→2025→04→20→Comic strips→GoComics Letdown This Sunday (And A Comics Kingdom Fix)
Comic strips

GoComics Letdown This Sunday (And A Comics Kingdom Fix)

1 minute 12 comments

So GoComics seemingly has set up someone to make sure that the Sunday strips now have the black plate included after weeks of that being a problem on a few strips every Sunday. This week only Rose is Rose got through, but they fixed it very quickly so only Arcamax was caught blackless:

Rose is Rose by Don Wimmer for April 20, 2025 – no black plate

But there is something missing from the GoComics Rose is Rose today.

Rose is Rose April 20, 2025

Do you see it? Or not see it in this case.

Compare it to the March 30, 2025 Rose is Rose and notice the difference:

Rose is Rose March 30, 2025

That’s right, GoComics dropped the top tier, running the strip in a third page format rather than half-page.

And they didn’t just do it today, they went back and changed the past two April Sunday strips to that format. Now if it was just Rose is Rose I would have thought, “Okay I didn’t notice the change of Sunday setup this month.” But the change also applies to Alley Oop, Arlo and Janis, Dark Side of the Horse, and Monty too. There is no way I would not notice all of them being reformatted until the third week, especially when all but Arlo and Janis have new content in the top tier that I take note of every Sunday. And every one of them have had all their April Sunday strips readjusted to the new third-page, two tier makeup.

More:

The Born Loser by Chip Sansom April 20, 2025
Marmaduke by Paul Anderson April 20, 2025

The Born Loser and Marmaduke have also been reformatted today to a third page size, and back through the April Sunday strips, from what was their regular configuration as seen in the March 30, 2025 Sundays below.

The Born Loser March 30, 2025
Marmaduke March 30, 2025

The question is why go to the trouble of rearranging the already posted earlier April Sunday strips?

The change went through all their online portals, and while they controlled what Arcamax was delivered today they have no control over the Arcamax site’s past postings. Last Sunday’s Rose is Rose as seen at Arcamax:

Rose is Rose for April 13, 2025 via Arcamax

Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond December 30, 1934 via Comics Kingdom

Who knows what went wrong with the Jungle Jim comic strip Comics Kingdom presented to us today, but…

Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond with Don Moore script via The San Francisco Examiner for December 30, 1934

feature image: Dark Side of the Horse by Samson

Previous Post
Gretchen Dow Simpson – RIP
Next Post
CSotD: Mixed Bag Monday

Comments 12

  2. Who MAKES these decisions, and…have they ever had ANY love for comic strips, the HISTORY of the American “Funnies,” or any of the pioneers and present-day artists of this Great American Art Form?!!! (SHEEESH!!!)

  3. Doonesbury had all eight panels yesterday, however.

    1. Nancy and Classic Peanuts also ran with all four tiers in their tabloid format, while JumpStart ran as a full half-page.
      Others abridged for April along with those mentioned above were Betty, Big Nate, Garfield, Over The Hedge, Ziggy, and 9 Chickweed Lane.
      These apply only to Andrews McMeel distributed comics. The Creators and Tribune strips running on GoComics are run as received from those syndicates.

  4. Dear D.D.,

    Could I request that you stop supering captions with titles and dates over the comics-image area? It makes it impossible to read the punchlines on most of them, or simply blurs the bottom panels into unreadability.

    1. If I could figure out how to put those captions below the “galleried” images I would do so.
      Howzabout I add direct links to those specific comics as part of the I.D.?

  5. Oh. Guess I will post the uncut versions on some social media platforms, soon

  6. I’m surprised The Born Loser comic strip 1965-present is still running. I feel it’s the most mean spirited worst comic strip ever with outdated mother in law stereotype jokes of portrayal of Gladys mother being rude to Brutus, rancid a bully boss picking on Brutus and hoarding money for himself. and the adult jokes on July 26, 1996 about woman being as adult objects and other hurtful name calling insult jokes was very offensive to me. I hope Chip Samson retires the the born loser strip soon, I feel it’s the worst comic strip of all time along with Andy Capp and the lockhorns comic strips which I’m also ready for it to end. I want more positive kid friendly comic strips.

  7. there are quite a lot of stips which are blurred today – without the black outline and speech in bubbles.

  8. Wiley’s NON SEQUITUR is the only one I noticed in my feed. Could you possibly name some of the others?

  9. Today’s DARK SIDE OF THE HORSE returns to its original format of three rows, with header.

Leave a Reply to Lance Rayburn Cancel reply

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.

^ Top