You think that's funny?

Yesterday, both the San Diego Union-Tribune and the North County Times left newspapers in our driveway. Was it National Newspapers' Drum Up Business Day?

You might recall that we are getting our news electronically through a subscription to the New York Times Reader. The news is always delivered by the time we wake up. It's never wet from being dropped in the lake at the end of the driveway. It doesn't have comics.

Wait, the lack of comics is kind of a drawback.

There are a couple of the syndicators of the comics that have free access to their strips on the web. I wonder how long it will be till they make us pay for their products. I'll pay when that day comes. I suppose I could pay now for the ability to see their entire archives of the comics but I don't.

So I read the comics on the web.

The Union-Tribune's lineup of comics is the same as when we quit taking the paper. I looked over their comics to see if I had forgotten any important ones. I don't think I had. There might be one.

These free papers have given me the opportunity to examine my comics reading habits.

The Union-Tribune has two full pages of comics. They say that the comics in each of the four columns kind of have some commonality. Two of the columns have titles.

Here's what I think of their comics.

The first column of comics is titled "OFF THE WALL."

• Doonesbury — This strip is one in my browser's bookmarks but is becoming more and more an "Old Favorite" (see below) for me. It's getting way too repetitive.
• Dilbert — Bookmarked. The stories usually hit close to home work.
• Pearls Before Swine — I love Pig. He's so sweet. Rat can be annoying but often gets in good lines. Stephan Pastis is my Facebook friend. I read his blog, too.
• The Fusco Brothers — I had forgotten about this one. I used to read it in the paper every day. It's kind of amusing.
• Pardon My Planet — I used to read it when we got the newspaper. But strips about youngish people's relationships aren't really compelling so it's not in my bookmarks.
• Get Fuzzy — Satchel is another sweetie. Bucky is kind of like Rat. He's often annoying but often gets in good zingers. His batting average is higher than Rat's.
• La Cucaracha — This is a good strip about race relations. I'm Lalo Alcarez's Facebook friend.
• Six Chix — A strip done by six women. Each gets one day a week. More relationship angst. Not worth bookmarking.
• Non Sequitur —It's in my reading list. It switches between a one-panel political strip (which I enjoy) to a story about misanthropic Danae and her family. Those are OK.
• Bliss — This strip beat out Liō to be the replacement for "For Better or For Worse" when that one went into reruns. I'm still reading it but it's a bit too snarky for me. I might drop it.
• Bizarro — This is one of the best comic strips being published. The artwork is extraordinary. The jokes are great. No other strip even tries to do both (at least not daily). (Dilbert and Pearls have good jokes but have simple art.) Dan Piraro has a very funny blog. Dan is my Facebook friend. He won this year's Ruben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Column two is titled "OLD FAVORITES."  They're not my favorites...I quit reading any of these many years ago.

• Classic Peanuts — I'm afraid I quit reading Peanuts even before Sparky died.
• B. C. — Why doesn't this strip go to comics heaven?
• Beetle Bailey — Misogyny and violence against subordinates are so funny!
• Blondie — Wow! Blondie started a business! The strip is sooooooo fresh now!
• Hagar the Horrible — It's horrible.
• Fred Basset — Never read it.
• Garfield — I don't read garfield minus garfield either. I used to work with someone who really loved Garfield and would tape it to his cubicle door every day. He had a round face and a beard. He looked eerily like Garfield.
• The Wizard of Id — Another non-funny strip. Why does it continue?
• Marmaduke — Brad Anderson used to live in Escondido. He moved to Texas (I think) and the town went into mourning.  Good god!, there's a movie based on this comic panel. Has the world lost its senses?
• Dennis the Menace — I enjoyed this 50 years ago when I was Dennis's age. We both loved peanut butter sandwiches. Grandma compared me to that scamp. I understand that Dennis is less of a scamp and is now a more politically correct child. Is that true?

The third column isn't titled but I think they said that they're all about Families.

• Baby Blues — I got bored with strips that feature small children long ago.
• Adam@Home — I quit reading Adam when Brian Basset quit drawing it. I don't know why the artwork should make much of a difference to the strip when Mr. Basset is still writing the text. But then, it is another strip that features small children. Maybe the change in art simply made that more obvious to me.
• Jump Start — I used to enjoy this one but then it decided to be Baby Blues II.
• Zits — Another I used to read in the paper but I don't like it enough to click on a browser's bookmark. I don't like Jeremy. He's just too overtly spiteful towards his parents. Is that how 15 year olds are? I wasn't like that, was I?
• Luann — This one didn't follow me to my browser. It's another that is youth oriented. Greg Evans lives in North San Diego county!
• Nest Heads — A multigenerational family strip. That should boot it from my online reading but it's still there.
• Drabble — I haven't read this in many years. All of the characters annoyed me.
• Sally Forth — Dull.
• Crankshaft — Look! He backed over Keesterman's mailbox! Again! FUNNY! Die, Ed, Die!
• Pickles — Yet another multigenerational family strip. And in my browser. Maybe it's because the old folks are the focus.

