TERRE HAUTE —
The sound of my teenage daughter laughing at the newspaper comics inspires me.
Value endures in the daily artwork on paper. The sounds of pages turning, a coffee cup meeting a wooden tabletop and chuckles have not disappeared. My daughter is among those keeping that resource alive, every morning. It’s one of life’s simple joys, and it remains right there in front us, in black and white (and color on Sundays) — if we just pick it up and look at it.
Think of it: Nearly two dozen cartoonists offer to put a smile on our faces every morning, with a few sentences and wacky drawings.
It’s worth the handful of minutes it takes to read them. Anybody with a job can relate to “Dilbert” or “The Born Loser.” Any parent can connect with “Hi and Lois,” “Family Circus,” “Baby Blues,” “Dennis the Menace” or “Zits.” Married folks grin at “For Better or For Worse,” “Blondie” or “The Lockhorns.” Others remind us of the world’s absurdities, especially “Non Sequitur” and “Garfield.” They get clipped and stuck on computer terminals, office doors and refrigerators.
For me, “The Far Side” fit my sense of humor like a scuba suit. That Gary Larson gem ran in more than 1,900 daily newspapers from 1980 to 1995. It made me laugh almost every single time. In one classic entry, a line of people are greeted by an angel who says, “Welcome to heaven … here’s your harp,” while in the cartoon’s bottom panel another line of people are greeted by a devil who says, “Welcome to hell … here’s your accordion.”
I felt sad when Larson announced the comic strip would end on New Year’s Day 1995. Comics build such attachment.
“People are passionate about them,” said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center.
Understanding that bond was a prerequisite for Jurkowitz when he became ombudsman at the Boston Globe in 1995. “My predecessor told me, the thing that will generate the most outrage, the most complaints to the office, the most backlash, is any change in the comics page,” Jurkowitz said.
In the rocky, survival-of-the-fittest, 21st-century, lean economic era, some cost-cutting newspapers have tested readers’ affection for cartoons. The Newark Star-Ledger drew more than 1,200 reader complaints in 2010 when it downsized its comics section.
The Tribune-Star publishes 18 cartoons in its daily sections and 23 on Sundays, and that lineup has remained steady for more than a decade, Editor Max Jones said.
The “funny pages” began in the 19th century, and flourished in the 20th, before experiencing the struggles of the 21st. The ups and downs of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy turned “Peanuts” into a pop culture phenomenon. Charles Schulz created more than 18,000 of those strips for more than a half-century. They appeared in more than 2,200 newspapers in dozens of countries and languages. Since Schulz’s death in 2000, “Peanuts” reruns have graced the funny sections of hundreds of papers, including the Tribune-Star.
Its lingering appeal is a testament to the staying power of comics.
Schulz did not want another cartoonist drawing “Peanuts” after his passing, but several long-running comics are now the work of the creators’ sons or daughters, or teams of artists. “Hi and Lois,” created by Mort Walker and Dik Browne in 1954, is produced today by sons Brian and Greg Walker, and Robert “Chance” Browne. Mort Walker, 88, still draws his “Beetle Bailey,” just as he has since 1950.
“I’m stunned as to how many ageless strips are still there,” Jurkowitz said Thursday by phone from the Pew offices in Washington, D.C.
On the flipside, comic strip historian Allan Holtz said newspapers need edgier cartoon offerings — beyond reruns and non-controversial characters — to satisfy a demographic that relies on online news sources instead of print products.
“If newspaper editors would welcome comic strips with a snarky viewpoint, an off-center attitude, or a willingness to attack controversial subjects, they might just win back some of their younger readers, who have forsaken the daily paper in favor of Google News,” Holtz told the Tribune-Star. “Those readers need irresistible reasons for including print media in their daily time budget.”
Whatever the topic, the key to comic strip longevity is humor.
“It’s hard not to like cartoons, if they’re funny,” said Polly Keener, chairman of the Great Lakes Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.
Keener is both a practitioner and teacher of the craft. Her cartoon strip “Hamster Alley” and puzzle “Mystery Mosaic” are nationally syndicated to nearly 450 newspapers. She’s also taught cartooning at the University of Akron, the city where she lives. Her 1992 book “Cartooning,” with a forward by Hoosier “Garfield” artist Jim Davis, remains well-known in the field.
