What’s new? Comics, puzzle

We’re taking a deep, deep breath today, and hoping you, our readers, will be amused.

Comics pages are one of the most important features in a newspaper, and it is up to us to keep them relevant and rewarding. They need to evolve with the times and with the interests of readers.

At the Times Colonist, our comics pages have been getting stale. They were overdue for a change, so today, that change is here.

We are introducing four new comics, bringing back an old favourite and changing one of the crossword puzzles as well.

Anything new takes a while to get used to, so please take some time in the next few days to absorb the changes. How did we come to these decisions? We wanted a more even mix of “legacy” and “contemporary” titles. There are many great strips out there, and we wanted to bring some of these fresh laughs to you.

For instance, For Better or For Worse had been in re-runs since 2008. This was a groundbreaking strip in its day, but that day has passed, and some of the story elements seem dated and out of touch with life in 2015.

Our most daring change deals with Garfield. We feel it has lost its edge, and that we can offer our readers something better.

One of our new strips is Tina’s Groove. It’s by a Canadian, Rina Piccolo, and is hugely popular in other newspapers.

We are one of the first Canadian newspapers to run Intelligent Life, a hilarious new strip that skewers current pop culture. You will also find Mutts, Take It From The Tinkersons and Bizarro.

We are keeping most of the strips we had before, including Adrian Raeside’s The Other Coast as well as Ben, Hagar, Dilbert, Pearls Before Swine and Blondie.

We tried to ensure that the comics pages will offer something for everyone.

Our new crossword puzzle is done by a Canadian. Called North of 49, it will replace the weekly Los Angeles Times puzzle. We get regular complaints about a lack of Canadian content in these puzzles, so we are hoping that this small step will help us to reflect our Canadian identity.

It’s never easy making changes, and they don’t come without serious thought, because we know that losing a comic strip can feel like losing an old friend.

Please give the new strips a chance. If you do, we are confident that you will grow to love them.

Today’s comics are on pages C5-C8.