Best Comic Strip EVER.

[InactionMan]

I'd like to know what everyone deems the best ever.

My vote goes to Jim's Journal, Scott Dikkers very odd strip about a young college student. This was his pre-Onion days. At least at the beginning, he may have been the editor near the strips end.

http://www.siweb.com/staff/grimmdav/jim/jim5a.gif

Close second and third go to Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County.

[Aquafire]

Michael Luenig...But I'd say 99.9% of the world doesn't even know of his work...:\

[InactionMan]

Then why not provide a link so we can all enjoy? :p

[LiquidR]

Calvin & Hobbes, of course.

[LudwigVan]

Not so much a comic strip, per se, but Gary Larson's "The Far Side" is at the top of my list.

[murbot]

Originally posted by Aquafire
Michael Luenig...But I'd say 99.9% of the world doesn't even know of his work...:\

Uh... yeah.

http://member.melbpc.org.au/~grjallen/leunig/newones/leunig38.jpg

Anyway, you spelled his name wrong. Some fan!!

;)

[superkarate monkeydeathcar]

aaron mcgruder's "the boondocks" (http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/)

[Luca]

I can't decide my favorite but it's definitely either Calvin And Hobbes, The Far Side, or Life In Hell.

I like Calvin And Hobbes because it's funny and cute. I like Calvin and I can remember being kinda like him when I was a little kid.

I like the Far Side because it's just so weird and twisted. Parts of it are just silly and others make far less sense. But it's fun that it kind of keeps you guessing as to what Gary Larson is trying to say, if anything. Unfortunately, I know a number of people who just don't understand the humor of the Far Side, mainly old ladies like my grandma :).

I also like Life In Hell because it's weird, but it's different from The Far Side in that it makes more sense, in a scary way. It's really dark and depressing and you have to remember to take it with a grain of salt otherwise you'll end up shooting yourself after a few reads. To see the question "Will the characters of Life In Hell ever achieve true happiness?" answered with "Don't be silly! Binky and the gang will be just as happy as you are!" is somewhat disturbing. Matt Groening also has excellent use of words, like "bitter," "oodles," and "frivolity."

[der Kopf]

It would most definitely be Gaston Lagaffe (Guust Flater in Dutch and Viggo something in Norwegian) by the amazing comic strip artist Franquin. I've all the albums and I've read each one of them at least 20 times. Fun, fun, fun. Of course, the protagonist is a maladroit slacker, so I don't know to what extent an American audience will develop a taste for him. Add to that the fact that he might be perceived of as French (though Belgian), and the pond deepens some more. Anybody know him?

[Aquafire]

Originally posted by murbot
Uh... yeah.

http://member.melbpc.org.au/~grjallen/leunig/newones/leunig38.jpg

Anyway, you spelled his name wrong. Some fan!!

;)
Dyslexia Rides again...:embarrass
But hey, I am glad you know of his work...But then Mod Gods know evrything...:smokey:

[Aquafire]

http://www.atsic.gov.au/News_Room/Cartoons/Leunig/images/kkk_burning_cross.gif

[KingOfSomewhereHot]

#1. Calvin and Hobbs .... god, i wish he were still writing that !

Current strip favorite is Dilbert ... 'specially Catbert.

[stunned]

Definately Garfield. Tat fat and greedy cat never fail to make my day. :)

[Aquafire]

Originally posted by der Kopf
It would most definitely be Gaston Lagaffe (Guust Flater in Dutch and Viggo something in Norwegian) by the amazing comic strip artist Franquin. I've all the albums and I've read each one of them at least 20 times. Fun, fun, fun. Of course, the protagonist is a maladroit slacker, so I don't know to what extent an American audience will develop a taste for him. Add to that the fact that he might be perceived of as French (though Belgian), and the pond deepens some more. Anybody know him?
No...But while we are on the subject of Belgium artist..cartoonist..illustrators...I have always loved Folon.
So elequent, silent..yet deeply moving...

http://www.iafe.uba.ar/relatividad/gangui/images/f80-folon.jpg

[podmate]

Calvin & Hobbes or bloom county. Its too hard to decide.

Long live Opus!

