<p>As a child of the 60’s, always raced my two brothers to be first to get the funnies in the Sunday paper.</p>
<p>Liked Peanuts, had a thing for Brenda Starr, was completely fascinated and absorbed by Ripley’s Believe it or Not.</p>
<p>Of course if you include cartoon magazines, I loved Mad Magazine and Tales from the Crypt. Not superheroes.</p>
<p>Like Dilbert now, but the pervasive anti-management sentiment sometimes hits too close to home (as I’m in management).</p>
<p>All-Time Supreme Grand Master – Calvin and Hobbes. Anybody up for some Calvin Ball?</p>
<p>All-Time Worst – A tie between Dennis the Menace and Family Circus. Whatever charm they may have had dried up and blew away 40 yrs ago. Now they just recycle bad ‘Kids Say the Darnedest Things’ jokes from 20 yrs ago.</p>
<p>Frazz is great, I enjoy Sally Forth and Zits, Garfield has improved now that Jon is dating but it’s still lame, you can keep all the ‘soaps’ and Mark Trail needs an exclamationectomy. I still read Prince Valiant every Sunday just because they still do Artwork.</p>
<p>Favorite: Jim Unger’s Herman</p>
<p>Runners Up: Jerry Van Amerongen’s The Neighborhood and Ballard Street, Gary Larson’s The Far Side, and Rich Tennant’s The 5th Wave </p>
<p>Least Favorite: anything rude, crude, violent, sleazy, snarky, or just plain moronic–which includes almost every other cartoon strip I’ve laid eyes on during the past 25 or so years</p>
<p>JHS: I think you have to have, or have had, teenage sons to love Zits. It’s all true. It’s our most frequently cut out and put on the fridge comic.</p>
<p>Other than that, I like Foxtrot, Baby Blues, Luanne, Sally Forth, Crankshaft and Pickles.</p>
<p>I HAVE a teenage son, for another 360 days or so, at least. I don’t know why, but Zits has never spoken to me. I don’t dislike it, but there’s no magic there.</p>
<p>All time favs–Calvin and Hobbes, closely followed by Doonesbury.</p>
<p>Current favs: Zits, BAby Blues, Doonesbury, Dilbert</p>
<p>Can’t stand–Family Circus, Lockhorns</p>
<p>Recently developed a dislike for after reading for 20+ years: For Better For Worse. It lost me when the kids grew up. Mike’s a spoiled bore, Liz picked the creepy Anthony. there’s still hope for April, but I already can’t stand Meredith and Robin.</p>
<p>That’s another thing I don’t get – all the anger at For Better Or For Worse. In its own stodgy little way, it’s done what no other strip has ever done – allowed its characters to grow in real time. Doonesbury sort of does that now, but Lynn Johnston did it first, and more faithfully. It also manages a fairly delicate blend of humor and realism, and gets it right most of the time. No one likes that Liz got back with Anthony? Do all of you like your kids’ boyfriends? A 30-year-old with two kids and a successful career is spoiled and boring? What else is news?</p>
<p>Anyway, my tastes tend to run edgier, hipper, and more political than our Thunder Bay dentist and family, but I admire the heck out of that strip.</p>
<p>JHS–I think it’s only me with the Anthony issue!
