Two new strips
My telephone has been eerily quiet today, not at all what I had expected.
Editors can count on catching hell when they start messing with the comics. As one reader told me in my last job, “Mr. Hawkins, the only reason I take your rag is for the obits and comics.”
Features Editor Judy Watts arrived early today, prepared to field calls from aggrieved fans of B.C. and Shoe, two long-time members of our comics pages.
We swapped them out this week in favor of Luann and F-Minus, two strips that have won national awards and boast millions of readers in other cities.
We were emboldened to make the change following the April death of Johnny Hart, creator of B.C. Shoe’s creator died in 2000, and the strip suffered from being drawn by a trio of cartoonists.
This marks the first change in our comics lineup since we tried to drop Andy Capp a year or so ago. We were compelled to restore him after a non-stop barrage from outraged Cappaholics.
We haven’t gotten that kind of negative reinforcement this time around, which tells me that readers either like the new strips…or don’t miss B.C. and Shoe.
Hope it’s the former.
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