With that vast background, Keener sees fellow cartoonists working hard to adapt their once-stable print strips to fit varying newspaper space demands and new, less financially certain online formats. “Most of us still, at heart, would like to see our work in print,” she said.
Many cartoonists use computers to color part or all of their creations. Keener does hers in black-and-white. “So I’m really old-fashioned,” she said, chuckling. “I even draw in ink.”
Such fresh pieces of art, on their own newsprint canvas, with original storylines, arriving at our homes, day after day, represent a precious commodity. If those comics fade or vanish, people would say goodbye to a piece of their culture. “They would lose America’s most popular art form,” Keener said.
The Great Lakes Chapter of the NCS includes 40 cartoonists, while the national society roster totals more than 600, Keener said. “All of my friends love their jobs and are going to keep on drawing their strips even if nobody buys them,” she said, “but we hope they do.”
Their appeal is their biggest advantage in the face of economic adversity — a slice of everyday life, with irreverent commentaries on coffeeshop topics that might not make the cable news channels. “So I think you would miss that” if daily newspaper comics ended, Keener said.
The drawing will never stop, though.
“It’s sort of like being on the ground with the people of the times,” Keener said, “and you may not get that elsewhere. What you may get is graffiti. You may get more people drawing on the wall, if you take away newspapers.”
Imagine trying to clip a chunk of drywall to a fridge.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Opinion
Related Photos
-
Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett
Discussion
Mark Bennett: Funny Pages
Humor is the key to comic strip longevity
- Opinion
-
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.
-
EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute
-
RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.
-
EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
-
Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’
-
Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.
-
RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
-
READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws
Community hasn’t changed its spirit
Egregious threat to nation’s defense
-
READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon
• Let’s hope this doesn’t come true
• Many get thanks for fest success
-
MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.) -
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
-
GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support
Media ignoring important case on abortions
Proud to be old-fashioned
Guns in school? What’s next?
Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act
-
FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.
-
Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.
-
Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.
-
EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
-
Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
-
EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.
-
FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.
-
READERS’ FORUM: May 6, 2013
• Money drives our newfound ‘needs’
• Guns not the only dangerous objects
-
MARK BENNETT: Should I stay or should I go?
Some have their Bill Clinton-era Cavalier packed (with the trunk bungee-ed shut), apartment cleaned (except for the fridge), and iPhone GPS locked onto the fastest route out of Terre Haute. Others are staying — until they find a better job, or because they’re starting a career here, or because this town feels like home. In each case, a new stage of life begins today.
-
EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
-
College Class of '13 gets a little extra advice
Local college grads will hear commencement speakers offer life and career advice this month. We’re offering them an extra dose here from folks who’ve found success in various vocations and regions of the nation. Many have Terre Haute roots.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash
Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Germany Protestors Picket Barbie House
China, Others Want What's Under the Arctic Ice
Raw: Suicide Bomber Kills 2 Americans, 13 Others
Raw: 6 Die in Russian Ship Fire
Raw: Gun Scare Mars Cannes Film Festival
One Million Evacuated As Cyclone Hits Bangladesh
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Texas Gov. Flies Over Tornado Damage
Raw: Pope Frees Doves From Cage
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Twiggy, the Water Skiing Squirrel
Sailor Surprises His Mom At Her CU Denver Graduation Ceremony
Official: ‘Amazing’ No One Was Killed In CT Train Crash
Coffee Stop Leads To Arrest Of YouTube Sensation Wanted For Murder
Bearded Dragon Reunited With Owner
Marine Reunited with Warzone Companion
Beyonce Is Pregnant!
SF baseball player overpaid $500,000 RETURNS money -- and team says KEEP IT
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
Dad returns from Afghanistan, surprises family during Rays' first pitch
See Jennifer Lopez's New $10m Hamptons Mansion
Woman tricked into taking abortion pill
Emma Watson Goes Pantless
IRS scandal: Republicans seek to tie Obama to agency's woes
Play of the Day: Flipping to Safety
Pregnant Kim Kardashian Squeezes Her Swollen Feet Into Stilettos
Top Videos of the Week: Angry Taco Bell Guy, Glacier Moves on House, Dog Hates Baths
Cindy Crawford Stuns At Cannes