[Splinemodel]

There's a lot behind Calvin and Hobbes that may not be visible at first glance. Because it mixes sillyness and intellectual matters so well, I don't really think it has an equal.

The name "Calvin and Hobbes" alone is clever.

[murbot]

Originally posted by Aquafire
Dyslexia Rides again...:embarrass
But hey, I am glad you know of his work...But then Mod Gods know evrything...:smokey:

I don't. I know of Google.

http://homepage.mac.com/murbot/.Pictures/google.jpg

Love that Google Search in Safari. :)

[709]

Calvin & Hobbes would be my #1.

Haven't seen Leunig in years, but I always liked his stuff. Very Gorey-esque.

Larson of course.

A little Doonesbury now and then can be good.

[superkarate monkeydeathcar]

for those that miss "bloom county" i highly recommend "get fuzzy" (http://comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/)

and a nice little app. that brings all your faves to each morning when you log in is icomic (http://homepage.mac.com/xmlguy/)
and it's a mac only app.

[Chinney]

Although it will get me flamed by Scott and the boys, I have to say that the best definitely is "Doonesbury" for me.

The best ever Doonesbury series was the one in the mid-seventies portarying Duke as the U.S. envoy in China , although I realize this is before the time of some posting here (have some patience for a 39-year-old geezer). Many of Gary Trudeau's strips on the Reagan years were also inspired. His current stuff is still pretty good, although I don't get to read it as often as I like, as my newspaper does not carry it.

Early Peanuts was also great. I mean the really early stuff - late 50s, early 60s - before even my time, but which you can pick up in compilations. I loved it when they had theological debates on the pitching mound. Eventually Peanuts became quite a sad strip, however. I think that Charles Schulz was forced to keep writing because of public expectations, long after the strip had played itself out.

I love Calvin and Hobbes and appreciate the fact that the strip ended before the ideas did.

[johnrp]

Calvin and Hobbes is the best, and all the better for the fact that it is no longer being produced.

FoxTrot because Bill Amend is a mac user and often includes them in the strip.http://homepage.mac.com/billamend/

And Peanuts, because..... just because.

j.

[bunge]

Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar
and a nice little app. that brings all your faves to each morning when you log in is icomic (http://homepage.mac.com/xmlguy/)
and it's a mac only app.


This thing is awesome.

[Wotan]

Cavin and Hobbes is obviously the winner here.

[InactionMan]

And without Krazy Kat, there may have never been a Calvin and Hobbes. Bill Watterson cited this strip as one the biggest influences on his strip

http://www.angelfire.com/ut2/inactionman/KrazyKat.jpg
(watch out, you nutty modem users, pic is kinda big)

[Luca]

What the hell? I must be missing something because I didn't even understand what was going on in that Krazy Kat strip. Calvin and Hobbes was much better than that.

[burningwheel]

Calvin and Hobbes

i like Sherman's Lagoon and also Mother Goose and Grimm though i must confess i haven't read comic strip in 2 yars really!

[InactionMan]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
What the hell? I must be missing something because I didn't even understand what was going on in that Krazy Kat strip. Calvin and Hobbes was much better than that.

Yeah, I scanned a strip that makes less sense than most if you don't know the premise of Krazy Kat. :\

Oops.

Krazy Kat was essentially a gag strip. The same thing happened everyday. The set up is that Krazy Kat (who is transgendered) is madly in love with Ignatz Mouse, but Ignatz hates all Kats and shows his hatred by hitting Krazy in the head with a brick every chance he gets. But Krazy takes these bricks to the head as a sign of Ignatz's love for him/her. Then there's Offisa B. Pupp who is in love with Krazy and will do anything to protect Krazy from Ignatz, which generally involved throwing Ignatz in jail. A peculiar love triangle.
And thus, the story continued like this for 30+ years.

And on top of that George Herriman wrote the strip in some odd dialect.

So, if any one cares, that should put the strip in a slightly clearer context. It really is a fantastic strip.

[LiquidR]

Calvin & Hobbes is my #1, but I do also enjoy:

The Farside
Foxtrot
Dilbert (so true)
Get Fuzzy (A more modern version of Garfield)
Zits
The Boondock (I've only ever seen it in the Washington Post)
Bloom County
Non Sequiter
Doonesbury (I think it's politics has tamed somewhat recently)
Life in Hell (from the creator of the most relevant TV show of the last 2 decades of the 20th century)
All the shit that Charles Addams did

so great, i wish I had half the sense of humor as this guys, the rest are pretty good too, they produce a few gems.

