The Sunday Funnies, Part Two

Flash Gordon by Dan Schkade remains enjoyable. Today’s Sunday summary of what’s happening is impressive. Even keeping those of us who have been following the weekday action interested.

Prince Valiant by Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates also used today to update readers on what is going on there. Of course there is more than two weeks of story to recap.

Schkade has been on his strip for two weeks. A year from now Schultz will have been on writing Prince Valiant for two decades, so the summary is more involved. It also leads into the next adventure?

Over the Hedge acknowledges that newspapers are now an information source for the elderly.

Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker seem to confirm Michael Fry and T. Lewis‘s hypothesis in today’s Dustin.

By the way, Jeff threw in a belated Halloween Easter Egg in the above Dustin:

I don’t know if the top two strips on that comics page are anything in particular, but that bottom comic is obviously Mother Goose & Grimm. Parker has been assisting Mike Peters with MM&G for twenty-five years. That top strip should have been a recognizable Blondie and Dagwood – Jeff assisted on that strip back in the Denis Lebrun days.

About Mother Goose & Grimm and Mike Peters.

Mike Peters turned 80 years old last month (belated Happy Birthday Mike!) and about that time the daily MG&G went rerun. The Sundays continue as newly drawn. It’s like the opposite of Rick Detorie and One Big Happy. Mike’s political cartoons are appearing regularly, though I have no idea why they aren’t being carried on the GoComics page nearly a year after Mike switched to Andrews McMeel Syndicate.

Of course I fully expect new Grimmys tomorrow now that I mentioned it. Edit: >heavy sigh< So it goes.

That title panel above once more brings up my frequent rant about Comics Kingdom and GoComics not showing its subscribers the full Sunday art that the cartoonists produce.

Bizarro, Mutts, and Macanudo, among others, have title panel art related to the strips proper that we deserve to see for our $20 a year without having to go on a treasure hunt for the complete strips every Sunday.

You think I’m done raving?

Today’s Blondie features a drop panel that makes no sense without the other drop panel.

Instead of dropping the evergreen title panel, like they do with Hi and Lois and Hagar and others, a panel essential to the gag goes missing. Of course Barney Google and Snuffy Smith has a title panel that changes every week and goes missing rather than post the half page format like CK does with Flash Gordon and Curtis.

Next time it will be GoComics turn with Luann, Sherman’s Lagoon, Frazz and more.

Saturday-Sunday Synchronicity

The Sunday Bizarro above makes a nice follow up to Saturday’s Macanudo.

For those who wonder why Comics Kingdom doesn’t just grab Vintage strips out of old newspapers when they are missing from the archives – today’s Back to B.C. compared to last Sunday’s Back to B.C.

Little Oop and Penelope are time hopping. Today they went a year in the future, and, among other reveals, they know that either Alley Oop or B.C. win next year’s Pulitzer Prize in the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category.

PsuedoSunday Funnies

Finally a new comic section delivered to your home.

A full size paper, in color, with games, art, and a ton of comic strips that appealed to every big kid and a few of the little ones as well. Puzzles meant to be completed and written in, coloring panels meant to be colored and a paper you can fold up and take with you anywhere. With hopes that I wasn’t alone in thinking this was a great idea, I began reaching out to all the artists I had developed relationships with the last few year and the response was overwhelming. And so it began….

John Kanakry is publishing A Kid and a Comic, a 16 page comic section of original content. Current plans call for it to arrive at your mailbox 7 times a year. Contributors include Bill Morrison, Mark Wheatley, Scott Hanna, Tony Harris, Mike Gustovich, Bob Almond, Darren Auck, Mark McKenna, and many more.