Worst:
Bill Clinton is a flawed man, which puts him in good company. Is he really worth all the bile that is spewed at him from the right?

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Close to Home, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Speed Bump

Best:

Most strips have one joke, usually bad, that they lead up to in the first two or three panels. Darby Conley today has a joke in each panel, and they're all funny. The fact that his jokes are often good puts him in the top tier of cartoonists. The fact that he often gives two or three or even more jokes for the price of one makes him, arguably, the best (Mark Tatulli would be the other candidate who would deserve a long look).

Runners-up: Agnes, Big Nate, Doonesbury, Pearls Before Swine

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

Worst: Probes, in this context, are not something I want to think about. Also, when you need to explain what is going on in the first panel, you're doing something wrong.

Runners-up: Blondie, Close to Home, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Pooch Cafe, Prickly City, Speed Bump

Best:

The Garfield strip needs to compensate for poor drawing with an awkward exposition in the first panel. Lio, of course, suffers no such problem. Most comic strip artists could learn from Mark Tatulli's ability to express things without words.

Runners-up: Agnes, Beetle Bailey, Candorville, Frazz, Non Sequiter (I like this strip based on the conflicts inherent in the characters' personalities. When it does not feature that, it often falls flat.), Pearls Before Swine

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: Wins a close race over Rhymes with Orange (terrible pun) and Family Circus (just plain annoying). I did not like the static nature of this strip, with three panels of almost the same art in a row. The joke doesn't seem to make sense either. While a castle certainly has a higher reward, it is also a lot more difficult to sack. I would imagine the Vikings would at least pay some attention to an easy target, in case there were some hot peasant women or cheap peasant beer around.

Runners-up: Baldo, Family Circus, Garfield, Prickly City, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange, Tank McNamara, Zits

Best:

About the only thing that can save a pun is if it is really clever and contains cultural references. Jef Mallet's two part pun in Frazz qualifies.

Runners-up: Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Candorville, Cul de Sac, Doonesbury, Foxtrot, Get Fuzzy, Opus, Pearls Before Swine, Pickles, Watch Your Head

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:I disliked this strip because of the set-up. This is not a conversation I could ever imagine myself having. First, who plays in dart tournaments? Second, why would all the other teams name themselves after musicians?

Runners-up: Family Circus, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Prickly City

Best:
Runners-up: Brevity, Candorville, Curtis, Dilbert, Frazz, Lio, Mutts, Sally Forth, Watch Your Head