Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Farewell, Opus; welcome back, Dennis

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on October 31, 2008
in Comics
. 0 Comments

Say goodbye to Opus and hello again to Dennis.

Opus the penguin, who came to the comics pages in Bloom County, then returned in a Sunday-only strip called Outland and again in one called simply Opus, will disappear after Sunday.

Berkeley Breathed, who created all three strips, said the portly penguin will not be back, and Breathed will focus on writing and illustrating children’s books.

Meanwhile, Dennis the Menace, which has run in newspapers for nearly 60 years, shows no sign of getting old. Calls, letters and e-mail messages to the Herald-Leader have persuaded us to return Dennis to our comics pages.

Opus — a daydreamer, neurotic but always optimistic, and an easy mark for TV pitches for turnip twaddlers — will be gone, but only his creator knows his fate.

Several weeks ago, Breathed announced a contest for readers to predict Opus’ fate. Breathed will donate $10,000 to a cat and dog shelter named by the reader who correctly guesses Opus’ fate.

In the event of multiple correct guesses, one name will be drawn.

Ten second-prize winners will each receive an autographed copy of Opus: 25 years of his Sunday Best.
Winners will be announced at http://www.hsus.org and www.BerkeleyBreathed.com as early as Monday.

Dennis Mitchell, on the other hand, has been “five and a half” for nearly 60 years, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

Dennis the Menace was dropped from the Herald-Leader’s comics pages about a year ago, after a survey off all of the papers comics showed little support for the 57-year-old comic strip.

The strip’s fans, however, have been vocal. Responding to reader protest, the Herald-Leader brought Dennis back, albeit in the classified ads, where it appeared six days a week but never in the same place.

That didn’t appease the strip’s fans, so starting Monday, Dennis the Menace will be on the comics page, and Non Sequitur will run in the classifieds.

Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, is one of the single-panel comics that were added during a major comics-page renovation last October.

No strip will immediately replace Opus in our Sunday comics. With Opus gone, we can make some of the Sunday comics slightly larger.

As always, if you want to comment on our comics, leave a voice message at (859) 231-1368 or e-mail us at comics@herald-leader.com.

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Rearranging some sections, features in lifestyles

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on October 1, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

We’re making some changes in the lifestyles section of the paper starting today. The two biggest changes are the elimination of Tuesday’s Health + Family and Thursday’s Free Time sections. You’ll be able to find health content in Monday’s City/Region section and John Rosemond’s parenting column will now appear in Wednesday’s Communities section along with the My Pet World column. Other changes are noted below. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Please call Sally Scherer, the lifestyles editor, at (859) 231-3303.

  • A la Carte, our weekly food section, is moving to Thursday. It will continue to include Sharon Thompson’s stories and column and you’ll find The Fru-Gal and the Diet Detective columns there.
  • Merlene Davis’ columns will appear on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday on the City/Region front.
  • Sunday’s Arts + Life section will now include Celebrations - the engagement, wedding and anniversary announcements. And Snapped! the new feature of pictures of people who are out and about will appear along side Howard Snyder’s Social Scene column.
  • On Tuesday, the comics, movie guide and the NIE story will appear in the Sports section.
  • And, Wednesday’s Communities section will now include Fayette county lawsuits, expanded arts listings and an advice section that will include John Rosemond, Carolyn Hax, Heloise and Steve Dale’s My Pet World.

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