Pharyngula

Posted by: Desert Son | February 2, 2009 11:51 AM

Outstanding comic strip!

Still, my heart will always belong to Bloom County.

No kings,

Robert

Posted by: Travis | February 2, 2009 11:54 AM

I've got every c&h collection, I love'em.

Posted by: raytheist | February 2, 2009 12:00 PM

Once again I am in full agreement with you on yet another subject, PZ.

Posted by: Alverant | February 2, 2009 12:06 PM

I do find it ironic that Calvin is talking to a figment of his imagination about another made-up person. And said figment is responding back.

Posted by: Don't Panic | February 2, 2009 12:08 PM

Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, Far Side were the triumvirate. Best (printed) comics ever. Committed is also a quality comic that has the positive property of still being written. Alas, my local paper replaced it with the severely unfunny Dinette Set, and they still run Kit & Carlyle.

I should go look in my annotated Calvin & Hobbes (I forget which book it was) to see if he had anything to say about the feedback he got on this one. It's a little amazing that it got run at all in any papers.

Posted by: E.V. | February 2, 2009 12:08 PM

WTF? Your favorite strips aren't Dilbert and Mallard Fillmore?

Posted by: KI | February 2, 2009 12:09 PM

I grew up with Pogo Possum (I learned to read from my dad's collection of Pogo books) so I'm somewhat prejudiced, but I don't think anyone was as funny as Walt Kelly. Two or three jokes in every panel, not just one punch line. His use of language and spelling was without compare. Only R. Crumb could draw better. The political satire was sharper than "Doonesbury" and funnier ("Free press? those papers cost a nickel each!", "We have met the enemy, and he is us") and he was an accomplished poet, on the level of Cuttlefish. I still sing "Deck us all with Boston Charlie" during the holidays. He took on McCarthy in the fifties, and Spiro Agnew during the Nixon years. He also offered what I consider the ultimate assessment of Stalinism in the extended piece "Suffern on the Steppes, or 1984 and all that":
Albert Alligatior: "All is equal! All is..."
Pogo: "Starvin'"
Albert: "But equal starvin'"

Posted by: KI | February 2, 2009 12:13 PM

Arrrgh...Alligator

Posted by: Aquaria | February 2, 2009 12:23 PM

Have to agree about Pogo, although I was too young to understand it when it was actually running in papers. That would come much later. It was me granddad's favorite, without a doubt. He'd grab up the newspaper every afternoon when he'd come home from work, and go right to Pogo. And then he'd snort and chuckle about it for the rest of the evening. I always wondered what he found so funny, and then I finally found out when I stumbled across Pogo myself.

Posted by: vermonter | February 2, 2009 12:26 PM

Sheesh! After C&H, it's Dykes to Watch Out For

Posted by: Watchman | February 2, 2009 12:28 PM

Big Bloom County and C&H fan here. One might say, however, that Breathed and Watterson stood on the shoulders of the giants who preceded them: Kelly and (yes) Trudeau.

As for Crumb, he's in a class by himself - though it might be more accurate to say he's alone at the head of the class he created. Walk into Newbury Comics someday and have a look at many of the offerings - not on the comic racks in the back, but on the mag racks near the front door. Crumb's progeny are everywhere. Pretty cool.

The Far Side? Larson was witty, inspired, and influential, but... meh. He was brilliant within the half-dozen themes he worked. Top five all-time? Nah.

YMMV.

Posted by: Blake Stacey | February 2, 2009 12:37 PM

Don't Panic:

I don't think there was anything in The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book about this particular strip. My memory has been known to be faulty, however.

Posted by: Dianne | February 2, 2009 12:40 PM

it's Dykes to Watch Out For

Normally I'd agree with you but I refuse to give Allison Bechdel anything (money, credit, web hits) until she either restarts the strip or admits that it's dead. This "hah, hah, I might restart...then again I might not...you'll have to pay attention to me until I tell you" crap is just obnoxious.

Posted by: faintpraise | February 2, 2009 12:42 PM

Thank you Dianne, was reading through the comments and couldn't believe no-one had mentioned xkcd yet!

Agree with you about Far Side as well. But I do like C&H too. Eyebeam eh? I might have to look that up...

