Meet the comics: The old favorites, new funnies that you'll find in The Oak Ridger
Here's a look at the comic strips readers will find in The Oak Ridger, beginning Oct. 2. The comic strips will be in the print edition and the e-edition. These strips and more "funnies" can be found each day at oakridger.com/comics.
Blondie, Zits, Beetle Bailey, Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, and Dennis the Menace
“Blondie” has been a family comic strip for 90 years, but it didn’t start out that way. Created in 1930 by cartoonist Chic Young, the strip started with Blondie Boopadoop, a gold-digging blond chasing a billionaire’s son, Dagwood Bumstead. After a couple of years, Young turned Blondie and Dagwood into a young married couple, and the strip became a sensation. Eighty years later, she still keeps the house running (and her own catering business) while he still knocks over the mailman hurtling out the door to work. Dagwood became better known for his gift for constructing giant sandwiches — he's even an entry in Merriam-Webster (“noun, often capitalized, for many-layered sandwich”). Young died in 1973; his son Dean, who began helping his father on “Blondie” in 1963, still writes the strip. Veteran cartoonist John Marshall, who began assisting on the strip in 2002, became head artist in 2005.
“Zits” is a family comic strip that gives equal time to the teenagers and parents in it. The strip follows Jeremy, an ever-eating, ever-complaining, ever-confused high school student whose form of rebellion is usually a well-calculated (and dramatic) shrug. His desperate-to-be-relevant parents try to relate, but their attempts to decode the behavior of Jeremy and his quirky friends are often frustrated sociology experiments. Created in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman and Reuben Award-winning cartoonist and writer Jerry Scott, the strip threads the needle between “my parents just don’t get it” and “how the heck do we relate to these kids today?” better than just about any comic in circulation.
"Beetle Bailey" follows the adventures of the person who could be America’s longest-serving soldier. But he didn’t start that way. Cartoonist Mort Walker launched “Beetle Bailey” in 1950 as a campus strip, following the travails of a slacker student. A year later, Beetle “enlisted” and began his seemingly endless service in the U.S. Army, nearly all of it spent at Camp Swampy, a not-always-so-G.I. military base led by General Halftrack and his barking, food-obsessed sidekick Sgt. Snorkel. The cast of supporting characters has changed over the years, from Lieutenant Flap to Miss Buxley. Walker, whose extensive comic-strip portfolio also included the popular family strip “Hi and Lois” (created with “Hagar the Horrible’s” Dik Browne) died in 2018, but he still gets shared credit on the strip with his son Greg. Jerry Dumas and Mort’s sons Brian and Neal also help with production of the current strip.
"Family Circus," the single-panel family comic strip created by Bil Keane couldn’t be simpler: The parents are Mommy and Daddy, and the kids — Billy, Jeffy, Dolly and baby PJ — never get older. And for more than 60 years, the strip’s out-of-the-mouths-of-babes humor and warmth has been a mainstay of nearly 1,500 newspapers — reportedly, the most syndicated comic strip in the world. By the time Keane died in 2011 at age 89, his son Jeff (yes, the inspiration for Jeffy) had been working with his father on the strip for 30 years, and he continues to guide the strip. “Family Circus” is so entrenched in the culture that it has spawned more than a dozen tributes and spoofs — among them, “Nietzsche Family Circus,” which combines randomized panels from the comic strip with quotes from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Hagar the Horrible” is a Viking, but he’s only been around for half a century. When it was launched by cartoonist Dik Browne in 1973, “Hagar the Horrible” became the fastest growing comic strip ever, according to syndicator King Features. “Hagar” is part old-school family strip, part workplace comedy — although Hagar’s workplace involves besieging castles and looting kingdoms. At home, Hagar has to contend with his formidable wife Helga, his still-unmarried (at 16! — it is the Dark Ages, after all) daughter Honi and his definitely-not-a-fighter son Hamlet. Browne, who also co-created “Hi and Lois” with Mort Walker, retired in 1988. His son, Chris Browne, had contributed gags to the script since “Hagar” began, took over writing and drawing the strip, and continues to this day.
"Dennis the Menace," aka Dennis Mitchell, is equal parts Beaver Cleaver and Eddie Haskell. The freckled 5½-year-old is always getting in trouble, saying the wrong thing and showing how much energy a child has (spoiler: it’s a lot). His well-meaning parents see (mostly) his good side; his grouchy neighbor, Mr. Wilson, not so much. Launched by Hank Ketcham in 1950, “Dennis the Menace” spawned a TV sitcom that ran for four seasons (1959-’63), a 1993 family movie written by John Hughes, an animated series and even a playground in Monterey, California. Although he died in 2001, Ketcham’s name is still on the strip; cartoonists Marcus Hamilton, Ron Ferdinand and Scott Ketcham, Hank’s son, continue his work.
Donna Smith in Oak Ridge, Christopher Foran in Milwaukee, David Osborn in Naples, Florida, JaNae Williams in Oklahoma City, Katie Landeck in Providence, Rhode Island, Paris Barraza in Des Moines, and Eric Larsen in Fort Collins, Colorado, contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Meet the comics: The old favorites, new funnies that you'll find
