Andy Capp

Interesting to see a reference to Andy Capp in this week's ep, to go along with the various references in The Simpsons ("Oh Andy Capp, you wife beating drunk!" - Homer). Can anyone explain why Andy Capp seems to be so popular in the US? I mean, let's face it, the cartoon strip isn't really *that* funny. It's nowhere near the standard of (say) Tom The Dancing Bug, Red Meat, The Far Side, Garfield or Calvin and Hobbes.

If there was one strip from the Daily Mirror cartoon page that would travel well, I'd have through it'd be The Perishers, or maybe that one with the Cowboy (sorry, haven't read the paper for years, can't remember the name), but Andy Capp seems to just re-hash the same five jokes for about the last fifty years. Of course, it doesn't really matter that much, but you've given us Brits the life-affirming joy of Calvin and Hobbes, I just feel that we should give you something of quality in return.

Any other UK comic strips that have made the trip to the States? If Fred Bassett is one of them, I can only apologize profusely.

Cheers, Mark X --- www.gamebroth.co.uk - The gaming site that has no amusing sig. www.xbollox.com - Family Guy Uncensored. And stuff.

The chap who drew Andy Capp (Smythe?) died a few months ago... I had always ignored the strip as a kid, since it always seemed to have the same scenes with the same boring dialogue. I also missed the titular pun as a child, in that the drunk lout was a "handicapp" to his wife.

I don't think Andy Capp is really that popular (he was used for advertising purposes by some junk food company years ago, but I can't remember what it was--some sort of fried potato sticks or something). There are a lot of strips that have a great deal of inertia but aren't particularly funny, creative, or even well drawn, and many of the original artists are dead. Some examples (with artists both living and dead): Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Nancy, Shoe, Peanuts (well, the past 10-20 years), etc. There are some strips that are managing to maintain a good sense of consistent quality over a long period of time: Foxtrot and For Better or Worse come to mind, with the latter having the characters age in real time. I don't think either would work well drawn by another artist for years after the death of the creator.

My current favorite is the Boondocks, by Aaron McGruder. Incredible stuff, and the fact that it has been removed from many newspapers due to outraged idiots makes it even better. :)

--Shi Bao Nai

Shi Bao Nai wrote:

Still is: Andy Capp's Hot Fries. Nasty stuff.

I get the impression he's getting tired of drawing the strip, tho. At least from the last several Sunday strips. Haven't seen the daily strip for a while.

Kimba

[email] (Mark X) wrote:

It seems to me that the average level of thought in newspaper comics syndication is about the same as Big 3 (ABC, NBC, CBS) network TV. Thus, you have things like Andy Capp, The Lockhorns, Heathcliff, Marmaduke churning out the same joke every day.

Yup, Fred Bassett is a long time staple of second-string newspaper comics pages here. I can only hope we haven't inflicted things like Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean on you guys.

I can't think of any comics I identify as British in origin other than Andy Capp and Fred Bassett.

Kimba

I hate _Family Circus_ as much as anybody else, but I'l going to have to take exception to referring to _The Lockhorns_ as "churning out the same joke every day." _The Lockhorns_ is _the_ only comic strip that consistently makes me laugh and suprises me with its originality, and I've been reading it since I was ten, I guess (I'm 28 now). Bill Hoest is one funny MF. I mean, it's no _Bloom County_, but I don't think another strip will ever be able to live up to that standard anyway.

-- Warren B. proud reader of Long Island _Newsday's_ comics section since 1983

Warren Bloom wrote:

I'm not going to deny you your right to enjoy The Lockhorns, but Bill Hoest has been dead since 1988. Bunny Hoest and John Reiner draw that cartoon along with Howard Huge and Bumper Snickers.

Kimba

I meant Bunny Hoest (honest). And regardless, it's stil pretty funny, whoever's writing it. I'm digging _Zits_ too, though I don't know if that national or not. (_Howard Huge_ I could live without. Seems like one of those cartoons you find in _Boy's Life_.)

BTW, I hate the strip too, I mean that was funny when, in 1954? They look like theyre still stuck there too.

Has anyone seen the strips this past week w/them in New York? Somone actually called in to our paper and called them 'racist' b/c billy said something along the lines of "does anyone here speak english?"

On 12 Aug 2001 00:48:07 -0700, [email] (Mark X) wrote:

We used to get Paul Sellers' "Eb and Flo" and Kim Casali's "Love Is...", but I haven't seen either one of those in years...

biohazard wrote:

"Love Is..." is from the UK? I just saw that recently; prolly in the Dallas Morning News.

Kimba

Kimba W. Lion wrote in message news:...

I hope not. If it is, however, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the population of the UK. Oh, what must you think of us.

Can't say I've heard of them - as far as I know, the only US strips doing the rounds in national papers are of the Snoopy, Dilbert, Doonesbury, Wizard of Id and Garfield variety. The likes of Red Meat and The Far Side appear in the odd magazine. Anything that might contain US specific humour wouldn't really fit in, much the same as Viz* comic (probably) wouldn't translate that well to the US.

(* www.viz.co.uk - see for yourself.)

Cheers, Mark X --- www.familyguy.da.ru - I can't remember where www.gamebroth.co.uk - I saved my sig, so I'm www.xbollox.com - typing this out bit by bit

[email] (Mark X) wrote:

Ugh. Doonesbury is as ossified as Heathcliff and that lot that I mentioned.

I wonder, does Dilbert have any relevance to the UK workplace? Here it seems to be a training manual for middle managers.

Kimba

On 13 Aug 2001 08:57:05 -0700, [email] (Mark X) wrote:

According to her obituary, Casali was living in the UK (Leatherhead, Surrey) at the time of her death, however I've since found out that she was born in New Zealand and started drawing the strip while living in Los Angeles (as an illegal alien)...the current artist (her son Stefano) was born in Wimbledon...