Posted by: Faintpraise | February 2, 2009 12:45 PM

Dykes to Watch Out For is also good, I enjoy reading Alison Bechdel's blog too. I loved Fun Home and I believe she is doing another graphic novel at the moment.

Posted by: Quiet Desperation | February 2, 2009 12:51 PM

I have the big hardback collection of all the C&H strips. :-) Received it for Christmas 2007.

These days I like "Lio". Not as nearly as deep, but it's sort of like C&H if Bill Watterson went over to the dark side of the Force. When Lio sees a four foot wide spider in his room, the giant spider is really there. And he feeds it puppies.

If we're counting web comics, the Girl Genius is the best comic ever.

Posted by: bladesman | February 2, 2009 12:52 PM

Alien Loves Predator for teh win!! :op

C&H is pretty damn awesome too, and all the better for finishing before jumping the shark.

Posted by: Watchman | February 2, 2009 12:55 PM

aiabx: I'm with you. I loved Peanuts and BC as a kid, but... I haven't been a kid for quite some time. BC was funny as hell once upon a time, but it's been decades.

Posted by: James F | February 2, 2009 12:58 PM

E.V. #12,

Scott Adams actually posted over at Bad Astronomy:

False memories, believing strangers with no credibility, unsupported assumptions, misinterpreting data …it’s all here.

I consider Evolution to be a scientific fact. If you believe something else about me you might want to ask yourself how you became so gullible.

Posted by: TX CHL Instructor | February 2, 2009 1:00 PM

@#9: "Instead, I have to look at crap like Blondie, Dennis the Menace and The Family Circus."

I have zero sympathy for self-inflicted injury. You don't like the comics? Don't read them.
--
www.chl-tx.com Thanks, BHO, for the tremendous boost to my business!

Posted by: Duncan | February 2, 2009 1:06 PM

No, I believe the winner is xkcd. Bloody brilliant comedy. http://xkcd.com/459/

Posted by: Michael Patterson | February 2, 2009 1:07 PM

Pogo and C&H are indeed giants, but all you young'ns need to look up George Harriman's immortal Krazy Kat to see where the whole genre came from. It's still, truly, the best comic strip ever. And no, I'm not actually old enough to have seen it when it originally ran; it ended in 1944.

Posted by: CG | February 2, 2009 1:10 PM

to Alverant@8

His figment is more real to him than the other figments he's speaking about. Plus he's 8 or something so he gets a free pass. Besides, if you need to have adventures and the girl in the neighborhood is always nay saying your cool ideas you practically have to make up an imaginary friend.

Posted by: Nurse Ingrid | February 2, 2009 1:15 PM

Dianne, I saw Alison Bechdel read in San Francisco a couple of months ago, and she stated quite clearly that she was pretty sure that the DTWOF strip was over and done with. Sad, but fair enough for her to take some time to decide for sure.

It was sad when Waterson ended C&H, too, but I was glad in a way that we didn't have to see the strip die a slow and painful death after such a brilliant heyday, which is pretty much what I think happened with Bloom County. Part of being a talented artist is knowing when to edit, and when something is finished.

And while we're mentioning other favorites, do "This Modern World" and "The K Chronicles" count as comic strips? And don't forget Russell's Teapot!

Posted by: Faintpraise | February 2, 2009 1:18 PM

I'd recommend the Comics Curmudgeon for anyone who doesn't already follow him. (Disclaimer- I'm only a reader, got no other interest in plugging him!). I may be one of the few people in the UK who is up to date with the foibles of Mary Worth and the girls of Apartment 3G thanks to my loving of his snark.
www.joshreads.com

Posted by: kermit | February 2, 2009 1:19 PM

"Instead, I have to look at crap like Blondie, Dennis the Menace and The Family Circus."

Yes, and when I was a kid I read Nancy, even tho I knew it was crap because there were only one or two pages of comics in a newspaper. But the internet has more decent comics than one could reasonably have time for. I read the comics typically for half and hour during lunch, and cut the limit there. All good stuff.

Of course Calvin and Hobbes was the best, or at least in the same class with Pogo and Krazy Kat.

