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The Perils of Never Changing
An imaginary reworking of the Sunday Comics Page
I love comic strips, and as a kid, I eagerly looked forward to Sunday’s paper with Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, The Farside, and all the other comics.
Like many people, I no longer have a newspaper subscription. However, I still love comics, and most of my current favorite strips are web comics.
Last Thanksgiving, my relatives had several newspapers spread out on the table as they scoured for Black Friday deals. I snuck the comics sections. All of my old favorites were there. But there were no new comics.
I realize the death of the newspaper industry is due to complex causes and forces. But I can’t help but think that with all the talented comic artists and delightful strips in the world, the fact that newspapers are still running reruns of strips from over thirty years ago shows a resistance to embracing the new and is a significant factor in the downfall of all print media.
If I were given unfettered control of the Sunday comics pages, I would publish a mix of humorous strips, poetry comics (shocking, I know), illustrated journalism, and graphic essays.
I don’t believe that people suddenly dislike the mix of words and pictures that have been a mainstay of society’s media diet for…
