Well, some still are but I notice that most tell a running story and are more philosophical rather than side-slapping ‘funny’.  I must tell you that I don’t think the funny pages in the New York Times magazine are funny or comprehensible.  To think of this weekly magazine in the New York Times having “funny pages” is hilarious but the humor escapes me.  That they are hand drawn does not make them “comics” or “funny pages”.  I simply do not get them or their purpose except to make me feel old and out of it.

The same could be said about the new strips that appear in the daily local paper.  There are some incomprehensible animals that appear to have human problems but these involve cannibalism or just the appropriate animal need to eat other animals.  But, they TALK and what they talk about is a mixture of animal and human problems mainly about attacking each other rather than living together and solving problems.  But, this probably is a sign of age on my part.

For years I have deplored the fat cat and his clueless owner.  You know who I mean.  There is also a non-talking dog who appears to be the butt of most of the jokes after attribution of human characteristics to “Garfield”.  What is sad is that most of the new strips are created by a generation that did not seem to note the slide into World War Three that was remarked upon by President Bush.  No matter how many “comics” either in drawings or as stand-up comedians point out the problems with this administration, Dagwood still is battling with Mr. Dithers.  That, I get.  But, have you noticed that some of the older institutionalized comic strips like Peanuts are being rerun?  At least Dagwood, who has never grown old, was picked up by a new artist and his dysfunctional life goes on.

We know why Al Capp was fired for extra-artistic behavior – so we lost Lil Abner and the whole crew of Dog patch.  Most will not remember Abby and Slats who were denizens of a garbage dump in the middle of the Depression.  We make jokes about a colossal failure of the Capitalist system and find humor in soldiers going to war (we still have Sad Sack by George Baker but “Beetle Bailey” is never in battle except with his sergeant at Camp Swampy). Times change and tastes change but our need for humor continues.  There is a lot of sick stuff out there and some of the new “comics” are not funny but frightening.

Does anyone remember the Little King; the Yellow Kid; the Katzenjammer Kids; Dick Tracy, Mutt and Jeff and a whole host of entertainment that held our interest until the next day when the papers would bring them back to us along with the news of the day?  I think we lost a lot when they stopped being printed and what has replaced them is not funny anymore.