Five new comics join the Post-Gazette’s funnies
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Starting Sunday, the PostGazette is making a series of changes to refresh our comics and puzzle pages.
We’re introducing five new comics and adding “Marmaduke,” “Big Nate,” “Jump Start,” “Frank and Ernest,” “Lio” and “Pearls Before Swine” to the Sunday funnies. Currently those six comics run Monday through Saturday only.
We’ll also add a feature to our puzzle page Monday through Saturday — KenKen, aSudoku-like logic puzzle that aimsto make you smarter.
The reboot, which streamlines our collection, reflects input from the Post-Gazette’s latest comics survey as well as a desire to bring in new creators and features.
While TV networks and cable stations are continually revising their lineups — sometimes several times during a season — the PostGazette’s comics pages, like those of other newspapers, go years without an adjustment.
In the biggest recent shakeup, creator Cathy Guisewite said goodbye to “Cathy” on Oct. 3, 2010, after a 34-year run so she could pursue other interests. We tested several comics with readers, and “Big Nate,” a comic about the escapades of an 11-year-old boy, took its place in February 2011.
The top winner in our online and mail-in comics surveys was classic “Peanuts” by the late Charles Schulz. Our new design in the daily pages will bump up the size of that strip so it will be easier to follow the antics of Linus, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Several of our legacy comics did poorly in the survey and won’t continue.
We’re excited to showcase “Bizarro,” which is now drawn Monday through Saturday by Mt. Lebanon artist Wayno. That will have a special spot next to our TV listings. It will not be includedin the Sunday funnies.
Let’s meet our new comics and their creators:
• “Adam@Home” by Rob Harrell chronicles the life of Adam Newman, a work-athome dad, who has to deal with job deadlines, minivan support groups, sibling arguments and marriage issues while searching for the perfect latte. Started by Brian Basset in 1984, the strip was taken over by Mr. Harrell of Austin, Texas, in 2009. It runs in 140 papers worldwide.
• “Pooch Cafe” by Paul Gilligan, because you can never have too many comic strips about dogs. This strip is focused on lead dog Poncho and the Pooch Cafe, where all the neighborhood dogs gather to compare notes on toilet breath and avoiding baths and to strategize on how to get rid of all of the cats. The Canadian artist’s strip is featured in 300 newspapers.
• If you like the humor of “Non Sequitur” and “Bizarro,” you’ll like “The Argyle Sweater” by Scott Hilburn of the Dallas area. Each panel, which is always different, presents the same surreal, absurd view of the world. It has been syndicated since 2008.
• Another comic panel of odd-ball humor, “Off the Mark” by Mark Parisi, has been running since 1987. Mr. Parisi said his work is influenced by Charles Schulz, Mad Magazine and Gary Larson, who penned “The Far Side.”
• “Brevity,” currently drawn by Dan Thompson, is one of the newest comic panels. It debuted in 2005, created by Guy EndoreKaiser and Rodd Perry, and is now in 130 papers. What is it about? Here’s what its website says: “Brevity is about a feeling: a time and a place when we were all a lot better people. A time when the air was fresher and the sun shone down on our young faces turning our soft skin a lovely crimson. When for one stinkin’ moment we all held hands together just a little too long and looked to the horizon for a superhero to save us all. Alas, that superhero never came ... and here we are, slowly waiting for death. Enjoy!”
Over on the puzzle page starting Monday, KenKen is a grid-based numerical puzzle that uses addition, subtraction, multiplication and division while also challenging your logic and problem-solving skills. Derived from the Japanese word for wisdom, KenKen was invented in 2004 by Japanese math instructor Tetsuya Miyamoto as a way of improving his students’ math and logic skills. It was introduced in the United States in 2008 and now appears in more 200 newspapers and is played online.
In Monday’s Magazine section, reporter Bob Batz Jr. interviews a Mt. Lebanon math teacher who will provide a tutorial on how to play KenKen. It’s used as a teaching tool by some 35,000 teachers worldwide. This will include a video demonstration. Learn more — including the books and apps — at http://www.kenkenpuzzle.
You can find additional comics not currently in our print edition — such as “Thatababy,” “Grand Avenue,” “WuMo,” and reruns of “Calvinand Hobbes” — on the tablet version of PG NewsSlide. Get a free download at https://pgnewsslide.com/.