Funny business

Cape Breton Post changing comics with new Pause and Play page.

Dear Reader, We have had some fun with your funnies pages! As you will recall we asked you, and other readers across the Transcontinental group of newspapers, which includes the Cape Breton Post, to help us choose a slate of 10 comics from a large selection of options. And you told us. Thank you to all who participated in our polling. We also puzzled over our puzzles — and we found the solution!

Today, we start anew with Pause and Play page (see B8), which we hope you will enjoy.

Some fun and games takes a bit of time to get used to, so we are asking you to take the coming days to digest the changes. On Saturday, we will also have a refreshed roster of comics and puzzles.

This is all in lead up to the launch of a massive fun and games section on our web and mobile sites. More news on that to come, so stay tuned!

You may ask how we came to our decisions and what readers had to say. Here are some points we would like to share:

• We used the used top five comics as selected by readers.

• We consulted experts to analyze national and international popularity of comics.

• We split the choices evenly between so-called “legacy” and “contemporary” titles. There are many new voices out there and we wanted to share. Some comics, like For Better or For Worse, had been in re-runs for more than seven years. We chose to bring you fresh laughs instead. We have included Between Friends because it’s a wonderful strip by Canadian Sandra Bell Lundy. The list is very family-oriented, which is matches our reader profiles.

• The new comics list includes Blondie, Hagar, Zits, Family Circus, Hi & Lois, Baby Blues, Mother Goose, Dustin, Bizarro and Between Friends.

Our list of puzzles includes the Daily Crossword puzzle, Sudoku, Word Sleuth and Jumble, as well as your Canadian Bridge game and the Daily Horoscope.

We hope you enjoy and we

welcome your feedback.