(no subject)

[oakenguy]

A member of scans_daily, with the saddest thing I've read on LJ in a while:

Oh man oh man - Garfield. I know exactly what you mean. I have the first 30 books as that strip was a big part of my childhood. By the time 30 came around though, the formulaic quality just wasn't worth getting #31.

Yyyyeah, the decline in standards between #29 and #30 was just chilling.





(Confession #1: I think the first year or two of Garfield was very good.)

Comments

[temperlj.livejournal.com]

mmmmm I always had mixed feelings on that strip. Someone as dumb as Jon shouldn't have owned pets and been castrated for his own good.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

No, I think you're right -- the first year or two of that strip wasn't bad. IIRC, it was pretty bitchily sarcastic, and that was before he just fell into the deep rut and made himself comfy there. And at the time, bitchy sarcasm was kind of new for the comics page, wasn't it? I mean, you had it in Doonesbury, but B.C./The Wizard of Id (which are also both considered lame in later years, but which when they first started were pretty surreal, pointed, and kind of interesting) had by that point fallen off their games, and what else was there, really, filling that niche? I think that's why Garfield became so popular so quickly. It was fresh and different... at the start, and people wanted sarcasm.

But, as Ookla the Mok sing... "Everything Good Turns to Crap".

(Don't get me started; I could have long, long discussions about various comic strips. I've been buying the Peanuts compilations as they've been coming out, and reminding myself that man, that also was a strip that in its beginning -- by which I mean, oh, the first TWENTY YEARS, perhaps -- was strange and cutthroat and bleak and erudite and sarcastic in ways that a lot of folks probably don't remember.)

[stanharding.livejournal.com]

As I said on a forum recently, Garfield for the first couple of books wasn't just good, it was drop-dead hysterical. But boy, did it go downhill.

[kittybrat.livejournal.com]

i;ve always liked garfield. the recent comics and the horrendous movie (AND SEQUEL. WHAT?!) are the only things i don't like much... actually, the movie i don't like at all, but you know what i mean.

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

I liked the first year of Garfield, too

Why can't they quit while they're ahead?

[bulrogue.livejournal.com]

Garfield was good, then Jim Davis failed miserabley with USAcres(does anyone else remember Orson the pig?)

Charles Schulz dragged out Peanuts too long, but it probably would have been better if the kids aged somewhat. Sam with Family Circus.

Thank the Maker that Bill Watterson quit Calvin and Hobbes when he did. Calvin still rates as one of my all time favs, just because it still makes me laugh!

Oh yeah, Berkley Breathed needs to give it up. Same for Gary Trudeau. ESPECIALLY Gary Trudeau!!

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Kinda torn in a way... Yeah I've noticed I'd read a Garfield and just keep going to the next comic, garfield hardly registers anymore. Sad. I don't think i saw the first few years...i do remember getting a few of the books and enjoying them.

I think it started going downhill when the TV cartoon came on...I do also remember USAcres, and I did like that, but of course when the Cartoon show came on it only focused on watered-down bubbly-squishy everybody happy kiddie values and morals and idiotic Feel Good songs.

Peanuts is still being run in my paper (Worcester Telegram and Gazette), re-running some of the 1950's vinatge strips...I stopped reading it entirely when he died...What gets on my nerves is that the second the paper moves Peanuts from the top¢er spot, or has color registration off, 500 people will write in with death threats and OMFG's and How Dare You's...It's bizzare.

Family Circus needs to be erased from existence...Something that just continues to glean squishy-perfect-rainbows-and-icecream crap like that doesn't deserve to be printed, but hey I'm biased I guess :P

Glad they pulled Brenda Starr...That was just awful. Cathy needs to be gone too, you put all of the words in that strip together and I think it would be longer than War and Peace. It's also boring, stale and lame.

...But then, I suppose a strip that isn't read isn't going to last...right?

I can see Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois going down into the abyss really fast, although they sometimes still pull off a good one.

Pearls Before Swine IMHO is getting a good following. It's just demented enough to not get pulled. :D

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Brian!!! Coolidge Corner, June 24th, Midnight: Serenity! I just bought tickets.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Err, June 23/24

[discojesus.livejournal.com]

Dude, you should try and convince me that early Garfield is good. I don't think I ever read it, but at least there's a consensus that the recent ones are abysmal.