Herald, Foster's, Seacoast Sunday refreshing comic strip offerings beginning Oct. 2
At the turn of the last century, most cities had multiple daily newspapers vying for the attention of readers. One way to distinguish themselves from the competition was to offer comic strips, first in black and white and later in color to show off the capabilities of their new printing presses.
In the ensuing 100-plus years, newspaper readers have developed passionate attachments to certain comics. Often a comic strip evokes strong memories of time spent with a parent, grandparent, brother or sister. I expect most homes, like ours, have a few comic strips cut out and tacked up because their humorous take on a familiar topic struck a chord.
Longtime editors know readers care deeply about the comics because over the years, the smallest changes to daily and Sunday comics have elicited heart-felt responses from subscribers. So, through the years, we have been slow to make changes to this section, even after some strips have gone stale, often following the death or departure of their original creators.
After surveying readers across the nation, the USA TODAY Network of publications has refreshed its comic offerings and those new funny pages will roll out in the daily Portsmouth Herald and Foster’s Daily Democrat on Oct. 2 and in Seacoast Sunday on Oct. 8.
The new daily and Sunday comics will feature many old favorites, including Blondie, Zits, Beetle Baily, Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Dennis the Menace, Garfield and Peanuts.
Offerings new to these pages but likely familiar to readers will be Pearls Before Swine, Baby Blues, Dennis the Menace, For Better or Worse, Jump Start, Ziggy, Marmaduke, Non-Sequitur, Born Loser, Foxtrot and Frank & Ernest.
Seacoast Sunday will also offer some fresh new comic strips, including Crankshaft, Luann and Baldo.
With the changes, of course, not every comic remains on our pages. While we know readers may miss some of them, we hope you will enjoy the wide variety of comics we are offering.
In the days ahead of the rollout we’ll bring you interviews with some of the famous artists who create these comics, including Jeff Keane, author of Family Circus, Jim Borgman author of Zits, Brian Crane, author of Pickles and Dean Young, author of Blondie.
All these comics will appear in print and online in the eNewspaper. If you still want more comics after that, you’ll find them at www.seacoastonline.com/comics and www.fosters.com/comics.
We hope you enjoy the new funny pages and invite you to send feedback to news@seacoastonline.com.
Howard Altschiller is the executive editor of Seacoast Media Group. He can be reached at haltschiller@seacoastonline.com
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Herald, Foster's refreshing daily and Sunday comic strips on Oct. 2
