The comic strip business is highly competitive. New strips come along all the time, and it is often difficult to decide which one is going to take off and be the next superstar and which are going to fizzle. It's often hard to tell from the few sample strips that the syndicate salesman brings whether a new strip will please readers better than the strips that are already on the page.
For the past year or so, the Deseret News has been running a "Rookie Comic Strip" on our comics page. The idea is to publish a new strip for a couple of months and then let our readers vote on whether it should stay as part of the regular lineup on the page.We appreciate the response from our readers, some of whom have indicated they enjoy this chance to speak out about comics. And many have offered additional comments about other comics and a lot of advice about what we should keep and what we should eliminate. Here are some typical comments:
- "Reconsider using Crankshaft - it is seldom funny."
- "I'd rather have the Ryatts on the comics page. Why have you banished it to the want ads?"
- "Thank you for the opportunity to vote of some of our `daily entertainment.' May I include a very heart-felt NO on several others (Southpaw, Buckets, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Surely there is something out there better than these."
- "If you want to drop a comic, drop Fasttrack."
- "Is is really fair to vote on the `Rookie' comic strips? I have enjoyed the two previous strips, both of which were voted down. Do you think people are going to vote for a strip when something better might come along? Wouldn't it be more fair to allow a vote on all the strips, not just the `Rookie' ones. P.S. Get rid of Fox Trot."
- "I'm happy your readers are finally to have a say as to what so-called comics should be printed. For too long Mike Peters has polluted the Deseret News with filth. Mother Goose & Grimm has got to be the most vulgar-gutter level strip in the paper. . . . Dr. Morgan is a strip with a good plot but moves much too slow. Some people like Calvin and Hobbes. I got enough rebellious kids after spending 42 years in the schools of Utah. . . ."
- "We would like to see Phoebe's Place back." (It was canceled by the syndicate.)
- "My favorites: Sally Forth, Calvin & Hobbes, Pickles, Family Circus, Wizard of Id, Mother Goose & Grimm."
- My current favorites are The Far Side, Herman, Sherman's Lagoon, and of course, Calvin & Hobbes. Other favorites are Fox Trot, Shoe, Sally Forth, Wizard of Id, Geech, Crankshaft and Southpaw. I don't read the serious ones like Rex Morgan or Spiderman or Ninja Turtles and it wouldn't bother me if they disappeared."
- "Get rid of this strip, or cancel my subscription!"
- "Do us all another favor and cancel Buckets, Baby Blues, Southpaw and Sherman's Lagoon as well!"
These comments from readers reinforce a couple of basic premises about the comics pages:
- Readers take their comics very seriously.
- You can't please all of the people all of the time. For every person who hates a strip, another person loves it.
And that's the premise behind our comics page. We run a wide variety of strips - 29 to be exact, which is a lot for a paper our size. We offer this variety - not thinking that everyone will like every strip, but hoping that everyone can find a few favorites to follow. For example, Comics for Kids and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are designed especially for kids. We don't expect adults to get a lot out of them, but we hope they will draw young readers into the paper.
Southpaw and Sports Hall of Shame are aimed at sports fans. We don't mind if other readers skip them. We have a number of strips that are quirky and offbeat, and some that are sweet and cute. We have a few continuity strips, such as Rex Morgan and Spider-Man for those who like the soap opera and adventure that has long been a newspaper comic tradition.
We hope you will continue to share your feelings about the comics with us. We also hope you will remember that someone else loves the strips you hate and hates the strip you love.
What we try to do is offer a smorgasbord. We hope that everyone will enjoy sampling a few of the dishes, but not everyone has to feel compelled to eat the whole meal.