Comics Fans Get Serious More Than 1,700 People Share Their Opinions On Our Comics Lineup

We asked for it.

IN Life wanted to know what readers think of The Spokesman-Review’s comics lineup. And a lot of you told us.

We received 1,713 returned survey forms.

Now the fact that many newspaper readers have opinions about the comics isn’t surprising. Just ask any editor who has tinkered with the funnies in the past.

But the intensity of those feelings came through loud and clear in the comments dozens of readers attached to their completed surveys.

“Take out ‘For Better or For Worse’ or ‘Hagar’ and I will cancel my subscription to your paper immediately,” wrote one reader in North Idaho.

“I despise ‘Garfield,”’ said another.

A few readers, such as one who said that he gave up on The Spokesman-Review after the cancellation of “Shoe,” addressed themselves to the paper’s overall handling of these time-honored features. “I don’t think much of your efforts under comic strip management,” he wrote. “Pathetic seems to be the appropriate word.”

One completed survey arrived with a question penned in the margin: “What pea brain chooses these comics?”

“Why do you keep screwing up the paper with changes no one likes?” inquired another.

And one note suggested a certain skepticism about this whole process. “Well, at least you PROFESSED to be interested in our opinions.”

Others adopted a somewhat different tone.

“I taught myself to read from your comic page before I ever went to school,” wrote a “Calvin & Hobbes” fan in Colfax.

“Thanks for inviting our input,” said another.

There were sharply contrasting opinions about individual strips.

“The people who dislike ‘Cathy’ just don’t get it,” wrote one reader.

“The very sight of ‘Cathy’ makes my blood boil,” said another.

And more than a few survey forms included comments such as this: “How about adding ‘The Lockhorns’? I really miss them after leaving Seattle. Also like ‘Marmaduke,’ which we had in Ohio for years.”

A fair number of readers would appear to be carrying a torch for “Gasoline Alley.”

“It was the best,” wrote one respondent.

Several lamented the general quality and variety of comics today and waxed nostalgic about the strips of yesteryear.

“Wish we had some of the good old ones,” was one comment. “Get rid of ‘Calvin & Hobbes.”’

“Is it me or are comics today so thoroughly inane as to be the incarnation of stupidity?” wondered another survey returner.

A lot of readers loyal to the long-running standbys have little use for some of the newer additions to the paper’s comics lineup. But exactly the opposite was true for others.

“I must have my ‘Dilbert,”’ wrote one reader. “‘Peanuts’ is old news - a tired and dated comic that is no longer insightful or entertaining.”

Beginning to detect a pattern? Something about the likelihood of pleasing all the people all the time? Well, that’s why editors get the big bucks.

Some people took an equalopportunity approach when attaching their comments to the survey form. They said they hated everything.

Others seemed to hold dear the status quo.

“Please don’t mess up the comics. I look forward to them each day!”

“Sometimes the comics is the only page I read,” wrote another.

In other words, this is important stuff.

Even some of those who pretty much trashed the comics page from top to bottom seemed to appreciate the chance to speak up. One woman who wrote, “So many of your new cartoons are senseless and stupid” ended her remarks with “Thank you for listening.”

One reader proved that it’s not necessary to actually know the correct name of a strip to wonder about its fate: “Why was ‘Millard Fillmore’ dropped from the Sunday comics while ‘Doonesbury’ remains?”

In addition to taking sides on the merits of specific strips, people disagreed about where in the newspaper the daily comics should run and whether they should be in color.

But some restricted their comments to passing along a thumbs-up for their most beloved comic.

“My favorite of all time is ‘For Better or For Worse,”’ wrote one woman, who had plenty of company. “So close to real life.”

Thanks to all who took the time to respond.

, DataTimes