Bastardization Edition (May 4)

Worst:
One of the problems with Hagar the Horrible, and there are many, is the willingness of Chris Browne to jettison the historical context to make bad jokes. I Got Mine is a 21st century catchphrase which seems jarringly out of place here. What's the point of a Viking strip if the joke would have worked just as poorly in Blondie or Rhymes with Orange or Barney Google and Snuffy Smith?

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Baldo, Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Opus

Best:
The pidgin English bit for the crocs can get a bit tiresome sometimes, but I think it worked well for their bastardization of things Charlie Brown might say. Me Kick Football is a great line in this context.

Runners-up: Agnes, Candorville, Cul de Sac, Get Fuzzy, Watch Your Head

Pathos Edition (Apr. 27)

Worst:
Dagwood is from a rich family and has a white-collar job. Does anyone like that actually bowl? Maybe in the 1950's, but it seems pretty unlikely here in 2008. It's an awful lot of set-up for a bowling joke.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Family Circus, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Prickly City, Rhymes with Orange, Sherman's Lagoon, Zits

Best:
Andy exists purely to create pathos, I enjoy it.

Runners-up: Agnes, Baldo, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Cul de Sac (based on Dil's line in the last panel), Dilbert, Get Fuzzy

Bejeezus Edition (Apr. 15)

Worst:
I had to look up who Rod Serling was, which is never a good start to a strip. He created the Twilight Zone, which makes sense, and is probably something I should have known.

Runners-up: Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Prickly City, Zits

Best:

Runners-up: Agnes, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequiter, Watch Your Head

Terror of the Trees Edition (Mar. 31)

Worst:
So why doesn't Henry just not go 100 when his girlfriend is in the car?

Runners-up: Blondie, Brevity, For Better or For Worse, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Non Sequiter, On the Fastrack, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:
I just love the phrase Timmy the Terror of the Trees.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Candorville, Lio, Pooch Cafe, Single and Looking,

Metanote: I'm having trouble uploading certain images on my new computer, which is why the comics are being posted out of order. I'm going to try to figure out why certain files won't upload, and then go back to the days I had to skip. I'm using Safari on a Macbook now, so if you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments.

Horribly Insensitive Edition (Mar. 24)

Worst:
Get back to Danae! It baffles me why Wiley Miller gets away from his characters, who are always interesting, and instead puts out dumb jokes.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Big Nate, Daddy's Home, For Better or For Worse, Hagar the Horrible, Red and Rover, Speed Bump

Best:
This was basically the health care plan for thousands of years. You got sick, your family took care of you, maybe you died. If you get past the fear of death, it's not too bad a system, and it's a lot cheaper than what we got now.

Runners-up: Agnes, Blondie, Candorville, Garfield, Pooch Cafe, Single and Looking, Tank McNamara

The World Turned Upside Down Edition (Mar. 19)

Worst:
Problem One: basketballs are really hard to pop, and probably could not be popped by a cat's claws. Problem Two: Cat claws are retractable and therefore would be retracted if a cat did play basketball.

Runners-up: Blondie, Brevity, Curtis, Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Piranha Club, Rhymes with Orange

Best:
I love Pig.

Runners-up: Agnes, Doonesbury, Get Fuzzy, Lio, Mutts, Speed Bump

I don't get it (Mar. 2)

Worst: I suppose the joke is that the cow's udder is comparable to a belly button? If that is the joke, it's not funny. If that isn't the joke, I have no idea what is going on here.

Runners-up: Family Circus, Foxtrot, Frazz, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Rhymes with Orange, Zits

Best:

It's always kind of incongruous when the animals' natural behavior clashes with America's natural behavior.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Candorville, Get Fuzzy, Opus, Sherman's Lagoon

Comics of the Day

Worst:Terrible on so many levels. Why don't they cancel this strip already?

Runners-up: Brevity, Pooch Cafe (I find Droolia kind of gross to look at), Prickly City, Red and Rover

Best:

The strip contains a silent penultimate panel, which is bad. The joke, while not very original, is well presented. I could not help but smile at Andy's simple response to the Olive's philosophy of relationshipness.

Runners-up: Big Nate (Mr. Rosa is a good teacher if he is willing to invest in a student on his lunch break), Curtis, Frazz, Garfield

Metanote: Sorry about the sporadic posting. It's a combination of laziness, getting involved in another project, and occasional problems connecting to the internet. It's going to continue for a few days, since I'm going out of town this weekend. After I finish today's comics, I probably will not post again until Monday.

Comics of the Day

Best: Any allusion to Jon having sex is best avoided.

Runners-up: Blondie, Family Circus, Mother Goose and Grimm, Pooch Cafe, Prickly City, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:

Andy is one of my favorite incidental characters; he's just so cute and pathetic.

Runners-up: Agnes, Dilbert, Lio, Piranha Club, Sally Forth

Comics of the Day

Worst: At first, I didn't get this at all. Looking at it again, I think it's a pun of fore and four. Since Jeffy is not four yet, he doesn't have a fore head, only a three head. Yeah, it's that dumb.