May I recommend:
Sci-Fi: Skin Horse
Family: Stone Soup
Steam Punk: Girl Genius
Wackiness: Sluggo Freelance
Hot Witchy Anthropologists: Wapsi Square
Art & Wordplay: 9 Chickweed Lane

Posted by: Helfrick | February 2, 2009 1:21 PM

Heresy! The Far Side is the best ever. C&H is a respectable #2.

+1

xkcd rounds out the top three.

Posted by: Matt Heath | February 2, 2009 1:21 PM

"Is Calvin is an atheist or is he a wishy washy agnostic?"

He's a six-year-old.

Posted by: Brian D | February 2, 2009 1:26 PM

Not only is there a religious debate going on at GoComics, but someone has his denialist circuits crossed:

DesultoryPhillipic says:

Are you saying that Jesus never existed? If that’s so, then you probably believe the holocaust was a myth also!

Posted by: Brownian | February 2, 2009 1:33 PM

Wrong; all of you are completely wrong! The best comic ever was and continues to be the single panel Love is.... I still find myself cutting them out of the paper and pasting them on my fridge, or linking to them in the email signatures I use when forwarding heart-warming stories about a parent's love, cautionary tales about the laziness and lack of appreciation by kids today, and ire-inducing examples of political-correctness gone awry.

It's a good thing one doesn't have to worry about keeping a straight face on the internet.

I loved C&H in a way I never truly understood until I had my first pre-pubescent romantic kiss and realised that I was finally 'over' my childish infatuation with both Joanna from Grade 4 and Archie. (Archie and I had a weird relationship--I grew up on the Riverdale gang's antics, and can directly trace approximately 64.8% of my vocabulary to those digests--a statistic a friend of mine once scorned until he realised just how inadequate the vocabulary his upbringing as a philosopher's son brought him was in relation. On those forced marches my mother called shopping for school clothes I would amuse myself by recalling, panel by panel, my favourite Archie stories. And then I learned--shudder--that Archie had a dark side.) While Larson never quite made me laugh out loud like C&H did, he was one of the first to realise that humour lay in the absurdism of reality and that no reality is more absurd than the one revealed through science. But I think no comic stripper alive or dead (save maybe Kelly, though I profess only second-hand knowledge of the genius of Pogo) could match Berke in terms of the layer upon layer of socio-political commentary that underscored Bloom County. (The simplest example I can think of this was his constant use of trademarked brands rather than generic product names--is our society not itself the product of mass marketing?) Plus, his rare interviews offer a glimpse into the mind of that most elusive beast nowadays: the nutso-genius who wields words as a master conductor wields an orchestra. Just google "Berkeley Breathed Interview", start with the recent Salon interview "The penguin is mightier than the sword" and work your way back from there. You'll see what I mean.

So then, if I were to give my top three, they'd have to be:

1. Calvin & Hobbes
2. Bloom County
3. The Far Side

Oops, that should be top four, and the order should be:

1. Love is...
2. Calvin & Hobbes
3. Bloom County
4. The Fa--

Nope, couldn't do it. Couldn't keep the straight face.

Posted by: Janine, Queen of Assholes | February 2, 2009 1:38 PM

My favorite Love Is... is; Love is a teen suicide pact.

Archie? Are you familiar with the AJGU-3000?

Posted by: Rajbir D | February 2, 2009 1:44 PM

Not a huge fan of comics, but I believe that cannot be the best, but I wouldn't know.

Posted by: co | February 2, 2009 1:51 PM

I highly recommend The Perry Bible Fellowship:
http://pbfcomics.com/

Despite the unfortunate name, it's just as good or better than XKCD, in my humble opinion. Must agree with the assessments of Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, and some of the others mentioned herein.

Posted by: xebecs | February 2, 2009 1:54 PM

Hmm... It's not *quite* like crashing a poll, but it's close enough.

Consider this one more vote for Calvin&Hobbes.

Far Side had its good moments -- the cows listening to the phone ringing, and saying "And here we sit, without opposable thumbs." And the man standing on stage with a single cymbal, thinking "Don't screw up. Don't screw up." and the caption "Milton screws up." (Maybe not Milton.)