The fourth column isn't titled and is a hodge-podge

• Mutts — Here comes blasphemy: I don't like Mutts. It gets too preachy. Its retro style got old. It's repetitious. I don't read it.
• Pooch Cafe — I do love Pooch Cafe. This week the strip started a flashback to Poncho's (the main pooch) first year. He was the last in line to be born. I think it will be fun to see how Poncho becomes the pooch we know an love. Paul Gilligan has a pretty good blog where he gives us insight into the strip, advance views of it, and too many pictures of Poncho lookalikes.
• Sherman's Lagoon — Sherman is great. And did you know that Sherman first appeared in the Escondido Times-Advocate? He was in the classifieds in the beginning.
• Mary Worth — I have never read any of the continuity strips. 
• Rex Morgan M.D. — Continuity strip.
• Judge Parker — Continuity strip. For some reason, while my eyes passed from Sherman's Lagoon to The Duplex, I would notice that this strip had some interesting artwork. The artist really liked to draw hands being expressive. And, boy, those women were HOT! That artist died and I don't know what it looks like these days.
• Funky Winkerbean — This strip is a frequent subject of one (or more) of the comics blogs I read. It's full of tragedy. I don't read it.
• The Duplex — The duplex of the strip has a mangy beer guzzling man and his dog and mangy friends living in one end and a prim woman and her refined poodle living in the other end. It contrasts their two lifestyles. It's now mostly about the beer. It's in my list of strips.
• Grand Avenue — This strip is yet another multigenerational family strip. A woman is rearing her grandchildren after their parents were killed in an car wreck. Why do I read these strips that feature children? The strip is drawn the the Union-Tribune's editorial cartoonist. What I never figured out is why the paper doesn't include their featured artist's comic in their Sunday paper.
• Mother Goose and Grimm — This strip used to be a kind of Far Side Lite. It still does some off the wall stuff but it is mostly now about Grimm and his friends. I read it but don't always enjoy it.

Hidden in the Classifieds is:

• Family Circus — Why, oh, why do I continue to read this? I pondered this once before. I still don't get it. MAKE IT STOP!

Their Sunday comics page has

• Fox Trot — That Jason!

The North County Times has fewer strips and most are also in the Union-Tribune. What they have that the UT doesn't are:

• For Better or For Worse — This, as I said, got booted from the Union-Tribune when it went into reruns. It deserved to be booted.
• Big Nate — A kids' strip.
• Fort Knox — Don't know it.
• Frazz — Know it only from comics blogs that gripe about it.
• Cleats — Don't know it.
• Baldo — Don't know it.
• Dustin — Don't know it.
• Pluggers — Don't like it. It's a favorite target of the comics blogs.
• One Big Happy — Don't know it.
• Mallard Fillmore — My eyes! My eyes! (We live in a rather conservative area.)

Comics I read that haven't been in the newspapers I've read, so they must be good, are:

• Arlo & Janis — A comics blog has a tag named after Arlo for strips that get away with obviously sexual material that their editors should have done something about.
• In the Bleachers — I really like this one even though I don't like sports.
• Liō — I. LOVE. LIŌ. But you already knew that from earlier posts (and I have another Sunday strip on the wall that I guess I haven't shown off!). Mark Tatulli is another Facebook friend. He won last year's Ruben Award for Newspaper Comic Strips. The artwork in Sunday Liō strips can't be beat.
• New Adventures of Queen Victoria — A topical strip. Today's strip often contains yesterday's news.

While I'm at it, here are the comics analysis and cartoonists' blogs I read:

• BizarroBlog — Just read it. It's funny.
• Comics I Don't Understand — Where to go when you just don't get it. Usually you're not alone.
• Dean's Comic Booth — Reworked comics. Often not safe for work.
• The Scott Adams Blog — Scott Adams has ideas. Discuss. 
• Pearls Before Swine — Stephan Pastis's blog. Usually not about Pearls.
• Pooch Café — Paul Gilligan's blog about his art (and too many pictures of Poncho lookalikes).
• Scott Meets Family Circus — Scott Gairdner steps into Family Circus to explain to the Keane Kids how stupid they are.
• The Comics Curmudgeon — Comics get analyzed.
• arloandjanis.com — Jimmy Johnson gives us old A&J strips and occasionally discusses issues of the day.
• The Daily Comics Review — Comics get analyzed.

Let me know if I've missed any good comics or blogs.