A big change is coming to our comics pages next week.
For Better or For Worse, one of the most popular comic strips in the country, will no longer occupy a spot in the Herald-Leader.
Here’s why:
On Sunday, For Better or For Worse’s story line will end, and creator Lynn Johnston will start at the beginning of the strip, which began in 1979. She will redraw some of the original strips about the Patterson family and rewrite some of the punch lines. She’s calling these comics “new-runs.”
Johnston said that about half of the first year’s worth of strips will be newly drawn and written.
At the Herald-Leader, we have decided to let the Pattersons’ story end, and not publish the “new-runs.”
We know that this won’t sit well with some readers, but we have decided to go with a new comic strip.
In place of For Better or For Worse, we will run Daddy’s Home, a strip by Anthony Rubino Jr. and Gary Markstein, about a stay-at-home dad. We ran Daddy’s Home for several weeks earlier this year, while Doonesbury was on a hiatus, and it generated a positive reader response. The comic will begin Sept. 1.
It’s been a bumpy year for For Better or For Worse. In August 2007, Johnston announced that she would not draw a new strip every day. Instead, she and Universal Press Syndicate reran some of the earliest strips for a few days or a few weeks between new strips.
Earlier this month, Johnston and Universal announced the end of the story line and her plan to start “new runs.”
The strip itself has been dominated in the past year by daughter Elizabeth’s wedding, which wrapped up this week, and Grandpa’s diminishing health.
We’d like to hear what you think about our comics. E-mail comics@herald-leader.com or call (859) 231-1368.
How about an adventure strip? The current Phantom is getting rave reviews with a creative team that rivals the greats from the golden age of comics strips! The dailies are drawn by a former Superman artist named Paul Ryan, and the sundays are by Graham Nolan, a former Batman artist and the same guy who draws Rex Morgan (which you run). Both these artists have spectacularly realistic styles that make it hard to look at any other strips first when you open the paper. It’s just rare to see that kind of dynamic art in newspaper strips, so don’t blow such a great opportunity.
mallard fillmore is a political cartoon and simply mean spirited.
It should not be on a comic page. Go back to Daddy’s Home.