What killed newspaper comic strips?
>>152128536>bait questionFuck off
>>152128536The internet, same as 90% of "what killed x" questions. People stopped reading newspapers and news websites don't usually have a comics section.
>>152128536Shit economy (most people can’t buy heaps of merch like they could in the 90s) + internet diluting popular culture out of existence
>>152128598>news websites don't usually have a comics section99% only have news (politics/economics/pop. science), entertainment (sports/press releases), opinions (spin/propaganda), and ads.Newspapers 100 years ago had comics, poetry, serialised novels, jokes, editorial cartoons, job listings, recipes, local history/lore etc etc.And it was cheaper because Murdoch hadn't turned news into a six-figure career yet.
>>152128536Other than the elderly, who buys newspapers?
>>152128554What's bait about it? Newspaper strips are more or less irrelevant and have been for 20ish years. Boondocks is maybe the last one to claim any kind of cultural relevancy and people know the show way more than they do the strip to the point where I'd bet a not insignificant number of people probably don't even know it was a comic strip in the first place.
>>152128554>baitit's genuine you faggot
>>152128536Wtf was joe rogan doing in 1996?
>>152128536I’m supposed to pretend The Boondocks didn’t exist and was 1000% the better comic and show?
>>152130290Hi, Aaron.
>>152128536Partly the internet, like >>152128598 said but it was a gradual processIn the 50s newspapers started shrinking the comics and preferred more simplified-designed comics like Peanuts.In the 70s a lot of comics looked way crude but there were still comics that managed to make it into the mainstream. Doonesbury, Cathy, and some others.In the 80s you had the seeds of another comic strip renaissance with Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, and Bloom County/Outland but then they all left by the mid-90s. Coincidentally after they left, this was when Dilbert became popularIn the early 00s you could get your news from websites and sell stuff on eBay, which meant you didn't need to buy a newspaperIn the late 00s you got Craigslist which killed the Classified section. Magazine circulation as a whole also fell across the board during this time so it wasn't surprising that it happened to newspapers.2010s and the rise of social media and smartphones made it even faster to get news, albeit sensationalized and potentially exaggerated clickbait shit. It didn't help that legacy media tried to jump on that bandwagon and cause distrust across all political spectrums for that reason (among others).Comic strips ended up getting fucked by these changes because there was no need to buy a paper and people took the comics for granted; there was a whole shitstorm about a chain of newspapers deciding to ditch a syndicate's worth of strips, a while backAnd yes there were popular new strips as the spum guy says. Zits, Get Fuzzy, Liberty Meadows, Mutts, The Boondocks, Pearls Before Swine. Those were the comics I usually see people have anything consistently positive to say about.I would say that The Boondocks was probably the last popular comic strip that hit a wider mainstream audience, though.
What's a newspaper?
>>1521285361) The internet2) Corrupt businessmen buying out papers and ruining them to kill local journalism
>>152128536Newspaper syndicates
Most comic strips are unfunny by nature because they need to be sterile and boomer-friendly for newspapers.
Rosebuds is beloved everywhere and Slylock Fox has a movie in development. Also >>152130290
>>152129355>>152130290The Boondocks did pretty damn well for a comic debuting late 90s, running through the 00s, but McGruder put the comic on hiatus right after the show started because he got way more involved in the writing and development of the show.If people only know it as a show it's partly because the comic was gone from newspapers during most of the show's run.Boondocks is arguably better but Dilbert was a bigger phenomenon by comparison. I think had Boondocks debuted a few years earlier it might've had even more traction.
Webcomics displaced newspaper comics.
For me it's Mister Boffo
>>152131455Rosebuds is great but it hasn't gotten to that kind of popularity level yetSlylock Fox has a movie in development but remember, Over the Hedge had an animated movie, Baby Blues had a short-lived TV show.Actually now that I think of it there's one comic strip that became massive in later decades--Big Nate--but it became massive through the YA books and the comic started in 1991
>>152131390Thank you.>>152131481I think the comic's artstyle is harder to like.
>>152131491Not at all.Ain't no one talking about webcomics besides autistic third world internet dwellers.
>>152131491Maybe a few but no. In general most Webcomics are even more niche than Newspaper Comic Strips.
>>152131260The thing with Boondocks is how popular was it really prior to the show. Like I said, I think there's a lot of people who only know the show and don't know that it's based on a comic or have never actually read the comic.But that late '90s/early 2000s period was basically the swan song of the relevance of comic strips. I am surprised that stuff like Zits, Luann and Funky Winkerbean never got real adaptations during that period (especially Zits) when Baby Blues did though.
