Sunday Color Comic Supplement – for February 2, 2025
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The opening panel of Prince Valiant took my mind to the long-gone time of black light posters. That panel would have made a great one. And maybe that is what got me thinking about the colors at Comics Kingdom, they seemed more vibrant today. Even the pastels appear to be more pastel-ly. Beetle Bailey came up early in my Comics Kingdom feed followed not too far down the scroll by Dennis the Menace.
Checking back issues of the Sunday Color Comics Supplement I don’t see any appreciable difference so I guess it was my imagination this morning. Imagination being a good thing when reading and creating comics.
It used to be that the comic creators would color their Sunday pages leaving the dailies coloring to the syndicates. Is that still the case? If so why does Shoe come with different shades in the GoComics (top, below) and Comics Kingdom (bottom below) versions?
Aside: That Treetops Tattler title panel is my favorite of their rotation.
Of course the added colors is what made the Sunday Color Comics Supplement the Sunday Color Comics Supplement. Though as Barney & Clyde at GoComics reminds us black is also an important color:
Arcamax has the strip with black included, though I got my compete strip from the Counterpoint newsletter.
On a related note Reply All, with a color theme today, is also available at that Counterpoint newsletter mentioned above as well as at Arcamax. And the Reply All Lite version can be seen at The Washington Post comics page.
On to other things in The Sunday Funnies…
The Phantom Kills! (Is there an “old jungle saying” about that?)
The Phantom apparently kills a foe today which seems out of character, though it is not the first time.
But, like The Batman, I thought the killing of villains ended fairly early on.
Though I suppose today being about the 2nd Phantom it is still “fairly early on.”
Staying with The Phantom for a minute – Scripter Tony DePaul has written an essay expressing his thoughts on creating The Daily Phantom’s current “For Those Who Came in Late” origin story.
Plenty of Groundhog Day comics today but I’m going with Dark Side of the Horse.
Unlike the other Groundhog Day strips Samson seems to have correctly predicted the Punxsutawney rodent’s weather prediction as to the season(ing)s when comparing his opening and closing panels.
Though I do like Clayton’s idea in Adam @ Home.
Also liked Bill Hinds in Tank McNamara explaining how Pro Sports and Radio, Broadcast, and Streaming venues rationalize their promotion of all those easily accessible online casino services.
What I don’t like, and here comes a regular rant:
above: Judge Parker title panels February 2 – January 12, 2025 by Francesco Marciuliano & Mike Manley
Ces continues to ruin Mike’s scenic title panels in Judge Parker. Inserting word balloons in the “mundane” title panels don’t bother me so much; but I wish he would show some restraint in the panoramic panels.
Strange Sunday Continuity Brewing
John Deering continued his Mary Shelley riff from last week into today’s Strange Brew.
Though I am not getting my hopes up I would like to see the theme carried on for a while.
Update
Comics Kingdom has uploaded the February 9, 2025 edition of Candorville. And then promptly de-loaded it – see Mike Peterson’s comment in, where else, the comments section.
Wayback Whensunday
How January 10, 1926, Changed Hearst’s Sunday Comics Forever
At Comics Kingdom Alex Garcia reposts an old Ask the Archivist post by Mark Johnson about King Features Syndicate creating those now non-existent “topper” strips 99 years ago.
In today’s excursion into yesteryear’s yucks, we zero in on Sunday, 10 January 1926. On that date, the Hearst comics started an evolutionary change.
For many years, Hearst Sunday offerings would take up a full four-fifths of a page, with a long single panel striding the top, with a sort of editorial comment on the action below. On that day ninety[-nine] years past, the space was converted into a second, smaller strip, so you’d actually have two for the price of one.
note: The ‘George Swinnerton’ in the third full paragraph should be ‘James Swinnerton.‘
Hearst newspapers were quick to trumpet the increased comics count in their Sunday Comics Supplements.
They could then boast of 14 comic strips on their 8 page Sunday color comics section instead of just 8 comics. Of course these days newspapers are hesitant to brag of 14 comics on two pages of their Sunday funnies.
feature image from The Passing Parade via 13th Dimension
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