The Funniest of the Funnies

Leading off with the greatest and most sharply satirical of 'em all - Garry (Don't look at me; he's the one who can't spell it) Trudeau's Doonesbury.

The First Strip -  B.D. Meets Mike October 26, 1970

Where Richard Nixon was concerned, Mark Slackmeyer never stood for journalistic fair play.  - May 29, 1973

Trudeau always carried a deft needle to puncture Trump. 

This is from 1987.

And 1999.

One of the only strips in which the characters aged in real time, this is 40 years further on down the road, May, 2013

Al Capp's L'il Abner - Sadie Hawkins Day

Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick ain't no Dick Tracy

And, of course, Charles Shultz whose Peanuts were filled with compassion. Here he relates the sad tale of Willie McCovey and the 1962 San Francisco Giants as told by Charlie Brown in 2 parts.

The invention of the asphalt roller paved the way for highways. Now if they would only invent the gasoline engine.

Beginning in the early 1930s, the trailblazing Dick Tracy was the first and only detective slick enough to have a device, in his case a wristwatch, that actually connected to the internet. It took the rest of the planet 60 years to catch up to the square jawed Dick. And his Crimestoppers textbook foiled many an evil minded villain intent on larceny. Guard your social security number!

The forerunner to comic strips peopled by animals observing the foibles of humans, Walt Kelley's Pogo was not only funny, but it actually mattered. 

Continuing along with the funniest of the Funnies, a look back at Berke Breathed's Bloom County.  

Running from 1980 through 1989, Breathed was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987.  Milo, Binkley, Steve Dallas, Cutter John, Bill the Cat and, of course, Opus the Penguin combined the best elements of Doonesbury and Pogo in a gentle, satirical and utterly charming world of silliness.

   

Forty Years Later - May 18, 2013