Mount Rushmore: Comic strips

[cartman]

A lot of the Mount Rushmores lately have been music related. Time to mix things up.

You know the rules, your top 4 choices to be on the Mount Rushmore of comic strips. Here's mine, in no particular order:

Peanuts
Probably the most successful cartoon strip of all-time. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang appeared in newspapers for nearly 50 years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/Peanuts_gang.png

Calvin and Hobbes
Probably my all-time favorite comic strip. I identified very strongly with Calvin, and my parents said I did a lot of the stuff that Calvin did when I was growing up. I think a lot of people had the same experience, and that was what made the strip as popular as it was.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Calvin_and_Hobbes_Original.png

Far Side
Was different in that it wasn't a strip, but nearly always a single panel comic. But oh what Gary Larson could pack into that limited space.

http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/attachments/east-asia-pacific/15120d1246591981-stupid-prc-pla-google-page-ranking-far-side-bear-target.jpg

Bloom County
This comic was my bridge from the Peantus/Family Circus style of strips to the more serious and topical comics. But it still was really, really funny. Bill the Cat remains one of my all-time favorite characters from any medium.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Loosetails_cover.jpg

[Blackadar]

There's Calvin & Hobbes and everything else, but if I had to pick 4, I'll go with your four cartman.

[Abe Sargent]

Do online comics count?

[albionmoonlight]

Good one. And good list. My four:

Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side
Garfield

I am not, personally, a fan of Garfield. And I loved/love Bloom County. But I think that Garfield's ubiquity and longevity get him on the mountain.

[Grover]

Good one. And good list. My four:

Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side
Garfield

I am not, personally, a fan of Garfield. And I loved/love Bloom County. But I think that Garfield's ubiquity and longevity get him on the mountain.

Garfield Minus Garfield is so much better than Garfield.

But I think this is probably the Mount Rushmore of Comics right here.

No love for the Family Circus though? C'mon people...

[BYU 14]

Far side - Creative as hell, packed so much into a single pane

Peanuts - The Godfather of comics, 'nuff said.

BC - One my favs as a kid, simple but funny.

Andy Capp - A little off the radar for most, but have to pay homage to my British roots. Andy was the man!

[gstelmack]

Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side
Bloom County
Order of the Stick

[britrock88]

I can only think of a few to even challenge the C&H/Far Side/Peanuts/Garfield set... Dilbert, Doonesbury, Blondie, Shoe, maybe a classic like Li'l Abner. That said, I would stick with those four. Just dominant in public perception and insight.

[DougW]

Far side
Peanuts
Family circus
The military one, i forget the name of it.

[Carman Bulldog]

Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side are both in mine for sure.

If we are talking personal favorites though, I definitely have to include FoxTrot in there and am surprised it has gotten no love here. It's the only one that can compete with those other two for me.

The last spot is also a toss-up and would be a distant fourth to those other three on my favorite list. The aforementioned Peanuts, Garfield, B.C. and Family Circus would all be in the running and it's probably a coin flip.

[CrimsonFox]

I do like BC and Wizard of Id.

Indisputably

Bloom County
Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side

I would not say Peanuts. The early years were briliant but the later years were utterly cutesy and terrible to the tune of Family Circus like terrible.

B.C. is a really good one.

Buit I think my #4, especially from the 60s-80s is Doonesbury.

[CrimsonFox]

I can only think of a few to even challenge the C&H/Far Side/Peanuts/Garfield set... Dilbert, Doonesbury, Blondie, Shoe, maybe a classic like Li'l Abner. That said, I would stick with those four. Just dominant in public perception and insight.


If we're talking classic classic, then Pogo is the best of the old timers.

[CrimsonFox]

Only way to read Family Circus:

The Nietzsche Family Circus (http://www.nietzschefamilycircus.com/)

Surpised you mentioned Garfield minus Garfield and not this :)

[Buccaneer]

Comic strips have been my one constant since 1965. And the only thing I read in our physical paper apart from puzzles.

I'm not sure how to compare old ones to current ones so I'll make two lists

Far side
Bloom county original
Calvin Hobbes


Current

Frazz
Pearls before swine
Zits
Luann

[CrimsonFox]

Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side are both in mine for sure.

If we are talking personal favorites though, I definitely have to include FoxTrot in there and am surprised it has gotten no love here. It's the only one that can compete with those other two for me.