Runners-up: Baldo, Close to Home, Dilbert, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Piranha Club, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump, Zits

Best:The best of a weak field today.

Runners-up: Curtis, Doonesbury

Comics of the Day

Worst: Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Brevity, Candorville, Family Circus (Calvin and Hobbes did this exact same joke years ago), Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Pickles, Prickly City, Rhymes with Orange

Best: Haven't you always wanted to try this?

Runners-up: Baldo, Big Nate, Curtis (Barry tells it like it is!), Dilbert, Frank and Ernest, Frazz, Lio, Pooch Cafe, Single and Looking

Comics of the Day

Worst: I chose this as the worst strip for Saturday because it relies on negative stereotypes, which is problematic on two levels. First, stereotypes are rarely good comedic fodder in a comic strip because they show up often. Once you've read several hundred strips about women nagging or men being bad cooks or doctors constantly playing golf, they start to lose all of their humor. Second, stereotypes are often very harmful. Not all women are nags, and to propagate this myth in a strip does a disservice to women.

Runners-up: Close to Home, Family Circus, Garfield, Pickles, Rhymes with Orange

Best: I am a sucker for clever word play. The slope between clever and the Family Circus is a slippery one though.

Runners-up: Baldo, Blondie (loses points for the pop culture reference, but I like punch lines that leave you hanging. Just what was Dagwood's tragically underinspired plan?), Curtis (bonus points for good parenting, which is rare in the comics), Dilbert (the Elbonians are among the few characters with any interesting features left in this strip), For Better or For Worse (anything that makes fun of the baby boomers is okay by me), Frazz, Lio (almost unseated PBS today, my stuffed animals would get jealous of each other if I paid too much attention to a particular one, so I can kind of empathize), Pooch Cafe (we've all known, and probably been part of, groups whose collective intelligence goes down when they get together), Speed Bump (I'm kind of a prude, so holding hands with a girl is still a pretty big deal to me), Zits (I think the Jeremy romance story is kind of sweet (I don't know how I feel about agreeing with Connie though). I think Viral has added a lot to the strip. It's easy for an artist to add a new character in an attempt to bring some life to a struggling strip, but Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman have done a good job creating a new, interesting character without overwhelming the other characters or seeming desperate to change something for change's sake)

Comics of the Day

Worst: Mutts lives and dies on its cuteness, which leaves it constantly walking a fine line. Some days it's cute, and it is a good strip. Some days it veers into overly cute, and it's a bad strip. Some days it's not cute at all, and it's just a waste of space. Friday was one of those days.

Runners-up: Brevity, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:

Men think about sex a lot, and this one of the standard tropes of comedy. What I liked about this strip is the subtlety of that reference.

Runners-up: Agnes, Sherman's Lagoon, Zits

Comics of the Day

Worst:

Runners-up: Family Circus, For Better or For Worse (it's not fair to whine about lifestyle choices that you make)

Best:

I like to think that the expression on Pig's face in the second panel is one of abject terror.

Runners-up: Agnes, Candorville, Lio, Pooch Cafe, Watch Your Head

Comics of the Day

Worst:
Making fun of people's names is so first grade.

Runners-up: For Better or For Worse, Family Circus

Best:Stephan Pastis cracked me up today. I'm concerned that the run-away winner of best was an ironic, cynical take on a strip aimed at children.

Runner-up: Get Fuzzy, Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Cul de Sac, Frazz, Lio, Mutts, Opus, Prickly City

Bonus Visual Runners-up:
I had a hard time choosing today's worst strip. Garfield had an absolutely atrocious joke. For Better or For Worse had verbal child abuse. Family Circus had disgusting treacle beyond even its usual level of disgusting treacle. All three were terrible, terrible strips, so I wanted to highlight them so they could receive their share of ignominy.

Comics of the Day, Friday

Worst: I worry about remaining objective about For Better or For Worse. Sometimes I think I have picked up an anti-Foob mindset from the gang at Comics Curmudgeon, and read the strip looking for things to dislike about it. But Anthony's logic strikes me as kind of manipulative. His argument boils down to if you decide to like Elizabeth, we can go see Santa, and Santa wants you to like Elizabeth. First he should have validated her feelings. A little kid with a single father could very understandably be jealous of the father's girlfriend. Then after listening and validating, he should have explained that he loves Francoise and his relationship with Liz will do nothing to change that. Problem solved without giving Francoise any neuroses about competing for daddy's attention and feeling guilty about it.

Runners-up: Non Sequiter, the Piranha Club, Brevity, Red and Rover

Best:

Pearls Before Swine wins in a photo finish ahead of Get Fuzzy. Things to like about this cartoon: great visuals, gadzooks is a funny word, the names of the superheros, Pig's mild acceptance of his totally lame character. I loved this strip.

