Re: end of Dilbert

On 1/16/26 1:44 PM, Your Name wrote:
> On 2026-01-16 11:38:51 +0000, The True Melissa said:
>> Verily, in article <[email protected]>, did
>> [email protected] deliver unto us this message:
>>>
>>> Dilbert's last 20 years of strips wasn't that good;
>>> it's the period of around 1995 - 1999 that are gold!
>>
>> That's completely normal for comics. My father once told me that Blondie
>> was funny when it started out;

Blondie started in the 1930s, I think.  I saw some
old reprints of 1960s Blondie that I liked; but none but the
beginning and the current Blondie has in-print books.

Dennis the Menace (U.S., by Ketchum) was far better in
the 1950s, before it was toned down, and dull since then.
Fantagraphics has reprinted the complete 1950s strips,
the good stuff, which should be considered like an entirely
different strip compared to the last 65 years of strips.
Funny Dennis The Menace is funny, and it hasn't been
funny since the 1950s.  I was aware of this since I was a
kid, as used decades-old reprints of Dennis The Menace were
sold for half it's cover price, or 17 cents.  If I had only
seen current strips I would never have associated it with
anything good.

>> I was startled. I once read some very old
>> Family Circus comics, and it was a very different strip in which their
>> neglectful father drank a lot and ogled hotties while the kids did some
>> genuinely bad things.

I bought a beginning complete reprint of Family Circus,
I haven't read it yet, but I assume if there's any
good in the strip it will be there.

Ditto, for Better Or For Worse, which later changed
from family humor to soap opera.

>>
>> I respect the creator of Calvin and Hobbes for ending it before it began
>> to stink.

I used to think it started stinking towards the
end, but now that there's complete reprints I
can appreciate it all.

Hooray for printed newspaper comic strip collections!
That's how good comic strips are remembered, not the
one comic a day stuff, that's ephemeral.

"Relevant" equals ephemeral.  "Topical humor" tend not
to get print books, because it really is intended to be
ephemeral, though I would prefer to read out-of-date
"topical" material because it grants an additional
perspective to the reader unavailable to the author.

(I *might* appreciate Ted Rall's Trump-only comics,
but only after the fact, which I suspect will not be
available because of it's ephemeraliness.  The only part
I like of it is his recurring Sherlock Trump theme, with
the Holmes detective hat and magnifying glass).


> 
> It's the "American way" to keep churning something out until everybody is thoroughly sick of it and not bothering to watch / read / listen to it (and then make some more just to make sure) ... just look at The Simpsons.  :-\
> 
> Then there's the UK comedy "Ghosts" which ran for 5 seasons, 34 episodes in total before the makers chose to end it. The US decided to copy it, but the US version has been renewed for a sixth season and already has 82 episodes.

Traditional American shows are about 35 episodes a year,
so a five year run had a lot of episodes: Honeymooners,
I Love Lucy, witchy genie supernatural sitcoms from
the 1960s, etc.

> 
> Also the numerous spin-off of shows like Stargate, Star Trek, NCIS, Law & Order, etc.
> 
> If Star Wars had been a UK project, it probaly would have ended with the Original Trilogy. Because it's a US project, it has had two more trilogies and lots of spin-off movies and TV shows, with more planned (including yet another trilogy "continuing the story after Episode IX", despite saying that was the end of the Saga).

Yeah, but the UK would have thrown it all in the
trash after the initial run, for "it no longer
serves a current purpose".  So the original
Trilogy could only be shown as publicity stills
with fan saved audio, before updating to 100% CGI
animation; only the last of the endless sequels
would survive intact, and that would be "the Star
Wars" that all would refer to.

"We are looking towards the future, not the past"
say the Archivists of the Future!  And future
events like these will affect you in the future!
And knowledge of the past prevents the future
from happening, the only way forward is to
ignore what's behind you, etc.