Do you still read the comics each day?
Of course, that's assuming you still take a newspaper, or at least have a digital subscription. I have neither right now.
Which is strange for me, because I used to look forward to reading the funnies every day. I've written many times about how I used to enjoy Li'l Abner and a few others (including Gasoline Alley) while I was growing up.
Both of our local newspapers used to have the comics right in the back section, which was appropriate since they were sort of the 'dessert' to what was served up (and choked down) before. Now, when I do splurge and buy a paper, I never know where the comic section is. Not that it matters, because most of them aren't 'cheater-worthy' (meaning not worth putting on my glasses).
But fifty years ago – when everyone still read a newspaper – comics were still big business and part of the national cultural scene. So it's not surprising that the classic strip Blondie was mentioned on the Journal Page of Opinion. Chic Young, the creator of Blondie, had just died and the Journal was acknowledging his passing. Here's the clipping from March 17, 1973.
I still get the newspaper. The Elyria Chronicle is much better than the Lorain Journal these days. I do read the comics, probably only about half of them but I do enjoy Blondie. That Dagwood hasn't aged at all in the last 70 years!
ReplyDeleteI never missed the funnies in the Journal back in the day; according to my mother, I taught myself how to read with the funnies before I started school. I think I read pretty much everything except MARY WORTH, JUDGE PARKER, and REX MORGAN, M.D., and even the columns like "Count Marco" and "Stranger Than Science", which sometimes made me jumpy at night later on. The last time I read comics regularly was about ten years ago, in the WACO HERALD-TRIBUNE, a once decent daily paper that succumbed to the Dark Side about then; a lot of their comics already had, becoming not funnies but rancid spigots for so-called "social justice" . I shudder to think what they're like now, in the day of the Kidsniffer...
ReplyDeleteIt always sort of amazes me, but really shouldn't considering how many thousands of old newspapers I've read, how you can take a page from 40-50-150 years ago, change a few details, and have it fit exactly into the present.
ReplyDeleteWe simply keep doing the same stupid crap wrong over and over and over again. It's nearly enough to make an old man give up hope.
Though, Alan, "rancid spigots for so-called 'social justice'" is a very nice turn of phrase. No fooling. I might have to steal it.
Walk with it, bruh!
DeleteI think the moving of the comics and crossword from the back page where it was anchored changed while I was working there in the 80's. I remember the paper getting several complaints just like yours Dan of having to "hunt" around every day to find them. Looking back that was another move by the paper to increase revenue at the expense of the reader. That back page position was too valuable to potential advertisers to leave it for "just" comics and crosswords. Didn't really matter in the long run but I guess it gave them a few more years. Todd
ReplyDelete