New Mexican Comics Poll Results

Last week The Santa Fe New Mexican asked its readers to rate the comics in the paper.

In a mini-poll, readers emailed with their three favorite comic strips published in The New Mexican — and three they’d use as kindling during our next snowstorm. More than 150 emails were received.

This week they reveal the results.

Editor Phill Casaus in his column about the results:

You showered me with emails — close to 150 of them as of Friday — about the newspaper’s comics page offerings, popping the cork on a magnum of pent-up emotion. Most of you were terrific, often insightful, solidifying my hard-earned belief that comics remain the plutonium of our product — tread softly, handle gently.

Some of Phill’s observations:

• In a lot of ways, the comics poll isn’t a lot different from Santa Fe itself. Many of our readers are panning three of our newest offerings — F minus, Macanudo and a Sunday strip called Big Nate. New things often don’t play well in an old land. But it’s interesting that four of our most well-established strips (Garfield, Blondie, Wizard of Id, B.C.) got little love. Even worse, little attention.
• The runaway favorites are obvious: Without Reservations is as popular as sunshine. Pickles, Pearls Before Swine, Zits, Baby Blues and Luann also get a big thumbs up from most respondents.
• I wasn’t surprised by the mixed reviews for La Cucaracha and Non Sequitur. They have long had fans and detractors, so I wouldn’t expect much different.
• Was I troubled by anything I saw? Sure. I wish F Minus and Sherman’s Lagoon were getting a better response, but they’ve been in the newspaper for less than a month. I’m going to give them some time. Same for Macanudo, which may be gaining a foothold with some readers. Some of you told me you love it.
• Frankly, those strips didn’t concern me as much as the tepid to flat-line reactions to Get Fuzzy or more surprisingly, Blondie, which has been in newspapers since before I was born. When you don’t move the needle either way, or seem to draw a yawn followed by a “meh,” maybe there’s a change to be made.

The poll results are in a sidebar along side the editor’s column.

_{Below is a recent sample of The Santa Fe New Mexican Sunday comics pages.}