And yes, if my kid’s BF pined over her from the day of his marriage to someone else (obviously so) and then blamed the spouse instead of himself, I would be very unhappy with him, too.</p>
<p>FAVORITES: Family Circus, Pluggers, Far Side, and Mallard Fillmore</p>
<p>LEAST FAVORITES: I can’t say I dislike the others, it’s just that I don’t take the time to read them. I like a comic that’s quick and witty though.</p>
<p>No, garland, it’s not just you at all. I keep stumbling over pockets of spontaneous rage about Liz and Anthony, and I don’t even really pay attention. Since last summer, it seems every few weeks I read something where someone alludes to how awful it is that Liz got back together with Anthony. And I do NOT stalk For Better Or For Worse, believe me. It’s just one of those things – Johnston’s fans are clearly in revolt over this.</p>
<p>my fav-Wizard of Id. I know Brent Parker so am just a bit biased.</p>
<p>least fav-any action comic.</p>
<p>binx: garfield-garfield is terrific!</p>
<p>My daily reads are Get Fuzzy, Funky Winkerbean, and Dilbert…</p>
<p>I think Lynn Johnston stacked the deck against Anthony’s wife. She’s a cold, calculating creature who can’t be bothered to love her own child. Of course Elizabeth looks like the goddess that got away but what the heck does she see in him. And a second vote against Mike’s two kids – they are <em>awful</em> and his wife is just sort of there. </p>
<p>She’s been doing a lot of flashback strips from when Mike and Elizabeth were small children. It’s interesting to see how much cleaner Johnston’s outlines are now, compared with the beginning.</p>
<p>Faves: Doonesbury. Zits. Brewster Rockit, Space Guy. </p>
<p>Faves from media other than the daily paper: xkcd. This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow). Life in Hell (Matt Groening). Ernie Pook’s Comeek (Lynda Barry). </p>
<p>Used to like, now find boring/dated/blah: Dilbert. For Better or For Worse. Peanuts.</p>
<p>Can’t stand: Mallard Fillmore. Garfield. Dennis the Menace. Cathy.</p>
<p>Embarrassed to admit I read every day: Rex Morgan, MD.</p>
<p>I didn’t really discover Calvin & Hobbes until it was available in collection form, but it might have hit my fave list otherwise. And I have a soft spot for The Far Side and FoxTrot (although only the former is actually gone).</p>
<p>(And PS: I find the Anthony-Elizabeth thing creepy, too. Bleh.)</p>
<p>Loved LOVED Bloom County - that and Calvin and Hobbes are my all-time faves.</p>
<p>For Better or For Worse is a copy of my life - April was born the same time as my second D, having the same young teen problems now…the dog Farley died the same time our beloved dog Glen collapsed and died in front of my kids, the granddaughter was born the same day as my niece (BOTH named Meredith Anne), AND Grandpa Jim and my mother both have the same frustrations with post-stroke aphasia…WOW!</p>
<p>And I wished Liz had picked Warren instead of Anthony…</p>
<p>On another note - we have an old handkerchief at home that I wave as the Family Circus “NotMe” ghost when nobody will own up to something…lol</p>
<p>Oh Garland, it’s not only you with the Anthony issue. Unless you also write a blog that has a big Anthony rant (Brendan Calling). I’m not too fond of Anthony though in some ways Elizabeth annoys me even more - stringing along that poor guy Paul up north.</p>
<p>I’m on the fence about For Better or For Worse – used to like it more than i do now. Not crazy about the recent “historical” strips – what’s that all about? Agree that Anthony should be blamed more than he is in the strip – marriage is about 2 people, after all. And Elizabeth seems more confused than I would think at her age. But, not sure I’d call Mike’s kids awful. All told, though, I do like that the characters actually age in the strip.</p>
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<p>I assume it’s about burnout and a bit of a vacation. Many excellent cartoonists – especially Berke Breathed and Garry Trudeau – have been quite eloquent about how stressful it is to produce seven strips a week, 52 weeks a year, year in and year out. Most long-term successful strips wind up employing a small workshop full of helpers to make it happen, but if the particular take of the creator is indispensible, sometimes there’s no alternative but to go into re-runs for a while.</p>
<p>A year ago the FBoFW cartoonist, Lynn Johnston, announced her intention to retire, and instead settled on a compromise of a “hybrid” strip which would allow her to work only part-time and instead incorporate historical strips into a flash-back approach. She has also announced her intention to no longer age any of the characters.</p>
<p>See: [Johnston’s</a> ‘For Better or For Worse’ comic strip to live on in hybrid form » PopMatters | News and Commentary | PopWire](<a href=“http://www.popmatters.com/pm/news/article/31338/johnstons-for-better-or-for-worse-comic-strip-to-live-on-in-hybrid-form/]Johnston’s”>http://www.popmatters.com/pm/news/article/31338/johnstons-for-better-or-for-worse-comic-strip-to-live-on-in-hybrid-form/)</p>
<p>Without any doubt Dilbert is the best. No matter how outrageous the premise, I will see the same behavior at work on a regular basis.</p>