All the winters' snow we had melted. Then it snowed today. Not like in Colorado and Wyoming but enough. So winter came back for a day.
These two books are a couple of the earliest items I have from when I was a kid. They date from 1966 and 1967. They may actually be the very ones that introduced me to Peanuts. They're also from the time I first started collecting trading cards. The books came from Roband's Drugs on California and Pratt in Chicago. It's no longer there. That store also supplied most if not all of the thousands of cards I still have, many of which you've seen here.
I still love Charlie Brown and the gang but the strip that followed as a favorite was Gary Larson's The Far Side. I bought this behemoth of a set for my wife when we were dating. It weighs about 20 pounds and the books are over 14 inches tall.
Here's a small taste. Rat is one of the main characters (he'd say star). The guy on the right in the last box is Stephan. He drives the characters crazy with elaborate puns and they often threaten him both verbally and physically.
What's the first comic strip you recall liking? How about now?
Peanuts is the strip I followed the most, by far as a kid. I'd check out those compilation books from the library. My favorite period for Peanuts was the '70s strips (the local paper continues to run old Peanuts strips and has for years. They're up to 1975 now, I believe, and those strips are still funny).
ReplyDeleteI do like Pearls Before Swine.
I have the first twelve volumes of "The Complete Peanuts". It goes through 1974. It's really an amazing feat, Schulz's 50 years of strips, 7 days a week.
DeleteRat is the best. Tumbleweeds was a good strip. Andy Capp was also good.
ReplyDeleteRat is the best. "People are idiots and I hate them
DeleteI'm very much with you. I loved Peanuts as a kid--I definitely had that Hey Peanuts book, among others. Maybe the other one you show, I'm not sure. And Pearls Before Swine is very much my favorite now. (I also like the webcomic Questionable Content, but it's very different, more of an ongoing story that doesn't always have a punch line.)
ReplyDeleteI did like the Far Side but even more I liked Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes.
The only comic strips I can remember from my childhood are Peanuts, Garfield, and Family Circle. I do remember reading the Sunday comic strips... but it's been a few decades since I've read them on a regular basis. When I subscribed to the San Jose Mercury News ten to fifteen years ago, I remember reading a comic strip called Secret Asian Man. It was pretty entertaining.
ReplyDeleteThe only two that I remember reading as a kid were Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side. I don't actively read any now, but do occasionally come across one on Twitter called "Strange Planet", which isn't bad, I'd probably read it more actively if it wasn't digital only though.
ReplyDeleteLike Jon, Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side were my go-to comics. Pearls Before Swine is great, and I love how the author makes fun of himself.
ReplyDeletePeanuts, Far Side, Pearls Before Swine were all favorites. Same with Calvin and Hobbes. XKCD is a webcomic I sometimes check out, a bit of a different format though.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever look at old newspapers, it's amazing how bad the funnies were before Peanuts came along.