>>152132029I should have said FoxTrot too. FoxTrot feels like it would have worked well in 2000s CN as a sort of bridge between the normal programming and Adult Swim.
>>152128725Do you guys ever realize that society has just slowly been getting worse and worse since smart phones came into existence?
>>152128536Isn’t Rosebuds a newpaper comic too?
>>152130290I didn't even know it was a comic strip. Yet I knew about Dilbert because it was widely published. You could go to a Goodwill and grab a used volume for $5. Also Boondocks cartoon is way better.
>>152128536Newspapers died. Not just to the internet though, but also to movies, TV, home video, video games, and then the internet.
>>152132029>The thing with Boondocks is how popular was it really prior to the show. Like I said, I think there's a lot of people who only know the show and don't know that it's based on a comic or have never actually read the comic.Yeah and I think part of it is the decline of newspapers in the 00s but the other part of it is because the show demanded much of McGruder's time and attention. I think the first season aired before McGruder decided to put the comic on hiatus completely. Most of the show's run was airing when the comic strip wasn't in papers or maybe in reruns in some papers, if that.I also think it's possible that the change in TV and such also was a factor. In the 80s you had a lot of comic strip TV specials and adaptations, not just Peanuts and Garfield but Cathy got a few, Marvin got one, and such. For Better Or For Worse got a special. Mother Goose and Grimm got a short-lived animated cartoon.>>152132054FoxTrot I'm really surprised never got a cartoon or other adaptation.
>>152132242Forgot to say that I think the change in TV and such also was a factor in the late 90s/early 00s being the swan song of comic strip relevance
>>152132066I'm old enough to remember smartphones coming into existence at the same time as the financial crash/great recession (when the West was lost).And even then I'd say Facebook and Google are more at fault for an unsustainable amount of people being angry/miserable/insane all the time than the actual technology itself.
>>152128554fpbp
>>152128536Everything that >>152131260 has said, but also that there hasn't been very much new blood in the comics pages for a long time. Phoebe and her Unicorn ended their daily newspaper run for sundays only and to continue selling YA books that almost rival Dav Pilkey numbers and almost got a TV show. Crabgrass recently blew up over the last few years thanks to Adams shitting the bed and taking over his Dilbert newspaper slots. And Rosebuds is just starting to gain mainstream momentum by being the fresh new comic that's good and is apparently now being seen in newspapers outside the US. But they're the major ones to have come out in the last 10 years or so, I know I didn't bring up Wallace the Brave or Breaking Cat News, but I don't know if they have or had that same specific breakout moment that Phoebe, Crabgrass, and Rosebuds has.
>>152132242>For Better Or For Worse got a special.For Better or For Worse got an entire TV series:https://youtu.be/nlisQMX_blY
>>152132325I forgot to add that, but yeah
>>152132289Thing is, I knew about Big Nate because I read the comics back then and it used to be in a newspaper I used to get so I knew that was a comic strip when I saw the YA novels on displayI see Phoebe And Her Unicron stuff on display at bookstores and wasn't aware it was a comic strip.Rosebuds I only knew about through hearing about it here. I think today's comic strip creators may have a bigger uphill climb to get visibility unless something changes in comic strips' favor in the next ten years
>>152132242>Marvin got oneMarvin getting one is funny given that Tom Armstrong left doing the art for John Darling to create that strip while Funky never got more than a high school stage play and it's clear Batiuk is resentful that the opportunities it had in the '80s never actually went anywhere.The only reason I can think of for FoxTrot not getting one is that Amend just didn't want one or didn't push for it too hard.>>152132279Smartphones were basically a novelty until 4G made mobile internet more practical and Samsung et al started producing cheaper ones and that wasn't until the early 2011/2012ish.>>152132289Rosebuds is popular entirely because of fetish shit.
>>152128536Peanuts>>152131348
>>152132444>Smartphones were basically a novelty until 4GThe iPhone 3G was a big deal and that came out in 2008.
>>152132279>>152132444I was thinking it's their ease of use and how they opened up "The Internet" to such a wide swath of people. Before that, the masses would get their news from newspapers, now they get it from twitter and are so addicted to constant stimulus that they can't even watch tv unless it's a "second screen." Like, if you still needed a laptop or a desktop to surf the net, I don't think it would have gotten THIS bad.
>>152132509>Before that, the masses would get their news from newspapers, now they get it from twitterYou've skipped over the intervening 80 something years which included the spread of radio, newsreels, and television.Watch the 1976 movie 'Network', I think you'll find it interesting.