Posted by: tim Rowledge | February 2, 2009 2:18 PM

I'm horrified to note no mentions of Sluggy and Questionable Content. Not to mention SinFest. At least someone shouted for the girl genius....

Slightly off to the side is Alex, the banksta strip in the otherwise pretty odious Daily Telegraph. I've been sniggering over that one since it started in the Indescribably Boring around 1985 or so.

Posted by: Kevin Schreck | February 2, 2009 2:27 PM

Almost every child does ponder those things, until they're told to shut up or not ask such silly questions.

Posted by: Janine, Queen of Assholes | February 2, 2009 2:29 PM

Posted by: Walton | February 2, 2009

Calvin and Hobbes was not the "best comic strip ever". That title belongs to Garfield.

Thus proving his point that he lacks a sense of humor. Or is he being snarky.

Posted by: Janine, Queen of Assholes | February 2, 2009 2:34 PM

Interrobang, when Schulz was a young man, he was a fundamentalist. But by the late sixties, he was pretty much an agnostic and became more of a non believer as he got older.

Posted by: Jeeves | February 2, 2009 2:35 PM

@Janine,

I don't know about Garfield, but have you ever read Garfield Minus Garfield? That can be pretty funny, as one note as it is.

Posted by: Janine, Queen of Assholes | February 2, 2009 2:39 PM

Chimpy, we just posted almost identical posts. Is this good or bad? Or is it really really creepy?

Posted by: Walton | February 2, 2009 2:41 PM

No, I am entirely serious. I love Garfield, and have since I was a little kid. It's pure escapism. I don't read comic strips for their intellectual content.

As to Garfield Minus Garfield, I find it incredibly depressing; the portrayal of Jon as a lonely dork who talks to himself and can't get a date hits uncomfortably close to home for me. :-(

(Why is it that even when I don't talk religion or politics I still manage to be controversial?)

Posted by: Brownian | February 2, 2009 2:47 PM

Janine, QoA, I never, ever, read the daily Archie strip, considering it a bastardisation before I even knew the meaning of the work.

Oh, and CO, I'm also a fan of PBF (I even bought the "Unicorn Power" T-shirt, because there just aren't enough swarthy, hirsute men wearing pink T-shirts with unicorns on them these days, dammit!) bud sadly Gurewitch has put the strip on indefinite hiatus.

Posted by: Faintpraise | February 2, 2009 2:56 PM

Janine- Cool, another 'mudge fan! I knew there must be at least a couple around here!

Co- I totally forgot about pbf, which is amazingly good and deserves inclusion in the "best of.." list! Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to go to the site now...

Posted by: Steve_C | February 2, 2009 2:58 PM

HAHAH... hehe PZ nailed it.

Gardfield minus Garfield rules.

Posted by: E.V. | February 2, 2009 3:04 PM

Walton, you could have said Beano and gotten away with it.

Posted by: Walton | February 2, 2009 3:07 PM

What did I say? Why is everyone so shocked that I like Garfield?

I just don't understand the denizens of this blog. Maybe I should stick to talking about politics.

Posted by: Mike | February 2, 2009 3:08 PM

While not on the same existential level as some mentioned here, I confess a deep and abiding fondness for Sherman's Lagoon.

And I long for the days when Jesus and Mo gets space in the Sunday paper.

Posted by: Uzza | February 2, 2009 3:10 PM

Wow, this is spooky. I just got done writing a blog post about Calvin and Hobbes (its not posted yet), took the dog for a walk, came back and saw this.

Lolkoran ran a poll on the best replacement for the koran: C&H beat out Lord of the Rings,Star Trek, Duck Tales, Star Wars and the Bible.

Posted by: Holbach | February 2, 2009 3:16 PM

Just a panel from Bloom County (still known as Opus then);

Opus was thrown in a dog pen for some silly infraction; he was sharing a cell with a tough mangy dog with a tattoo on his shoulder that read "puppies from hell." The cur says to Opus; "Hey tux boy, you breathing my air?" Still funny.

Posted by: frog | February 2, 2009 3:28 PM

#8 Posted by: Alverant I do find it ironic that Calvin is talking to a figment of his imagination about another made-up person. And said figment is responding back.

