Two new comics in The Herald

Beginning Tuesday, we’re introducing two new daily comic strips to The Herald. Unfortunately, they won’t show up in our Sunday strips (yet … we’re working on redoing them). Regardless, I’m excited about the two we’ve added.

First, we’ve got “Get Fuzzy” by Darby Conley. It tells the story of Rob WIlco, a single mild-mannered ad exec and guardian of two pets, Bucky and Satchel. Bucky is the cat who wears the pants in the household and Satchel is the pooch with the sensitive soul. I say it’s a lot like Garfield, except funny. Very funny. It’s a personal favorite of at least one of The Herald’s news staff (I’m not including myself), and it’s my mom’s favorite comic of all time, so that says something.

Second, we’ve got Zits.
That isn’t a personal revelation, it’s the name of our other new strip, “Zits,” which tells the life of Jeremy, a 15-year-old aspiring rock musician who is “riddled with angst, boredom and parents who don’t understand anything.”
It’s cleverly written and sharply drawn. The art reminds me a little of my favorite comic strip of all time, Calvin and Hobbes.

Like I said, these will only appear Tuesdays (twice) through Saturdays, and we have yet to do the overhaul on our Sunday strips. So much goes into making that move, that it would take me a while to go into it here, so I won’t.

I think these two new strips will appeal to younger readers moreso than the two we’re replacing. Gone are the single panel strips “They’ll Do It Every Time,” which we were forced to discontinue because the comic ended its 75-plus year run this year. The comic panel’s third cartoonist, Al Scaduto, died in December. We’re also going to retire “Dennis The Menace,” a strip I loved growing up but have found to be out of date and a bit recycled in recent years. We’ll always love Dennis, but we feel it’s time to move on.

Let us know what you think. Either e-mail me or feel free to comment on this site.