>>152132066no, you are the first person on the planet to think this
>I think today's comic strip creators may have a bigger uphill climb to get visibility unless something changes in comic strips' favor in the next ten yearsThe overall problem with comic strips is that there is no room for new ones to come in because the old ones don't go away, they either get taken over by someone else or are put in perpetual reruns.
>>152132289It says a lot about these people that for them racism is the ultimate unforgivable sin.
>>152132745If he wanted forgiveness he should've apologized
>>152132444>Rosebuds is popular entirely because of fetish shit.Only to 5 anons maybe
>>152128536Anon the death of print killed newspapers.
TV
>>152132723>the old ones don't go awayThat's a problem with the fact that the only people still reading newspapers are older and of that cotingent, the ones that read the comics page don't want new strips, they just want the old familiar ones. That's how complete garbage like Crankshaft manages to stick around.
>>152130290Boondocks had pretty low circulation. Certainly nowhere near the level of Zits, Dilbert, For Better or For Worse or Blondie. And nowhere near the stratosphere above that with Garfield, peanuts and C&H.
>>152133393>Blondie is 95 years old>Nancy is 87 years old and keeps changing new artists>Bettle Bailey is 75 years old>Peanuts is 75 years old in reruns>Family Circus is 65 years old in psuedo rerunsThis shouldn't be allowed
>>152133521Honestly the most I remember from my time reading Zits was that I had a thing for Sara when I was in junior high.
Honestly, this is kind of the difference between the comic industry and the manga industry.I can think of all sorts of mangaka and animators behind iconic works who've said all sorts of off-color things, but I can guarantee that as soon as they die, tons of mangaka in the industry will gladly put out a tribute or at the very least leave some kind parting words.Meanwhile, in the comic industry, people are catty, angry, petty, and when someone they don't like dies they will take that chance to dance on their grave.
>>152133997It depends. Some people were saying nice things about him and they were usually the older cartoonists. It was usually the younger crowd dunking on him lately. This has more to do with Adams being way more acceptable as a target to social media dwelling cartoonists to dunk on than some sort of difference between the comics and manga industries.
>>152132289The problem is that I barely heard anything about Crabgrass other than here. I almost swear I heard of it before but likely also through this board and forgot. So while it's an accomplishment to go from 70 to 800 newspapers I can't help but think this would've been way better if it happened in the 90s or even the 00s.
>>152133393There are also so few papers and magazines anymore that no other tier of work exists for new artists to come up in, a webcomic is it for most putting their work out there
>>152134302>The problem is that I barely heard anything about Crabgrass other than here.I mean, do you actually go anywhere to look and read or discuss comics outside of here? It's popular as fuck on Instagram, for example. /co/ isn't the place to measure the success of anything, anon, especially for an art medium most anons think is below them.
>>152133997Any time a liberal has died, Trump has tweeted out about how they deserved it or they were deranged or a failure, dancing on their grave. You want people to be respectful without giving any respect yourself. Get real.
>>152128536They were never good. They were only around because of newspapers.
>>152128536>nerds were briefly aware of dilbert in the 90s>therefore it was bigger than sliced bread
>>152134560Ah, the Famicom mentality.
>>152128536>What killed newspaper comic strips?We went from:>Battle of weekend box office.>Battle of Saturday night television.>Battle of the newsstand magazine/newspaper.To:>War for your attention span.>Death of print media.>New media, interactive media, digital media.>Social media, streaming.Online comic strips did have their brief moment but far too many of them now are really just windows into the lives of lolcows. >>152133997Comics social media is just the worst. The death of Ed Piskor really shone a light on how bad these people are.
>>152134531>TrumpTrump isn't a comic artist and he's not me, so I fail to see your point.Again, this is why your industry isn't worthy of respect and never will be.
>>152134380I think GoComics has stuff that doesn't get into newspapers, right?
>>152132925Titty Monster, Big Dumptruck Loli, Sticc LatinaC'mon son.
>>152128536so Dilbert was an industry plant by far right money
>>152134618yes, but gocomics is paywalled now
>>152134646His previous comic is also pretty blatant fat fetishism. Crabgrass also looks like blatant shotabait what with the white kid's design just being a genderflipped Teena
>>152134560>nerds were briefly aware of dilbert in the 90sI don't think you understand, practically everyone knew Dilbert because practically every family got it delivered to their house daily.Now that doesn't necessarily mean they were Dilbert fans, I'm just saying in terms of sheer awareness newspaper comics were always high. People also knew Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, etc.If you're not just baiting, this is interesting to me. Maybe the whole newspaper funnies aspect of culture is going to seem as odd to young people as milkmen do to me. Like they'll know it happened, but they won't know all the nuances of culture around it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmAHqS8zH40
>>152134753I think there are some characters that are known more for advertising than their comics. Andy Capp and hot fries are one, maybe Hagar and Mug root beer too.