The last spot is also a toss-up and would be a distant fourth to those other three on my favorite list. The aforementioned Peanuts, Garfield, B.C. and Family Circus would all be in the running and it's probably a coin flip.


Foxtrot is good yeah :) Good pick.

Um...a foursided coin? :)

[CrimsonFox]

Hmmmmm is the mount rushmore supposed to acknowledge most popular/famous? or best?

There is a distinct difference in that.

Sure Garfield was a cultural phenomenon but I don't know anyone that really likes it. Double for Family Circus.

[DanGarion]

Cheetahs in Las Vegas
DeJaVu in Orange County...

Oh wait this said comic strips... sorry.

[Radii]

There's Calvin & Hobbes and everything else, but if I had to pick 4, I'll go with your four cartman.

Yup, I think Cartman has this nailed down.

Calvin & Hobbes
Peanuts
Bloom County
Far Side

[Izulde]

Calvin & Hobbes
Peanuts
Far Side

are the three that definitely belong on there, just in terms of their cultural impact and significance.

It's the fourth spot where there's room for argument and I'm just going to go with a personal favorite in Zits (probably one of the few things that Bucc and I see eye to eye on, maybe the only one.)

[Buccaneer]

Izulde, I think there was one other thing too but I forgot what it was. ;) good choice on zits.

[britrock88]

Now that they've been brought up, FoxTrot and BC are worth a shout. I know my dad loved Pogo among the strips of a generation ago.

Close to Home just came to mind, as the more inane version of the Far Side.

I also just remembered Non Sequitur. It's sometimes brilliant, usually when it's a standalone strip as opposed to part of a serial.

[Buccaneer]

Brittock, I agree about close to home and nonsequitur. I like the latter's satire but not the psycho Danae.

Speaking of Calvin Hobbes, I wonder if the talk about Frazz being the grown up Calvin has completely died away.

[PurdueBrad]

Like most, the big three:

Far Side
Calvin and Hobbes
Peanuts
Get Fuzzy

Get Fuzzy isn't the most consistent but there is some brilliance the springs up there.

[Bobble]

How has no one mentioned Dilbert yet?

[Glengoyne]

How has no one mentioned Dilbert yet?

There you go.

I was about to.

I can't arrive at a fourth yet, but I'll get there.

Calvin and Hobbes
The Farside
Dilbert

[QuikSand]

Peanuts
Doonesbury
Calvin & Hobbes
Far Side


Doonesbury was not only brilliant and important for a long time, it also represents a pretty meaningful sub-genre of the medium, the issue-based and/or political segment of comic strips. I think it belongs.

[Bad-example]

Peanuts
Doonesbury
Calvin & Hobbes
Far Side


Doonesbury was not only brilliant and important for a long time, it also represents a pretty meaningful sub-genre of the medium, the issue-based and/or political segment of comic strips. I think it belongs.

+1

[Kodos]

I'm still waiting for a 4th to go along with:

Calvin & Hobbes
The Far Side
Bloom County


Dilbert is probably the closest of the rest, but I can't put it alongside any of the top three.

Heathcliffe?

[QuikSand]

Heathcliffe?

Under no circumstances.

[Kodos]

Okay, then. Family Circus it is!

[Kodos]

Marmaduke?

[Buccaneer]

Marmaduke?

Marmaduke rocks. Anything with cats as the lead really sucks.

[QuikSand]

Its heyday was obviously out of our timeline, but Gasoline Alley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_Alley) has a pretty legitimate claim here as well.

[Maple Leafs]

In what may be a first, I think the original post nails it.

The only one I'm shaky on is Far Side. I might swap in Doonesbury, but it's a hard call.

[britrock88]

How has no one mentioned Dilbert yet?

I referred to it in #8...

Marmaduke?

If we've mentioned Garfield Minus Garfield and Nietzsche Family Circus, I should mention Marmaduke Explained. It's wonderful.

[Kodos]

I was joking about Heathcliffe, Family Circus, Marmaduke. Although I did enjoy Heathcliffe as a child.

For me, it's the Big 3, and then a biggggggggggggggggggg dropoff.

[Jacob Typer]

No XKCD?

[Fidatelo]

Calvin and Hobbes is a mortal lock.

I've never really been a Peanuts fan, but you can't leave it off, it's just too iconic.

I think I'd put Dilbert in the 3-spot. That strip is always solid and has almost come to define office culture over the last 15 years.