Ain't nothing wrong with having an imaginary friend. It's when you start demanding that others pretend that he's real that there's a real problem. As far as I know, Alverant is imaginary...

Posted by: Ross_S | February 2, 2009 3:33 PM

All good stuff named but I can't believe that no-one has mentioned Order of the Stick!

I thought there were a few D&D (and Ex-D&D)ers around here

If you've never read it - start with the early strips, that's where all the geek jokes are - later stuff is still funny but there's a long story arc involved.

Posted by: Tulse | February 2, 2009 3:34 PM

What did I say? Why is everyone so shocked that I like Garfield?

Walton, Walton, Walton -- you're very earnest and very sweet, and I'm sure you're a great guy in person, but Garfield is, like, square, dude. All the cool kids will laugh at you when you say Garfield.

And yeah, Garfield Minus Garfield is rather depressing and sad, although as the creator points out, in the original strips Garfield never actually speaks out loud, so Jon has always been talking to himself -- the modified strips just make that obvious. I think there's an interesting parallel there to religion...

Posted by: Nurse Ingrid | February 2, 2009 3:44 PM

Matt Heath, I agree with you about Peanuts. I loved the "aware of your tongue" strip and related to it completely as a kid. (in fact, I think I'm aware of my tongue right now. Ewww...)

Do you remember the one where Charlie Brown is walking alone at night, and he sees Linus, who is carrying a lit candle and reciting, "I have always believed that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness."

Charlie Brown keeps walking, and then he sees Lucy, standing alone in the pitch black, yelling, "You stupid darkness!"

Posted by: frog | February 2, 2009 3:48 PM

Heath: Also the most I can find Avalos saying is that there is insufficient evidence to say that Jesus existed; that's a big jump from "definitely and entirely a myth" (which I've seen claimed not frequently online)

You do know what the default position is, don't you?

I have no strong position on the facts of the matter, but pointing to one of the few dissenters and claiming the scholars making up the consensus are blinded by ideology is more-or-less what a denialist would do.

You do understand the difference from making that claim about an empirical science, and an ideological field, such as history? To claim that an empirical science is a form of Lysenkoism, you must actually show that you have strong enough support to overturn the concensus, or explicit evidence of fraud; but in the humanities, evidence so underdetermines theory, that to cry "group-think", all you simply have to show is that an equally vague theory fits because we can assume that ideology primarily determines the results.

In other words, claiming that it's all delusional in an empirical field demands that you connect all your dots -- since there exists sufficient data to actually determine truth. But the humanities are in essence delusional -- they're delusions about other people's delusions, with a rare spark of insight into the nature of these delusions. Kinda shifts the balance of evidence, don't it?

If I read a "biography" of the inner ear, I can be fairly assured that most of it is driven by knowledge of the inner ear. But if I read a biography of Alexander the Great, I can assume that most of it is actually about the author, with some interesting tid-bits that might actually trace back to the historical incidents that supposedly determine the biography.

Posted by: Matt Heath | February 2, 2009 3:52 PM

Nurse Ingrid: Sorry about the tongue thing. I never saw the candle strip.

Posted by: Frederik Rosenkjær | February 2, 2009 3:58 PM

Am I the only one who sees a striking resemblance between Anderson Cooper and Calvin?

Posted by: Brian D | February 2, 2009 4:12 PM

I didn't list my favorites earlier. Most have been listed already, and there's a dearth of print comics here. In no particular order, Calvin & Hobbes, Doonesbury, The Far Side, Non Sequitor, 9 Chickweed Lane, Girl Genius, Questionable Content, xkcd, Wondermark, Perry Bible Fellowship, Dinosaur Comics, Least I Could Do, Piled Higher & Deeper, and Basic Instructions. I've read small amounts of Pogo and Krazy Kat, but haven't gone through them enough to list them here. The only notable title that others mentioned here but I never was able to get into was Bloom County.

Regarding Garfield, and a host of other Unfunny strips, I'd like to let David Malki! (the exclamation point is required; he's the man behind Wondermark) speak for me as The Comic Strip Doctor. I guarantee you'll never look at Marmaduke the same way again.