>>152134799>Hagar and Mug Root BeerThat was a thing? I only know of Snoopy and A&W root beer
>>152134753>I don't think you understand, practically everyone knew Dilbert because practically every family got it delivered to their house daily.There is practically no cultural touchstones anymore because people are pulled in so many different directions. No wonder it is so easy to divide us.
>>152128536Spum is a Twittertard who despises anything modern for the sake of it being modern
>>152134852For a few years in the '80s and '90s. He was also the mascot of the Cleveland State Vikings for a while.
>>152134799Probably true for some people, but the characters were chosen for advertising because they were already widely known. Like The Flintstones for vitamins and cereal.
>>152132289Why is "mediocre" always a go-to label these types of people fall back on. Why not just "shit" or some equivalent.Always reads like they're saying "well, the guy's not THAT bad, but still..."
>>152134753I didn't say people weren't aware of Dilbert, but as you say - being aware of something isn't the same as it being a fan of it. Newspapers preferred comics that were popular and appealed to readers, but they were willing to settle for garbage that would print reliably. Growing up in the 90s everyone knew what Family Circus and Marmaduke and shit were, but I didn't know a single person under the age of 70 who actually read them.
>>152134982You saw what happened to Scott Adams when he started shit talking people. Those who don’t learn are doomed to repeat.
>>152133521Beetle Bailey is quietly a juggernaut
>>152132501Unironically this. Peanuts being in reruns is doing nothing but clogging up opportunities for new comics. It needs to be let go. Majority of people only even know about it from the animated specials and abundance of snoopy merch.
>>152135022Ah, fair enough. I read "nerds were aware of Dilbert" as implying only nerds were aware of it. In that case you're right, awareness isn't the same as being a fan, as I said. I just meant that it was a daily presence whether people loved it or not, so basically everyone was culturally aware of it.
>>152135062newspapers are dead, Peanuts getting removed from syndication won't magically create new readers for new strips
>>152128598News websites used to, but then they realized most kids were only buying news papers to look at the comics. Then webcomics happened and newspapers lost their reason to exist. And our webcomics were better, you could have naked chicks in them.
>>152135022>Growing up in the 90s everyone knew what Family Circus and Marmaduke and shit were, but I didn't know a single person under the age of 70 who actually read them.I sometimes read them because I was bored and had nothing but the paper to entertain me, but I rarely enjoyed them. Marmaduke was better because it at least had a big dog to look at, but neither were very funny.
>>152128536Calvin and Hobbes was a newspaper comic?
>>152135097Creating more opportunities wouldThe reason these newspapers are dead is because they're an even bigger self-serving circlejerk than Games and Comics journalism have become.
>>152135117newspapers are dead because print media is dead outside of books because people made the deliberate choice to keep physical books alive. Peanuts "ending" wouldn't suddenly revive newspapers.
They completely removed the magazine sections from grocery stores here recently. Before they kept a small, sad looking section that few people bought from, but it's still odd to see them gone completely.Going to the store and reading game magazines without paying while waiting around used to be great.
>>152135031Kind of defeats the whole purpose of insulting someone if you're just going to be completely toothless about it.
>>152132289Crabgrass is good, but the fact that the artist thinks becoming successful as a diversity hire is something worth bragging about makes me lose respect for his intelligence.
>>152135133And to make that post /co/ related
>>152128536Gradual decline of a balanced "this is the prestige format" with artists on that level + worse artists that could manage a hurr durr funny joke of the day, to just the latter as comic books rose in prominence, then manga, and finally the slow death of print media.
>>152131260>Bloom County/Outland but then they all left by the mid-90s.Bloom County has actually been making new comics for the past 10 years, but it’s only been Facebook exclusive and he just started paywalling comics on Patreon a few days ago.
Also worth noting that many ongoing series are just zombie franchises puppeteered by people not creative enough to establish their own mythos.
>>152135204There was also a Bloom County TV show being made with FOX that got cancelled because of Trump
>>152134455>I mean, do you actually go anywhere to look and read or discuss comics outside of here? Yes.>It's popular as fuck on Instagram, for example.The problem with this is you have to know about it, to look for it or hope the algorithm boosts it. I can't remember the last time I picked up the paper, it might've been before 2020. The wiki claims that Crabgrass started in 2019 but only started getting in the papers in 2022 which is most likely why I didn't see it.
>>152135133It's why I got annoyed by the people insisting that if we simply put comics back in grocery stores it would solve everything, I always wondered if people who say that ever paid attention to those places in the past ten years
