10 comics your newspaper should carry (part 1)

I'll admit it, I still like comic strips. Unfortunately, a lot of newspapers (not that I'm singling out the KW Record or anyone else) like to run comics such as Blondie or Hi and Lois, despite the fact that they're not particularly funny - the only reason I've managed to come up with is "our readers liked them as kids". In the meantime, there are some great comic strips out there struggling to break into any newspapers. So, for your amusement, I present to you...ten comics your newspaper SHOULD carry!

Two ground rules - if I have EVER seen the comic in ANY newspaper, it doesn't qualify. Secondly, it must be a newspaper-style strip - not a webcomic. Of course, there's one exception to each rule, but I'll get them out of the way early on.

10) Pooch Cafe

Based solely on humour, Pooch Cafe would be much higher on this list. But because it's in many newspapers, I had to settle for having it at #10. Most comic strips build towards one punchline, which is contained at the end of the strip. Pooch Cafe's punchlines aren't much better than average, but what sets them apart is that there's usually multiple jokes in the same strip. The above strip isn't a great example of what I'm talking about, but it still works to an extent - most other comics, either the punchline or the final visual gag would stand by itself.

9) Snake 'n' Bacon

This one needs a bit of explaining - Snake 'N' Bacon were movie stars back in the early days of talking pictures. Now they host a radio show. The snake never says anything other than a hiss, and the bacon never says anything other than facts about bacon (i.e. 'Pat me down with a paper towel to remove excess grease'). Oh, and they apparently fight crime for some reason. I've only ever seen two strips from the series, and it was never really intended to be a 'real' comic strip, so it also gets jumbled at the bottom of the list, despite some awesome surrealist humour.

8) Candorville

Left-wing political cartoons are a dime a dozen these days, and there's nothing special that makes Candorville particularly stand out from the crowd. However, the fact that I happen to agree with pretty much everything I read in it means that I obviously like it, so it makes the top ten. You'll be glad to know that it's the only political cartoon you'll see here in a 'serious' light...

7) The Elderberries

Where are most successful comic strips? In the newspaper! Who still reads newspapers? People with lots of time on their hands! Who has lots of time on their hands? The retired! Where do retired people congregate? Retirement homes! I can only assume that was the thinking behind the creation of this strip...as otherwise, most of the humour could fit a workplace, school, bus, or anywhere else you'd get a random cluster of people interacting with each other The jokes aren't side-splittingly funny, but they're easily on par with your average strip.

6) Ink Pen

Ink Pen is another comic which requires me to explain its premise - the characters all work for an 'agency for out-of-work cartoon characters'. As such, you have a nice hodgepodge of superheroes, talking animals, regular people, and Norse gods. Again, there's nothing groundbreaking, but the jokes and art are both solid.

Coming up tomorrow (hopefully), part two of this list - the five comics your newspaper REALLY should carry!

--Ryan