Posted by: Watchman | February 2, 2009 4:13 PM

...the fundamentalist Christian Schultz...

Say what? Schultz was a self-described "secular humanist" once he abandoned the church back in the '80s. I'm not sure he could ever have been accurately described as a "fundamentalist", although I admit that is open to debate, given his sometime involvement with the Anderson Church of God.

Posted by: Dark Matter | February 2, 2009 4:29 PM

Y'all have some good taste in comics. I grew up on Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, but I love Pogo - my mom has a couple of anthologies that belonged to my grandfather. She has some Archy and Mehitabel, too, which I've read and which we quote to each other constantly - "Kittens? What kittens?"

I also really like Big Nate, for reasons I can't explain...but these days I mostly read webcomics on a daily basis. Questionable Content, xkcd, Girls with Slingshots, Overcompensating, and especially A Softer World are all way up there on my list of awesome things.

Posted by: frog | February 2, 2009 4:46 PM

Matt Heath: And yes the humanities are more given to letting in bias than hard sciences.

You miss the point with that limp defense of the humanities. They aren't "more given", as if it was simply a quantitative difference. The humanities are essentially creations of the political and aesthetic passions of the day, while the empirical sciences at the end of the day leave you with a collection of data and equations relating them (plus the dross of verbal explanations that are primarily BS).

They're not the same kinds of fields at all! This very statement shows it: If you could show me that amongst non-Christian (and non-Muslim) scholars of first century Judea the balance of opinion was on the other side, I'd be happy to say the "Yeshua existed" hypothesis was largely down bias. In what field would you need such a test? Who would say that in evolutionary theory, "ID" is down because Christian biologists don't believe it? That would clearly be nonsense.

But in history, you do have to ask those kinds of questions -- is it history written by an American or Chinese? Is it written by a Marxist, a "centrist" or a monarchist... And on and on and on.

History is bunk, as Henry Ford said. The more history I read, the less clear history is. The data under-determines any real causative theory -- so it can't be any more, or any less, than an ideological construct.

We have to recognize our ignorance, instead of faking it with delusional knowledge. You can probably get a good idea about the population density in 1st century Judea, and their major trade goods. You could get a weak idea of what the leadership in 1st century Judea would have been. But to determine important social elements that weren't crowned heads of states? You've gotta be bullshitting me (whether or not you've got a PH.D in Levantine history).

Who was the most culturally influential cobbler in 11th century Egypt? Would you believe someone who claimed to know, for a fact? You'd have to show me direct, indisputable evidence, not a reference to a scholar who might have made a comment once that his grandfather told him that his cousin knew that Ali Ibn Ali was The Great Cobbler.

Posted by: Cath the Canberra Cook | February 2, 2009 4:55 PM

My current regular reading list:
* Doonesbury
* This Modern World
* User Friendly
* xkcd
* Questionable Content
* Two Lumps

I also loved Bloom County, C&H, Far Side.

Also I enjoyed the Dykes, and Uncle Ghastly (NSFW!!1!eleventy! Tentacoo wape!)

I am now going to seek out some others mentioned here. Some of them I browse occasionally. I think I was too young for Pogo, and need to revisit. Garfield? Meh. No love but no hate either.

Posted by: Eveningsun | February 2, 2009 5:16 PM

Pogo first. Krazy Kat second. C&H third.

Posted by: Marc Abian | February 2, 2009 5:34 PM

I read Calvin and Hobbes when I was tooo young to fully understand, but even then they were brilliant. Far Side is still the best though.

Posted by: David Harmon | February 2, 2009 6:11 PM

Dianne @#17: Yay! Someone else remembers Eyebeam! That was way cool.

faintpraise @#28: IIRC, Eyebeam was a college strip, I saw it in the late 80's or early 90's. Alas, I have no printed relics of it.

Posted by: One Eyed Jack | February 2, 2009 6:35 PM

Calvin and Hobbs was great!

I can't say it was the best because I loved Bloom County just as much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_County

Posted by: Kagato | February 2, 2009 7:16 PM

paradoctor:

I therefore consider Santa to be a kind of paradoxical saint of skepticism. He failed to exist, so that we may doubt.

