April 24th, 2020

Timeline – 2007 Part 4

by Brian

An editor once described the relationship between comics and newspapers as similar to a barnacle on a ship.  In truth, the funnies are the most often-read part of the paper.  

Today, many newspapers are struggling to survive.  Most of the editorial cartoonists have lost their jobs.  Syndicated comic strip artists depend on newspapers for their livlihood.

Occasionally, we acknowlege our debt to newspapers, as in the Sunday page above.

In 1999, we did a Hi and Lois strip in which Hi explains to Chip the value of a printed paper.

King Features thought their clients might appreciate this commentary.  They made large color prints of the Sunday page and sent them to all of our subscribing newspapers.

I still feel there is something pleasing and permanent about the clean, black-and-white lines and bold, primary colors of a comic strip when it is printed on paper. I guess I’m just old-fashioned like Hi.

– Brian Walker