Editor’s Dispatch: Merry Christmas and “Baby Boobs”
You may have already seen this – it’s the BABY BLUES Sunday from Dec. 18th.
Two reasons to run this comic in my Editor’s Dispatch today. First, it’s got all kinds of cute holiday season imagery in it, and I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas – I hope those of you who celebrate had a wonderful day yesterday. Second, yes, we used the word “boobs” in a Sunday comic strip. Or Jerry and Rick used the word “boobs” in a Sunday comic strip – we (as in King Features) didn’t present a roadblock to their use of the word.
And we didn’t hear any alarm bells after it ran either. Well, there were a couple of objections, but nothing that we couldn’t tastefully respond to, and nothing that jeopardized BABY BLUES’s standing in any newspaper.
BABY BLUES is obviously very popular, and for a newspaper to drop it would probably send shockwaves through that newspaper’s editor’s desk with calls and letters from displeased readers. So, yeah, maybe a comic like this can get away with pushing the boundaries a little more than something with less clout. But it’s still encouraging to me. We addressed much of this in that discussion I had with Jerry Scott a couple months back, but I still find it a little insane that we have to see something as innocuous as using the word “boobs” as a small victory. Ah, the comics pages…
See you all next year!