol Heathcliff  Compu-toon  Garfield  Overboard  Monty  For Better or For Worse  Classic Arlo and Janis (January 28, 2002)  Rae the Doe, which you can support by pledging to the author's Patreon  On The Fastrack  Safe Havens  Zippy The Pinhead 
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Jan 1, 2024 20:57
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Happy New Year and  WELCOME BACK!  From the real deal. And yeah, I'll be getting to the annual PD roundup...eventually. 2023 was an oddly satisfying year threadwise. ShortyMR.CAT posted:Hey yall I got a real weird request for yall. I need some help finding a specific ZITS comic strip where Jermey is walking over piles of clothes in his room over to his mom and the last panel is him telling her, " I got nothing to wear" EasyEW posted:You're lucky it's been raining all day.  But anyway, relentlessly forward into 2024... Mutts (Patrick McDonnell) was reliably there in 2023, and then Patrick threw us a bottom-of-the -ninth curveball by making good on a longstanding promise to release Guard Dog from his backyard tether and a negligent owner that (very fittingly) we will never see. And his name's Sparky now.  Every time I look at this one...   Sally Forth (Francesco Marciuliano (writer), Jim Keefe (art)) ended with bang, as Sally finally snapped on her bitter mom in a storyline that divided the thread in a very interesting way. Ces, if you're out there, I still have a Bluesky invite if you're up for moving off of You-Know-Where.  Skippy (Percy L. Crosby, M-Fri) continues to move through the early New Deal years. (December 20, 1935)  Waiting for the year to roll over makes me a little bit nervous, because you remember when I was telling you how he had a cup of coffee with the New York Red press before WW1? Well, 1936 is when Crosby self-published something called "Three Cheers for the Red, Red and Red", which Paul F. Boller describes as "a 500-page diatribe [...] blistering FDR as a Communist." Crosby self-published a lot of diatribes like that with Skippy money, which he was convinced led to IRS troubles a few years later. So it wasn't like his only problem was a peanut butter cartel.  Peanuts (Charles Schulz), which admirably rolled through the Bicentennial year without getting sappy about it. (January 1, 1977)  Okay. Deep breath. The end of 2022 marked the end of Funky Winkerbean, which under normal circumstances would mean that our long national nightmare was over. Team Crankshaft (Tom Batiuk (writer), Dan Davis (art)) would beg to differ. A handful of Funkyverse castoffs very quickly asserted their new place in TomBat's gag-a-day strip, leading to the current situation: Mopey Pete, a guy who has never shown any interest or aptitude in anything other than comic books, decided to reopen Montoni's. And just to show you where his priorities are, he wedged a marriage proposal into the middle of the site tour.   Pete bailed on his career from burnout. I have no idea what the hell Mindy Murdoch's doing here. On the other hand, their first week after the reopening was nothing but packed houses, something we never saw in the latter days of the old strip, which implies that the main problem with Funky Winkerbean's pizza place was Funky Winkerbean. Anyway, today shows us mercy, and we get to catch our breath from all of that.  Up until recently, Mutt and Jeff had been sitting in the space formerly occupied by 9 Chickweed Lane (which we're still following on the BSS discord, but I made a pledge to the thread, dammit), but I dunno. When I said it's a few decades of the strip on shuffle play, I wasn't expecting repeats to pop up within months of each other. So I noped out. If the zombie syndication machine can't be bothered with quality control, it's time to move on. Rip Haywire (Dan Thompson) went through a beast mode phase a long-haired, shirtless version of himself that was somehow even less restrained than usual. Then he got over it. Also, RJ discovered he's indestructible, and took off on his own to see how that'd work out.   They've had a lot going on, is what I"m driving at here.  Li'l Abner, created by Al Capp, one of the great cartoonists and most intolerable bastards of the mid-20th century. As usual, we're getting in on the ground floor. Dogpatch would eventually become one of the most iconic settings of American comic strips, but you wouldn't know that in 1935. To be fair, Capp hasn't spent enough time there just yet, but all that's around the corner. (July 4-6, 1935)    Thimble Theater (Tom Sims (writer) Bela Zaboly (art)) continues to move forward in the spirit of the dearly departed Elzie Segar, which made me feel a little bit guilty, because I've been posting it side by side with the new Olive & Popeye strips, which have taken off in their own direction. (August 5, 1940)  Out Our Way (J.R. Williams) has made it to the summer of '43. We still have boyzendorgs aplenty, but the OOW world is now firmly on war footing.  (above: June 16, 1943, below: September 13-15, 1943)    And then there's these:   There's one more of these that I almost posted last year, but at the time I didn't exactly trust my motivation enough to actually post it. Well, here it is in public for the first time. Hope it doesn't suck.  (The original, with a racial CW and the annual reminder/warning that we take a warts-and-all approach to the posting of vintage strips, which often include racial, religious and gender stereotypes that have aged about as well as milk on a radiator. Their appearance in the the strips we post doesn't mean we're cosigning on them. The general idea (or at least that's what I like to tell myself) is honesty about where we came from, or else we might as well throw up our hands and join a Florida school board. But you still get spoiler tags for the most egregious offenders, because if you don't want to deal with all of that, you should have a fighting chance.) EasyEW fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jan 1, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 21:06
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For the most part, I'm trying to keep strips posted on the day of the week they originally appeared, however, some strips did not start on a Monday, or the first few strips are lost or occasional strips are missing. The Dingbat Family/The Family Upstairs() No strip until Thursday Baron Bean() No strip until Wednesday Positive Polly/Polly and Her Pals() No strip until SATURDAY!!!! Gasoline Alley(August 3 and August 10, 1919)  More than 100 years later, we're still trying to stop Daylight Savings   OK, This was a Wednesday, but ran two weeks before the daily strips seem to have actually started. I also added the final edition of The Rectangle before the dailies kicked off. The strip will generally run normal panels for Sunday but there will still be the odd Rectangle page now and then. Regular updates will begin on Wednesday Us Boys(May 3, 1911) 
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Jan 1, 2024 21:15
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Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon Yes... Ha ha ha... YES! Anyways, I've threatened it long enough, so now here's the real thing! A re-run of my scans of Corto Maltese and Blueberry! (the latter having been translated into English from Swedish edition by yours truly!) Previously, I had done a M/W/F/S/S schedule, but I'm going to change things up a bit by no longer doing the thing I usually do, namely providing a jokey intro for each update - I think I've played that out for long enough. I will take the opportunity to state here at the beginning of the year to state that 1) The quality of these scans are questionable. I'm fine with this, because this hopefully will encourage folk to go buy these comics and enjoy the art proper as well as supporting the artists proper. 2) With Blueberry, I have sometimes adjusted the translation to be more accurate/less problematic than the original work. I gave my reasoning for that when I started the project, along with highlighting when I did it (this is also the major reason why I didn't try translated Buddy Longway - Blueberry has it's own problems re. exotification of Native American peoples, but the former was so much so it made me feel actively uncomfortable). Since I won't be doing the intros, I won't be pointing them out this time around - unless someone wants further clarification. So, enough with the words. Corto Maltese    Blueberry   
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Jan 1, 2024 21:31
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Modesty Blaise: In the Beginning  With the new year comes new (old) adventures! After this brief prologue, we'll return to the adventures of Modesty and Willie in episode 24: With Love From Rufus.
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Jan 1, 2024 21:56
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Kennel posted:Into Ilves is soon reaching the end with the final strip coming in February. Aww, I'll definitely miss it, though I have to admit I've been finding the post-war strips somewhat harder to keep track of than the earlier ones. Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon I love this, I am so glad this comic has started off so strong.
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Jan 1, 2024 22:13
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