That's brilliant. I'll have to remember that.

PGPWNIT:
The raccoon story contains another good freethought quote:

It's either mean or it's arbitrary, and either way I've got the heebie-jeebies.

"Heebie-jeebies" is probably an appropriate response from a 6 year old. :)
A more mature outlook can deal with the concept more rationally.

After reading that comic for the first time, the following phrasing occurred to me:
There is no evidence God exists at all -- but even if he did, he must be either cruel, uncaring or impotent; and therefore would be undeserving of worship.

Posted by: TeleMan | February 2, 2009 7:53 PM

I'm surprised there aren't more Sinfest fans here. It's drawn exceptionally well and covers religion, politics and all else of the human condition.

Posted by: Randy | February 2, 2009 8:28 PM

1. Calvin and Hobbes
2. The Far Side
3. Bloom County

Comic perfection.

Posted by: Twin-Skies | February 2, 2009 9:02 PM

1. Pugad Baboy (local comic satirizing Philippine politics)
2. Calvin and Hobbes
3. Lackadaisy
4. VGCats
5. Yotsuba To!
6. Far Side

Posted by: mayhempix | February 2, 2009 9:22 PM

Also Boondocks has its moments.

Posted by: Ryogam@hotmail.com | February 2, 2009 10:07 PM

I carried this strip in my wallet for YEARS:

Hobbes and Calvin are sitting under a tree, relaxing...

First Panel: Hobbes, "Do you think there's a God?

Second Panel: Calvin looks at viewer for a beat.

Third Panel: Calvin, "Well somebody's out to get me!"

I have that on a bootlegged shirt, as well.

On list of top rated all-time strips, I would place Pogo fist, C&H second, Peanuts third and Bloom County Fourth.

Anyone who thinks Peanuts was some simple minded strip needs to read the new reissues. It was just as subversive as C&H ever was. Just read the first strip:

Shermy and Violet(?) are sitting on a curb.

First panel: Shermy, "Oh, look, here comes go old Charlie Brown."

Second Panel: Shermy, "Good Old Charlie Brown, yes sir!

Charlie Brown enters from left.

Third Panel: Shermy, "Good Old Charlie Brown..."

Charlie Brown exits at right.

Fourth Panel Shermy, "How I hate him."

That's some good stuff.

Posted by: melior | February 2, 2009 10:26 PM

I'm a Calvin & Hobbes fan from way back. My favorite strips are the ones where Calvin's Dad gets some well-deserved revenge by messing with Calvin's head.

It's a relative newcomer, but I have to add Jesus & Mo to the collective list of Best Comic Strips Ever.

Posted by: Wowbagger | February 2, 2009 10:30 PM

I've been having a look into this Bloom County thing - I realise I've seen the penguin quite a few times before but never knew what it was from. Now I know.

Posted by: Wowbagger | February 2, 2009 10:46 PM

All the Garfields I rate highly have Odie in them. He's just so weird-looking that I enjoy seeing him, no matter what else is going on. I chose not to see the film version because they used a real dog which looked nothing like the cartoon version.

Posted by: Kel | February 2, 2009 11:19 PM

Calvin and Hobbes was not the "best comic strip ever". That title belongs to Garfield.

Posted by: Don't Panic | February 3, 2009 12:24 AM

Bloom County was great in its heyday and while I did put it in my top three I know it doesn't stand up as well outside of the context of the times. Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World is good for biting satire, but perhaps too political to be a this/last decade's Bloom County.

Far Side was funny for all the absurdity. And beside it often referenced scientists as people, often slightly twisted by not menacing or evil, and other times a simply, well, a people (cf. all the scientists rushing out of the lab because they see the ice cream truck out the window). I've got the complete two volume set that I really should re-review. Somewhere I have a transparency (you'all remember those) that I made up from the cartoon with the caption "Another case of too many scientists and not enough hunchbacks". Started one of my thesis work-in-progress reports w/ that and from then on the three of us grad students in our group were forever known as "the hunchbacks".

C&H was great because it was all the things people above have listed (insightful, funny, well drawn...) but also because it was (and is) accessible. When my son was starting to read these were great for him. But they also talk to adults.

