Behind the Headlines

To all Herald-Leader comics readers:

We understand your passion. And we heard you. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! will not fly in the Bluegrass.

We have cut short a planned two-month run of the space-adventure spoof comic strip because of an overwhelmingly negative reader response. Hundreds of you called or wrote to let us know how much you disliked the strip. Many of those readers also made it plain that Daddy’s Home was among their favorite strips.

No more than six of you weighed in with praise for Brewster.

So the decision was obvious: Send Brewster to the far reaches of the galaxy.

Starting Monday, we are going to test-run one more strip: Mallard Fillmore. Over the years, we have heard readers’ complaints that our comics pages have several strips, most notably Doonesbury, that lean left, but none that lean right. So, for a month, we’ll see how the conservative duck fares with you.

In other comics news, we also heard from many irate fans of the single-panel comic Non Sequitur. Last year, in ­response to a drawn-out campaign to return Dennis the Menace to the comics pages from the classified section, we put Dennis back on the comics section and sent Non-Sequitur to the classifieds.

The problem is, Non Sequitur is ­wordier and more detailed than many comics, and at a size that fits on the ­classified pages, it becomes hard to read. So we’re working on a way to get Non ­Sequitur back on the comics pages as well.

Now for some background, and an answer to the question of why we “keep tinkering with the comics.”
We are well aware of the value of the comics pages, and we know that ­whenever we make a change, we’re going to hear from people. That’s a good thing.

The trouble is, everyone’s idea of a great comic is different. So we try to give all readers a few comics that they’ll like.

It’s the strips that too few people care about that we try to replace. That’s what prompted the latest experiment.

When we debuted Daddy’s Home last August to replace For Better or For Worse (whose story line was ending), we didn’t hear anything, good or bad, and we began to wonder: Is anyone reading this strip?

Now we know.

To offer feedback about the comics pages, please call (859) 231-1368 or send an e-mail to comics@herald-leader.com.