What hath Johnny Hart Wrought?

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed reading comic strips. Whether it was the trio of political cartoons in Newsweek, the page of comics in the Commercial-News, or the Calvin & Hobbes collections my parents owned, I have been a fan of the funny pages.

Back when I was twelve, it was pretty easy to amuse myself, I guess. I read mediocre strips such as Hagar the Horrible and Garfield, and still found them somewhat amusing. I avoided Mary Worth like the plague, and waited in anticipation for the next Calvin and Hobbes.

However, as my tastes grew, I started to notice the amount of crap that was turned out. 90% of the stuff was just the same junk over and over. Beetle Bailey, B.C., Cathy, etc... were the same four or five lousy jokes over and over. Yes, Cathy stresses over clothes, Sarge doesn't like Beetle's laziness, Jesus will defeat all with his army of talking ants, we get it. Could you please retire like Watterson did, and let fresh strips could get a chance to shine?

But it isn't all bad. Get Fuzzy can make me laugh out loud (which is an absolute coup for a comic strip), and...well, that is about it for intentional humor. I think I laughed at a couple of Opus jokes once.

Unintentional humor, however, can be found in droves. SBIG (so bad it's good) strips such as Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, and Judge Parker have plenty of things to laugh at. Apt. 3-G might be an accurate portrayal of the life of three cute single women, if the time was 1879 and the place was Peoria. From the creepiness and lack of reality in For Better or Worse (a once great strip now wallowing in the muck), to the lameness of Spiderman (really, he is literally lame; a brick can stop him these days), there is still much fun to be gleaned from the funny pages. Even Mallard Fill...no wait, that is never funny.

With that, I implore you to check out http://www.joshreads.com. This is a wonderful site, and can give you new enjoyment from the comics section. Also, check out the classics from Larson, Watterson, Schultz, etc... and revel in what a good comic truly is. And do everything in your power to get the evil power of Cathy removed from this mortal coil. She must be stopped, for the sake of our future.