Today.
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| This is a photograph of the funnies from my father's paper. It's a half a page long. He used to add the funnies to the packages he'd mail to us until a few months ago. His newspaper stopped printing the funnies. |
Yesterday.
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| In the last package he sent, my father included this: The Comic Weekly, a section from the Baltimore American, July 1949. |
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| Back page. There are six whole pages of funnies all in color. |
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| A classic on page 3. |
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| And another classic, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. advertising for Camels at the bottom of page five. Wait. What? |
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| Also on page five, blond girl is so excited, convinced The Phantom wants to marry her. Well, he did give her a "wife house." He just forgot to mention she's going to be his three hundred and first wife. Wait. What? |
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| Luckily, little girls on page two know the best way to make their daddies proud. Have clean, pretty dresses. Wait. What? |
I'm a fan of the funnies and it's been interesting reading through this old paper. Things certainly have changed, some for the good, others not so much. I wonder what the funnies will look like sixty years from now, that is if they still exist.
What do you think?
They'll just play in our heads when our retinal implants scan the little bar code. :)
ReplyDeleteMy father pulled the funnies out first thing when he'd bring home the Sunday paper. He'd chuckle as he read through them, and that got me into reading them because I was curious to see what was so dang funny. Garfield was a personal favorite, and I of course loved Peanuts.
The first series where I finally got the little nuggets of adult humor that was interspersed in the funnies was Far Side.
Looking at the older ones does make one question the messages we're given in the guise of entertainment, doesn't it? :)
Wow has Blondie been around a long time.
ReplyDeleteWith so much available online, I don't think there will be many funnies remaining in the future.
Surely there will always be funnies. Dagwood has been working for Mr. Dithers an awfully long time.
ReplyDeleteWill newspapers even exist 60 years from now? Neat seeing the older ones.
ReplyDeleteI must admit I read my news online, hubs still gets the weekend papers and he bemoans the demise of the funnies, too. What we buy as consumers determines the rise and fall of industries.
ReplyDeleteMost of those funnies had a moral (Prince Valiant, etc) but the Phantom Menace with 301 wives, a little greedy. . . Hmmmm.
That was very nice of your dad to send the funnies - we send parts of our newspapers to our rellies in the States. They reciprocate sometimes, too.
I used to love the Sunday funnies. They were their own section and all in color. Even a page with puzzles and kid trivia. Ah, good times.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am old. LOL.
Thanks for the Facebook Like...much appreciated!!
I remember Prince Valiant and the Sunday comics in color. I used to like B.C.
ReplyDeleteThe comics 9and advertizements) really are an indicator of society. It would be interesting to see what people think of our current comics in 60 years. Of course at that point, they might not have comics anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe Sunday Funnies were a nice part of growing up. I still look at them sometimes. Blondie is a classic. But I also enjoyed reading Modesty Blaise and Mandrake in the week.
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing those, Elise...it reminds me of the good old days when I would look forward to Sundays, because the funnies were in color :)
ReplyDeleteIt's neat seeing those old ads, too!
Prince Valiant! That brings back some memories. Dagwood always makes me hungry.
ReplyDeleteThe funnies have not been the same since Charles Schultz passed, Calvin and Hobbes was retired and Bloom County went away. I loved these three and had my biggest laughs from them. What a great look at the old funny papers. I remember reading Ripley's in the old Chicago Tribune.
ReplyDeleteI bet a lot more papers will drop them in the future. There are so many online for free these days, and as people get more digital, that's what they'll go to. It's not necessarily a bad thing. I sure don't like the comics in the newspaper :P
ReplyDeleteI used to hijack the Sunday funnies because they were in color. ^_^
ReplyDeleteThose advertisements are hilarious. Nowadays, I catch all my comics online. One day Blondie will be online. I miss Blondie. I'm just not buying the paper for one strip, if they're even still in there.
If only I could be funny, I'd make the newspaper proper, instead of starring in the Police Blotter - again... sigh :)
ReplyDeleteI don't believe newspapers will be around much longer, let alone funnies.
ReplyDeleteRetinal implants. I like EJ's answer. :P
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I'm not sure. TV killed the radio star, and DVD's are doing that to theaters, so digital will probably bring about the demise of print, eventually.
Fwiw, we still get pages of color funnies in the Sunday paper, but we live in a very large city.
The funnies used to be the only part of the paper I'd read (when I was a kid). Now all the comics I enjoy are online (xkcd, piled higher and deeper, etc) and I definitely agree with JE--the rest of them will probably migrate there. I hope they stick around though--some of the classics are so fun :)
ReplyDeleteHey Elise,
ReplyDeleteBonjour n'stuff! :) Oh my, those funnies sure brought back some memories of when I used to read them in the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province, newspapers.
Yep, nothing like a "comic strip"! Of course, I aint that funny and I'm going to keep my clothes on...
Gary :)
The Sunday Funnies were such a treat when I was kid. You brought back a lot of great memories with this post!
ReplyDeletei only remeber full color page sections on sundays, which they still have here, but the whole paper has shrunk... its the demise of a paper generation!!
ReplyDeleteMost of the guys I've known in my life have liked the funnies and comic books. I always just liked books. :-)
ReplyDeleteI lived in NYC for 10 years. Feel free to give me a holler if you want any NYC scenes from your WIP looked over! :-)
DeleteThere's a strip called Mark Trail that I am completely obsessed with, but I moved to an area where it isn't included in the local paper so my mother started cutting them out of her paper every day and put together a book of all the strips I'd missed. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing those old comics. Oh, Prince Valiant!
I LOVED reading the Funnies as a kid! I always thought I was grown up because I was "reading the newspaper."
ReplyDelete:D
I remember black and white funnies during the week and a colorful section of funnies all its own on Sundays, when I was a kiddie...I think my fave might've been Hagar the Horrible...but it's been AGES...
ReplyDeleteSome Dark Romantic
oh, my, Prince Valiant was my fave when I was a kid!
ReplyDeleteBrings back so many memories... makes me think of the Sunday papers that had lots of these comic strips...
ReplyDeleteI wonder what will happen to newspapers... how much longer they'll last...?
Writer In Transit
As a kid, I diligently read the funnies every Sunday morning. It was a family affair, actually, and I really miss it! Now it's just a "daily Dilbert" email at work here and there...still funny, just not the same!
ReplyDeletePS--hope all is well with you :-D
Best part of the newspaper, for sure :) I sure as heck hope they're around in sixty years.
ReplyDeleteSarah Allen
(From Sarah, with Joy)
While I was living with my parents a couple years back (trying to pay off debt), I would read the Sunday funnies every week. It was my fun Sunday night event. I'd post up my favorite one on my cubicle wall the next day for all to read and laugh. Now I don't have a newspaper anymore. Blast! Comics are great. I wonder what they'll look like too years from now. I wonder what a lot of things will look like as well. We shall see, I guess. :D
ReplyDeleteHi Elise .. what a great collection to have - but stopping them .. life is a rocky road ahead for creativity ..
ReplyDeleteCheers Hilary