To the Bold go the Spoils (Feb. 29)

Worst: The wording is awkward, and topical jokes generally aren't very good. Compare this to a strip like the early Peanuts. In 40 years, no one is going to get this joke or care about this strip. Peanuts remains relevant because it is character driven, and builds it's strips on the universal theme of suffering.

Runners-up: Baby Blues, Baldo, Family Circus, Speed Bump

Best:

Prickly City is hit or miss, more often miss. Yesterday and today, Scott Stantis has taken a bold stand for the comics page. First, Stantis, who usually takes a conservative slant in his strip, takes a stand that contradicts most of his fellow travelers. Second, Stantis takes a risk with a strip that will probably offend many readers (think of the children!) who are used to such hard hitting strips as Family Circus. Kudos to Mr. Stantis for taking a risk to make a worthy point.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Brevity, Frazz, Lio (I think this would have been even better if we did not see Lio at all in the last panel, leaving it up to the reader to connect the dots), Non Sequiter, Pearls Before Swine, Pooch Cafe, Watch Your Head