Then I'd stick in Far Side. Even though there are a tonne of "huh?" strips that we all like to forget about (or pretend we understand), the sheer brilliance of so many of them, told in one single panel, makes it a stand-out over things like Bloom County or Doonesbury in my eyes.

[britrock88]

No XKCD?

We're stuck in the print medium. Webcomics probably deserve their own Mount.

[Scarecrow]

I think Kodos hit mine at post 28:

Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side
Bloom County
Dilbert

[CrimsonFox]

Webcomics:
Order of the Stick
XKCD
Garfield Minus Garfield

Not sure of the 4th...

[Surtt]

Webcomics:
Order of the Stick
XKCD
Garfield Minus Garfield

Not sure of the 4th...

Penny Arcade?

[Bobble]

Calvin and Hobbes is a mortal lock.

I've never really been a Peanuts fan, but you can't leave it off, it's just too iconic.

I think I'd put Dilbert in the 3-spot. That strip is always solid and has almost come to define office culture over the last 15 years.

Then I'd stick in Far Side. Even though there are a tonne of "huh?" strips that we all like to forget about (or pretend we understand), the sheer brilliance of so many of them, told in one single panel, makes it a stand-out over things like Bloom County or Doonesbury in my eyes.

This.

If it's Mount Rushmore +1, then I go with Bloom County. Ack!

[Buccaneer]

I'm not sure how to compare old ones to current ones so I'll make two lists

Far side
Bloom county original
Calvin Hobbes


Since I didn't list a fourth to my classics list, I would choose Dilbert even though it is a current one. On my office wall, I have a number of Dilbert strips all making fun of stupid management things (like 'who moved my cheese'). Management does not appreciate them but I've always been rather independent and they ignore them.

[stevew]

Heathcliffe?

No one should.

[CrimsonFox]

No one should.

Terrorize the neighborhood.

[CrimsonFox]

enjoy:

Calvin & Hobbes Search Engine - by Bing (http://michaelyingling.com/random/calvin_and_hobbes/)

[Abe Sargent]

Webcomics:
Order of the Stick
XKCD
Garfield Minus Garfield

Not sure of the 4th...

I don't consider G-G technically a webcomic, since it's not original and not originally in the web format. I'd put Penny Arcade and Questionable Content in there, with OOTS and XKCD

[CrimsonFox]

I don't consider G-G technically a webcomic, since it's not original and not originally in the web format. I'd put Penny Arcade and Questionable Content in there, with OOTS and XKCD


Yeah I don't disagree with that but just the new perspective it puts on it makes it kinda new. It tickles me pink. Anyway I'm not an expert. Don't know a lot about webcomics.

I've heard pvp and penny arcade being liked but they didn't really seem that funny to me. Granted I haven't seen a whole lot of them.

[CrimsonFox]

ha!

G-G

use math wherever you can :)

[Abe Sargent]

ha!

G-G

use math wherever you can :)

Then check out QC, it's very easy to read, and like many webcomics, the author quickly gets into his stride and then just starts nailing them.

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, and honorable mention webcomics would be Goblins and Shlock Mercenary Scholkci is my personal fav, because it was written once a day for years and years, and you can literally read the whole space epic over the course of years and years and it would tsake you days of free reading to do so. I think Goblins starts out one way and had really pulled into a new epic direction, but the author spends too much time on fights. Some fighters take months to finish -

Some of my friends write webcomics, including a guy I was best man for, so I really know the genre and read a lot of comics daily.

[britrock88]

For people who enjoy history, Hark! A Vagrant is a great webcomic.

[Izulde]

Questionable Content is one of my favorite webcomics of all time. There's others I like as well, but QC is one of the most memorable.

[Mustang]

Can't disagree with Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side and Peanuts.

[Maple Leafs]

I'd put Penny Arcade and Questionable Content in there, with OOTS and XKCD
Perry Bible Fellowship and (obviously) xkcd would need to be on any webcomics list.

[Karlifornia]

Cathy
The Lockhorns
Bazooka Joe
Cathy in Spanish

[Crapshoot]

Peanuts
Doonesbury
Calvin & Hobbes
Far Side


Doonesbury was not only brilliant and important for a long time, it also represents a pretty meaningful sub-genre of the medium, the issue-based and/or political segment of comic strips. I think it belongs.

Pretty much this. Though its early, and I'm not sure whether it fits yet, but XKCD and SMBC are both brilliant in the web comics domain.

[CrimsonFox]

Cathy
The Lockhorns
Bazooka Joe
Cathy in Spanish


awesome :)