Earth Day Edition (Apr. 22)

Worst:
Learning Place? Schoolhouse Earth? This could have been better if the kids were pictured near a big rock, and the caption read "This is my favorite place to learn, Schoolhouse Rock." Then it would be mildly humorous in addition to the intended goal of sickeningly sweet.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Dilbert, Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible (everyone looks horrified by the giant except Honi who looks on adoringly, there's a story here...), Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover

Best:
Lots of Earth Day cartoons, some good, some bad, some bizarre. I liked this one best, as it was fairly clever. Scott Stantis does a good job using setting in his strip.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Get Fuzzy, Zits

I knew the Far Side, and you, sir, are no Far Side (Mar. 1)

Worst: What the hell is that thing?

Runners-up: Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, Red and Rover, Speed Bump

Best:
Scott Stantis continues his bold stand, and his avoidance of bad jokes.

Runners-up: Baldo, Beetle Bailey, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Lio, Pearls Before Swine, Pooch Cafe, Rhymes with Orange, Watch Your Head

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

Comics of the Day

Worst: Scott Stantis is still fighting the battles of ten years ago. We're getting kind of tired of it.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles

Best:
Runners-up: Baby Blues, Candorville, Dilbert, Lio, Sherman's Lagoon

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: If you're going to attack a public figure, be clever about it.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Close to Home, Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Hagar the Horrible, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange, Sally Forth, Speed Bump

Best:

Is Ninja Kitten a one time joke, or will he return to entertain us again?

Runners-up: Agnes, Doonesbury, Single and Looking