Does anyone even read the drama comics anymore??? Rex Morgan??? I don't get it.

[InactionMan]

Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar
for those that miss "bloom county" i highly recommend "get fuzzy" (http://comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/)

and a nice little app. that brings all your faves to each morning when you log in is icomic (http://homepage.mac.com/xmlguy/)
and it's a mac only app.

Yeah, this app is fantastic. Why didn't I know about this sooner!?! Damn it! Thanks for the linkey.

[bunge]

Originally posted by podmate
Long live Opus!

Well speak (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45450-2003Sep8.html) of the devil!

[superkarate monkeydeathcar]

Originally posted by bunge
Well speak (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45450-2003Sep8.html) of the devil!

that's the best news i've read in a while.

[rok]

dilbert. for a couple years, i was sure there was a mole in my company sending him ideas for strips.

red meat. though the strips from the early years are much better than recently.

penny-aracde. two guys with too much time on their hands, and not afraid of anyone, even american greetings, inc. (i.e. american greetings issued a "cease and desist" after parodying strawberry shortcake and american mcgee games -- something about her being a dominatrix with bustier and riding crop in a future mcgee game set them off. who knows why...).

:)

[Moogs]

Old School Doonsbury is hard to beat.

Bloom County also rocketh IMO.

All-time favorite cartoon character:

http://www.great-silk-road.net/images/Bill/billintro.jpg



This is also pretty damn funny, now that I think of it.

http://www.great-silk-road.net/images/Bill/billtipper.jpg

:D

[thuh Freak]

i read a strip called "mr. wiggles" or something like that. it was really funny. funny in the over-the-top disgusting/disturbing way. here's one of the more tame ones:
http://www.neilswaab.com/comics/wiggles/images/rehab143.jpg

you can find the rest at http://www.neilswaab.com/comics/wiggles/. If you poke around the site you can find some other funny shit he did.

i don't read comics too often though; occassionally i see a dilbert at someone's desk, but i usually don't seek them out.

[Immanuel Goldstein]

Originally posted by der Kopf
It would most definitely be Gaston Lagaffe…
http://www.bdcentral.com/Gaston/Gaffophone.gif
The character in question, inventor, artist, visionary, and completely useless in his regular office job, where he always manages to pre-empt the signing of the some promising contracts with one Monsieur DeMesmaeker.
Seen here with his ground-breaking instrument: le gaffophone.

…(Guust Flater in Dutch and Viggo something in Norwegian)…
I wouldn't know about Norwegian, he is known as Vakse Viggo in Danish though.

…by the amazing comic strip artist Franquin.
I'm also quite fond of his Idées Noires.
http://ideesnoires.free.fr/albums_co/nb_ideenoire_bis_pirate.jpg

I've all the albums and I've read each one of them at least 20 times. Fun, fun, fun. Of course, the protagonist is a maladroit slacker,…
And a tireless innovator, although his inventions often suffer from some down to earth flaws, and his artistry is usually way ahead of contemporary taste.
He's probably the inventor of the G4 Cube

…so I don't know to what extent an American audience will develop a taste for him. Add to that the fact that he might be perceived of as French (though Belgian), and the pond deepens some more.

How quickly you forget the success of that little subversive tramp of silent cinema or that of those brothers named Marx [who were born in alsace, that's in France I believe] of fast-talking/intentionally silent cinema; those were also far away from the average “all-American” wholseomeness.
And don't get me started about those iconic super-heroes of american popular-culture, they're obviously marginals.
Anybody know him?
I think that question has been answered.

While I don't have an all-time favourite, I have been recently getting to know about that secret agent character from last century, Max Fridman by Vittorio Giardino.
http://users.belgacom.net/vittorio_giardino_universe/albums%20-%20rapsodia%20ungherese.jpg
And an old fav: La Bête Est Morte* by Edmond-François Calvo.
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/lettres/Inspection/images/bete.jpg

Naturally, I'm also fond of the works of Gotlib and Goscinnny.