All three consistently made me laugh/think. Nowadays, none of the printed comics do so but occasionally. I don't want a once-in-a-while laugh, I want (almost) daily funny. Or at least thought provoking. Or even mildly amusing. I'll settle for "not bland" and "not boring". Okay, I won't hate on the Garfield, but seriously the last time I saw it for an extended period it was, well, dull. And dull doesn't cut it for comics.

XKCD comes close to being great, mostly because I'm a geek -- but it's also different than printed comics in that a chunk of the funny is locked away in the mouse-over, without that (and my own geeky knowledge) I think most would find it "meh".

Posted by: Owlmirror | February 3, 2009 12:59 AM

I can't believe that of all these Calvin and Hobbes fans, not one has mentioned my current favourite: Frazz ( http://comics.com/frazz ). It's not C&H, but it's witty, well drawn, often thought provoking, and always enjoyable.

I've actually seen it suggested that Frazz is sort-of meant to be Calvin grown up.

Hm. It's actually mentioned in the Wikipedia article. Better look fast; the section appears to be flagged as problematic for having unsourced assertions.

Posted by: Emmet, OM | February 3, 2009 3:24 AM

The best comic ever was and continues to be the single panel Love is…

*puke*

*hurl*

*retch*

Brownian, Brownian, Brownian!  Why hast thou forsaken me? What eye-bleedingly nauseating, foul and sickly, syrupy shite! My contempt for Love is… is utter.

Oh, and Walton, I admit to liking Garfield too. I remember it fondly and don't quite understand how it's come to deserve such scorn — maybe I missed its demise after its heyday or something. I much prefer C&H, TFS, and xkcd, but Garfield was good too.

Posted by: TinaG | February 3, 2009 9:02 AM

Calvin & Hobbes is my all-time #1 favorite. It drives me crazy that so many vehicles down here in the south have window stickers of Calvin kneeling in front of a cross and praying. DRIVES. ME. NUTS.

Posted by: E.V. | February 3, 2009 9:34 AM

Listing Garfield as your chief favorite comic strip is like admitting that ABBA is your favorite band. Yeah, everyone who claims to hate them seems to have an uncanny knack of recalling all the lyrics -whatever; we all know the guilty pap that is ABBA, but for the top #1 spot? You might as well reveal you're a charter member of the Friends fan club and list Forrest Gump as the greatest film of all time. Sugary breakfast cereal equivalencies - it's the Cap'n Crunchification of pop culture.

Posted by: KI | February 3, 2009 9:48 AM

mayhempix@137
I had forgotten Kliban, I loved his cat stuff. I even put a tune to the ditty in the panel "Cats Sing the Blues"
Love to eat them mousies
Mousies what I like to eat
Bite they little heads off
Nibble on they tiny feet.

In E, with a slow beat.

Posted by: BZ | February 3, 2009 1:06 PM

What do you mean "was" the best?

I still re-read them and they make me laugh every time. He was (is) a genius! My family thinks I'm warped when I forward really good ones to them.

Posted by: J. D. Mack | February 3, 2009 4:24 PM

#162 - My favorite Kliban cartoon is the one where the minister says "let us pray," and then everyone assumes the same bizarre posture.

Someone earlier mentioned The Boondocks. That's a comic that clearly draws its influence from Bloom County and C & H, but never imitates. I think it's brilliant.

Posted by: varlo | February 3, 2009 8:05 PM

Best ever? Humbug The late (and sorely missed) weekday Wizard of Id trumps C&H easily. It reached its apogee when panel one showed Sir Rodney interviewing an applicant for the "Stable Help Wanted" sign in the background. In the next panel Sir Rodney showed the applicant a thin, round container, and asked "What's this?" "Shinola" was the response. "You're hired" Rodney declared in the final panel.

Posted by: Sili | February 7, 2009 2:53 PM

Having grown up in the Franco-Belgian tradition I'll keep out of the argument of best-evar.

But I think people here may like David Morgan-Mar's Irregular Webcomic. It's filled with intelligent and humorous annotations. And he has an amusing little quip about evolution today.