Credit where credit is (or isn't) due (Feb. 24)

Worst: Of course today, Cory Thomas abandons his characters and writes a typical joke strip. Not surprisingly, it falls flat. When you create great characters and then don't use them, it's easy to throw out a bad strip. Watch Your Head is the first strip to win Best and Worst back to back.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Frazz, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Prickly City

Best:

Darby Conley is another master of the character driven strip. Of course he is also adept at writing joke based strips, because he has a great ear for dialogue. He also might be the best artist in the business today. I love how Bucky seems proud of his fighting prowess in the last panel and how concerned Satchel is about his teddy bear.

Runners-up: Agnes, Cul de Sac, Dilbert, For Better or For Worse (character driven in a bad way, it's easy to dislike many of the characters; today's strip made me smile though), Non Sequiter, Opus, Rhymes with Orange

Pathos (Feb. 23)

Worst: Not really a bad strip, but there really weren't any on Saturday. Of course it's certainly not a good strip.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Curtis (Curtis has basically been repeating the same strip all week), Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Rhymes with Orange

Best:

Perhaps the best character driven strip in the papers today. Cory Thomas has done a great job creating characters who are likeable. It's really easy to empathize with Cory in this strip, because we all want him to get the girl.

Runners-up: Frazz, Garfield, Sherman's Lagoon

Comics of the Day

Worst:I thought this joke was clever when I first heard it, about fifteen years ago.

Runners-up: Tank McNamara, Red and Rover, Non-Sequiter, Mother Goose and Grimm, Hagar the Horrible, Baldo

Best: I loved the joke in the last panel. When it comes to story telling, Cory Thomas is one of the best in the business.

Runners-up: Doonesbury, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine

Comics of the Day

Worst:

Modern art is less accessible than more traditional, representative art forms. Deal with it.

Runners-up: Tank McNamara, Agnes, Family Circus, Brevity

Best:

Watch Your Head is in the third tier of comics. The first tier is Get Fuzzy. The second tier consists of comics that are generally funny, cute, or thought provoking. The third tier is comics that are generally good, occasionally very good. I like this particular strip because of what it doesn't say. We're left to speculate about what circumstances would make a college student marry Tina Turner. I really like the first panel also. I enjoy way Jason invites his roommate to his wedding in a completely off-hand manner.

Runners-up: Pooch Cafe, Pearls Before Swine