I find Hergé's work to be generally boring, and E.P. Jacobs' usually idiotic, but at least his main evil character has some substance:
http://membres.lycos.fr/lecador/olrik30.jpg
Note here the hints of early-to-mid-to-late-twentieth century ideological myths.

His personal transportation:
http://www.a-bd.com/images/products/ARO_J101-04_640.jpg
Here those hints are as subtle as a car bomb.

*(Mais qui pourrait n’avoir été qu’assomée et laissée pour morte ; mais ça c’est pour un autre thread)

[I-bent-my-wookie]

BC baby!
Bloom County all the way.

[AlPanther]

:lol: :smokey: :D TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN (http://www.tmcm.com/)

TMCM archives (http://www.tmcm.com/pages/frames/comicnavframeset.html)

This COMIC is the SHIZNITTY BAM BOOTY POW SMACKNISINIST. :D :smokey: :lol:

Check it out

http://www.tmcm.com/comics/015_featuring.gif

[Eugene]

Originally posted by bunge
Well speak (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45450-2003Sep8.html) of the devil!
Ack!

[Moogs]

TMCM is indeed pretty humorous it seems. Thanks for the link panther!

Immanuel, you need to get out more buddy. While I'm sure they have a certain political appeal, those comics appear to lack an important ingredient crucial to all successful strips: comedy.

:smokey:

[Immanuel Goldstein]

Originally posted by Moogs
Immanuel, you need to get out more buddy. While I'm sure they have a certain political appeal, those comics appear to lack an important ingredient crucial to all successful strips: comedy.
The mentioned comics by Franquin (Gaston, Idées Noires are the funny ones, same for those of Gotlib and Goscinny (for which I haven't provided illustrations though).

[Moogs]

I'll have to take your word for that, not having much exposure to the same here in the states. What I meant generally is that they appear to have more of a serious tone to them, even though they are technically "comics". Fit more for the poly sci grad student than average citizen?

Seems the objective is to lambaste someone or some ideology, rather than to make someone laugh. Of course, I realize this comedy business has a subjective element to it... just seems like some of those comics have fairly serious subject matter.

Then again, Dick Tracy was never intended to make anyone laugh, so I guess it doesn't matter since we never specified a "genre".

;)

[CubeDude]

I know its dead, but zeekonline.net was pretty good in my opinion.

Other than that, Garfield.

"*BEEP* You also have no life"

[Gandalf the Semi-Coherent]

Hmm... I'd have to pick:

Peanuts
It was painful to see how cringe-worthy the strip became during the 1980s, but the strips from the late 1960s and early 1970s are so inspired and so brilliant, they stand toe-to-toe with any comic strip ever produced.

Bloom County
The early strips were kind of a loopy Doonesbury knockoff, but the comic really came into its own just a couple of years before it ended. I still think it ended prematurely, and the strange sequel Outland along with the new Opus is an admission that Berkeley Breathed thinks so, too.

The Far Side
Absurdist humor drawn to perfection. This strip and its odd, almost non-sequitur tone has had a greater influence on popular culture than some people may realize.

Calvin & Hobbes
Probably the greatest comic strip of all time. It knew what it was almost immediately, and the illustrations are some of the most amazing I've ever seen for a daily strip. And it's hella funny and thought-provoking, too.

And the world's most overrated comic strip:

Garfield
This was very funny when it first debuted, and remained so for a few years afterward. But the strip truly lost it when Garfield began to walk on two legs. It was no longer funny, relevant or interesting. And it still sucks.

[Immanuel Goldstein]

Originally posted by Moogs
I'll have to take your word for that, not having much exposure to the same here in the states. What I meant generally is that they appear to have more of a serious tone to them, even though they are technically "comics". Fit more for the poly sci grad student than average citizen?
For all I know, they are read by average citizens.

Seems the objective is to lambaste someone or some ideology, rather than to make someone laugh.
Of the works I mentioned eariler, only Calvo's La Bête Est Morte seeks specifically to attack an ideology, which it does with some humour.
Most other comics in my list are more on the comedy side.

Of course, I realize this comedy business has a subjective element to it... just seems like some of those comics have fairly serious subject matter.
Some of them do, some of the funny ones as well.