One of the ballots in our latest Rookie Comic Strip voting - in which the fate of "Meatloaf Nights with Brewster" was being decided - was accompanied by the following letter:
Hi! My name is Rachel Beus. I am 10. I would just like to put in my vote. Please replace it. Thank you!!
P.S. Write back to tell me if I won.
Dear Rachel,
You won! Oh boy, did you ever win!
"Meatloaf Nights with Brewster" set a new Deseret News Rookie Comic Strip record - it lost by the largest margin ever. Just over 90 percent of the readers who sent in their ballots voted to send it packing.
That's more than nine out of 10 voters who disliked it to varying degrees. Among the kinder comments was one reader who wrote, "It's drawn well, but it's just not funny."
Another wrote, "This would be a good comic strip if not for the fact that it's never funny."
Still another wrote, "This comic is so unfunny it is painful."
(As you can see, "It's not funny," was a common refrain.)
Other voters were less reserved in their criticism. "I hate this one!" wrote one.
"Can't think which character I hate the worst," wrote another.
So we bid a not-so-fond farewell to "Meatloaf Nights with Brewster" and say hello to its replacement, "Claire & Weber" . . . the story of a girl and her frog.
The strip "At the Zu" has been discontinued by its creator and is no longer available. Thus, it's gone for good.
In its place we're bringing back one of the most popular comic strips of all time - "Dennis the Menace."