Runners-up: Speed Bump, Lio, Get Fuzzy (As is common in Get Fuzzy, the punchline is not that great, but the dialogue in the set-up is awesome. Satchel's line in panel one (I don't feel butterflies...that would be creepy) made me laugh out loud. Darby Conley must put a lot of effort into his strip. He has consistently great, detailed art, and witty dialogue in almost every panel)

Comics of the Day Catch-up Post

So between Christmas decorating and work, I'm a little behind on my comics of the day. I'm going to try to catch up today.

Worst:

As usual, a joke about technology falls flat. What does Tigger have to do with text messaging? What does TTFN stand for (I'm only 27, and I don't know)?

Runners-up: Frank and Ernest, Blondie (I still don't understand the joke), Baldo, Brevity, Red and Rover

Bonus Visual Runner-up:

Hagar the Horrible might be consistently the worst strip in the Post. It's become one of those strips that uses a one off joke each day. The characters have no personality to drive jokes with. The jokes are often incongruous with the setting. This strip really has no redeeming features to it right now, and it's probably time for it to be put out to stud.

Best:

Pastis does a good job explaining the human condition (although he probably just wanted to draw a rat with a napkin on her head). It's not a nice place inside any of us, and dealing with that is one of the major questions of human existence.

Runners-up: Watch Your Head (love the third panel), Candorville, Zits (I like that Connie comes out on top of this technological interaction for a change), Frazz, Big Nate (my little love huntress is a great, great pet name), Mutts

Bonus Visual Runner-up:

Today's Lio is a good example of what makes a strip work. The joke is driven by the character's personalities. The father has typical dreams of living vicariously through his son's athletic pursuits. Lio needs to deal with a monster. Another great thing about Lio is the question of fantasy or reality. Mark Tatulli, like Bill Watterson in Calvin and Hobbes, never resolves the question of what reality is. We are left to speculate whether the monster in the third panel is real, or solely in Lio's imagination.

Random Comic Note:

I work with kids, and this strip illustrates well one of the challenges of managing kids. Barry makes an inappropriate comment, but the father reacts to Curtis' reaction. Obviously, Curtis' reaction is inappropriate, but if the father had disciplined Barry for his comment, Curtis would likely be satisfied that justice had been served and could temper his reactions.

Comics of the Day

Worst:
The visual in the last panel explains quite well why this is today's worst comic. I think I'm going to have nightmares about this.

Runners-up: Dennis the Menace (Grumpies!?, what the heck?), Family Circus, Garfield (the fourth and fifth panels are identical except for Jon's eyes, lazy, lazy, lazy), Prickly City, Rhymes with Orange, Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, Tank McNamara (bad attempt at being topical, and A-Rod could have gotten more money if he didn't sign so quickly with the Yankers, so it's wrong in addition to being not funny)

Best:

Pastis is on a roll. We've all had our share of mayday moments while dealing with girls. I love how Pig has absolutely no idea how to deal with this situation.

Runners-up: Cul de Sac (a consistently great strip, the timing on this particular one made me laugh), Opus , Sherman's Lagoon, Pickles (does anyone not repeat stories?)

Comics of the Day (belated Saturday edition)

Worst:
The Spice Girls were popular when I was in high school. Elmo is five. The odds of him knowing who the Spice Girls are, or who David Beckham is must be non-existent. So it's a dumb joke, and it's awkwardly set up.

Runners-up: Red and Rover, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Speed Bump

Best:

I was actually a little moved by this strip. Stephan Pastis often includes short term characters who appear for a few jokes. Most disappear within a week, some stick around like effeminate vikings and the Crocs. Andy is my favorite new character in a while. He actually has personality; this isn't a joke, it's a character sketch. I just love Andy's unrelenting hope and I love the pathos Pastis imbues Andy with.

Bonus Visual Runner-up:
It took some serious deliberation to decide whether I liked Lio or Pearls Before Swine better today. I love the drawing of Lio laughing in the third panel. And the joke is better than the jokes in most of the one off joke strips.

Runners-up: Agnes, Lio

Comics of the Day

Worst:
So is the joke that morons are likely to get stranded on desert isles, because that is the only way this makes any sense to me. Otherwise it's just the typical representation of evolution with the word morons attached. Maybe morons are funny, but probably not.

Runners-up: Red and Rover, Curtis, Rhymes with Orange, Candorville (Darrin Bell is capable of much wittier and relevant jokes about the quality of the media)

Best:
This comic wins a lot of points for the visual in the third panel, which I thought was cute. Otherwise it's the same joke Stephan Pastis has been riffing on all week, but no one else did better today really. And if you're going to use one joke all week, at least make it a good one, which Pastis usually does.

Runners-up: Watch Your Head, Dilbert, Agnes, Non-Sequiter

Other Comics notes: Dennis the Menace and Mother Goose and Grimm both have dumb jokes today, but I wanted to praise them for the visuals. Joey's expression and Attila stuck upside down in a Pringles can both amused me. This doesn't make up for the lame jokes, but at least they did something well.