Of Comic Strips, Garfield and Mike Peterson
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Garfield, FurBabies, Calvin and Hobbes, Bliss/Not Bliss/Bob Mankoff Presents, The K Chronicles, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Popeye, caption contests, and Mike Peterson captioned.
The LIFE Story of Garfield
Ever since Garfield swaggered onto the pages of 41 American newspapers on June 19, 1978, the rotund feline famous for his love of lasagna, naps, and sarcastic asides has occupied a special place in the cultural consciousness. Lazy, self-centered, and an unrepentant grump, the cat turned out to possess enough deadpan charm to entertain generations of audiences.
The character has enjoyed a remarkable run, says creator Jim Davis, precisely because he’s both reliable and relatable, routinely expressing familiar feelings and frustrations.
Life excerpts Gina McIntyre’s contribution to the new bookazine Garfield: Greatest. Cat. Ever.
With our own Mike Peterson getting quoted:
Although Davis sold the rights to Garfield to Viacom in 2019, he continues to play a hands-on role in the creation of the comic strip, ensuring that the characters and humor remain true to its essence. “I work in the same way with the same folks that I have for the last 35 years or so,” Davis says. “I write gags, and a couple of other people submit writing that I edit for use. I have long-time assistants who work on the drawing, inking, and coloring of the strip. I approve, sign, and date each strip before it goes out.”
The fact that Davis remains so invested in his signature creation sets Garfield apart from some other long-running comic strips that have been passed on to other artists, often to their detriment, says Mike Peterson, who authors the Comic Strip of the Day feature for website Daily Cartoonist: “You get a lot of ‘zombie strips,’ which are strips that have been taken over. The original artists have been dead for 50 years, but the strip goes on. They’re not very imaginative. They’re not very interesting. But Garfield is still being produced. I realize Jim Davis [is] not sitting in a garage someplace scratching that out on Bristol board, but it’s still a fresh strip every day. It’s a new piece.” [emphasis added]
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FurBabies: Family Blend
Furbabies is a newer comic strip by Nancy Beiman that began being published on GoComics in June of 2023.
The stories are about a 9-year-old girl named Kate Buffet who has her own style and approach to things. She lives in an apartment with her parents, who are working long hours meaning, she doesn’t see them much. That does give the comic strip a focus on her without much parental involvement much like Peanuts did. She also can communicate with animals. This is a help to her being an only child because she has pets who are the “Furbabies” of the title. The pets are a blended family of their own.
The strips focus on the slice-of-life stories of these characters. Kate experiences typical things pet families live. Being woke up, having her socks stolen, wanting what she’s eating, and any hangups they can get into are her daily experiences. The only real difference is she can understand them and they understand her.
LinusFan303 reviews the new FurBabies comic strip for Anime Superheroes.
The characters are fun and relatable, you’ll find a charm in them. A great aspect of it is the family of a girl and her pets who care about each other and with their differences still show their love for each other.
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The Fake Adderall Calvin and Hobbes Strip Sold for $14,000?
So because [Calvin and Hobbes] will never have a true “ending,” so many people have come up with their own endings for the strip, and they are almost always these awful takes that are either overly saccharine, or just depressing. One of the most depressing ones made the news when it was actually SOLD for over $14,000!
The strip was listed on eBay, and after a number of bids, it sold for $14,100. The description of the strip was given as:
This comic strip was purchased off a kind elderly boutique owner with known ties to Bill Watterson, in Chagrin Falls in 2008 .This strip comes with a signed letter from the boutique owner stating its authenticity and provenance to the winning bidder.
Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston contacted the seller, and they told him, when he tried to determine the origins of the strip, that, “I can only release that information to the buyer.”
Brian Cronin at CBR tracks the reported sale of a fake Calvin and Hobbes strip.
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Did It Happen to You? It Happened to Me.
So I’m scrolling through my Comics Kingdom favorites and come onto this Harry Bliss panel. Whoa, thinks I, Comics Kingdom has added more Tribune strips to their roster. But no, it wasn’t a new Bliss panel, it was a Bob Mankoff Presents: Show Me The Funny featuring cartoonist Bliss.
Shhh!! Keith Knight features a Life Little Victory in his The K Chronicles that happened to me a few years ago. A three month trial sub turned into a delivery of the paper to my driveway for a year.
Digression
Scrolling down Keith’s Patreon page shows a cartoon caption contest.
I’ve always been a fan of the New Yorker caption contest, so I’ve decided to try it here. Over the next week, send me your captions for this panel, and I’ll post my favorite three. You vote on them, and the winner gets a t-shirt and bragging rights! (put captions below in the comments)
My Round Table members and regular Patreon will get the same panel, so you’re up against some highly intelligent minds and souls.
After this first one, I’ll be making the caption contest available to the $5 level and up.
Which brings up the CartoonStock caption contest.
So you think you’re funny? We do, too! But how about putting some money where your mouth is? That’s what we’re doing at CartoonStock’s all new cash-prize caption contest!
Each month we’re offering a cash prize of $1,000, $500 to first place and 5 runners-up prizes of $100 each. What’s the catch, you ask? Well, you have to pay $5 to play. But with a chance at up to 500 smackeroos, it’s well worth it!
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Irish ‘The Echo’ Newspaper Runs King Features Adventure Comic Strips
The Echo Newspaper is a local Thursday Newspaper sold in Dublin with over 30,000 readers and from April 18, 2024 they have been featuring a weekly comic page supplied and eventually will be worked on by the students from the new Tallaght Academy of Sequential Art. The comic page at the moment are not created by students but this will happen later in the year when their classes start.
The first weekly newspaper comics page feature strips Flash Gordon by Dan Schkade, translated into Gaeilge by Gary Moloney with lettering by Rob Jones. The Phantom’s Origin as retold by Cormac Hughes that is a remake of the first Phantom Sunday page and was first introduction in a 2017 Lightning Strike Comic. The last comic to feature in the comics page is Popeye The Sailor Man by Randy Milholland.
The Chronicle Chamber has details and images of the page with Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Popeye.
Wish my Sunday paper came with a comics page like that.
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Superman and Garfield
Superman director James Gunn posted the first picture of David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. Unsurprisingly, this drew considerable attention on social media. This led the production team on The Garfield Movie to rush out their own parody of the popular image.
feature image of Garfield and Odie © PAWS. Inc.
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