Keyscaper keyboards and mice may be the baddest on the planet with their striking graphics from Marvel Comics and Star Trek.
Wolverine really gets around
Submitted by Drennan on 01/01/2010 - 16:28
Check out this neat graphic documenting the love lives of the X-Men, bub.
The Sunday comics, part 2
Submitted by linny on 03/03/2009 - 08:00 Until last week, I had managed to have a 35-year career in newspapers without having my name associated with any decision about the comics pages. Ah, the glory years.
To recap. In recent months, this newspaper has had to cut columns of space because dwindling advertising forced us to reduce expenses. Until last week, the comics pages were left alone. Despite dire warnings of the perils of "messing with the comics," it became untenable to continue to reduce space alloted to news and other popular features while continuing our generous offering of comics at the same level. On Sunday, we dropped two strips.
The N&O publishes 44 comic strips Monday through Saturday and still carries 27 on Sundays despite reducing the Sunday color comics section from six pages to four. (The fees for the rights to carry the strips are modest. It's the cost of the newsprint that is a bear.) We continue to carry more comics than most daily newspapers.
Still, the Monday mail brought a flood of complaints. A few readers disagreed with the decision to drop "Peanuts" and "For Better of For Worse." They were dropped from Sunday because both are in essence reruns. Both continue in the current Monday through Saturday comics pages.
Most of the people who weighed in said the type in the new 4-page layout is too small. That was a surprise because we tested the new layout in the newsroom among people of different ages and people who have less than perfect vision.
It turns out that sizing the comics is not a simple process. Each strip had to be reduced proportionately to the original size. So, it's not a simple matter of making each the same size, or shrinking one to make another just a little bigger.
We can revisit the size of the strips, but it won't be pretty. This might require eliminating one or more of the strips in the 4-page layout. So, if I can get all of you to agree on which strips go away....
Linda Williams
Changes not so comical
Submitted by bwheeler on 03/02/2009 - 18:34
Readers were not at all happy with the changes The N&O made in its
Sunday comics offering. The paper took the section down from six pages
to four in order to save expensive newsprint in these times of economic
crisis. Find a couple letters on tomorrow's editorial page and some
more here.
The Sunday comics
Submitted by linny on 02/26/2009 - 08:30 The Sunday comics section will have a new look, starting Sunday.
The strips will be presented in four color pages, instead of six. However, the new design required the elimination of just two of the 29 strips we were running each week.
"Peanuts" and "For Better or For Worse" will no longer appear on Sundays, but will continue in the current Monday through Saturday comics pages.
Many of you have given us feedback on our selection of comics. We know that each of the 44 strips we publish daily (a far greater selection than most newspapers) has passionate fans. Selecting just two to eliminate on one day was not an easy task, but was necessary because of our financial realities.
We hope you will continue to enjoy our vast selection of daily comics and the Sunday section.
We welcome your comments.
Linda Williams
Senior Editor
Mallard Fillmore's fate TBA
Submitted by jdrescher on 10/02/2008 - 18:03Bruce Tinsley started drawing "Mallard Fillmore" in 1990 when he worked at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. Tinsley drew Mallard as the mascot for a new entertainment section. The publisher liked it so much he asked Tinsley to expand his work into an ongoing narrative, which became a kind of graphic novel.
Then Tinsley, a political conservative, added political and cultural commentary and MF eventually evolved into a comic strip. Tinsley says he was asked by management to "moderate my ideology." He refused and was fired. His work moved to The Washington Times. Since 1994, "Mallard Fillmore" has been syndicated and now appears in about 400 newspapers.
Should The N&O be one of them? We've run "Mallard" since January. Many readers like it. Many other readers don't like it. In August, Ted Vaden, N&O public editor, said we should pluck the duck: "Tinsley's cartoon has morphed from political satire to political propaganda....I don't think the newspaper has an obligation to continue an unfair partisan strip out of a contrived sense of balance."
Let me know what you think we should do. Post your comments below. I'll announce my decision in Saturday's paper.
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