The Four Color Media Monitor

The New York-based L Magazine writes about how newspaper comic strips have been losing ground in humor quality in past years, and no strip has emerged to take up the mantle first held by Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, Doonesbury, Garfield, etc. I haven't tried reading much of newspaper strips myself in at least a decade, because indeed, they were losing their humorous edge by the end of the 20th century. I used to be a very big Garfield reader, but in the early 90s, that too began to lose ground. National Review once had an article in 1994 about how daily funnies were on the decline, and now, comic strips are still on the decline. And I won't be surprised if one of the reasons they've lost their edge is because, like movies and TV (and comic books), they're drowning in leftist politics (and Doonesbury has gone that way for a long time).

In fact, they even say here:

Alternative comics are hardly faring better. Earlier this year, Tom Tomorrow’s This Modern World was suspended by Village Voice Media, which controls a significant number of the country’s Alternative presses, along with all other comics. It has since been reinstated, but even that once trenchant strip has become bland in its predictability.

The Village Voice is one of many ultra-leftist weekly papers, and it's possible that a lot of the comic strips they've published slant that very way.

Another reason why there aren't that many new newspaper strips now is because many artists are turning to the comic book/graphic novel industry instead. No doubt the coming twilight of printed newspapers played a part in it.

Via Robot 6.

Labels: comic strips