No Right Answer: Best Sunday Comic

[RJ 17]

On the one hand, there's a single-frame Calvin and Hobbes comic that's just the two of them staring at a tree stump as Calvin says "I think the surest sign that there's intelligent life out in space is the fact that it hasn't tried to communicate with us." And that's always been one of my favorite quotes of all time.

On the other hand, there's this:

 

[lacktheknack]

I challenge you to work in an office and not like Dilbert.

Doesn't make it a good strip. Observational humor is pretty easy/basic. It doesn't take much insight to poke fun at the mundane parts of life.

What DOES make it a good comic is the almost painfully good aim it has. It's one thing to poke fun at your idiot boss, it's another to do it and make the reader think "Oh God, I had that exact boss doing that exact thing." Scott Adams is so good at it that "Pointy-Haired Boss" is now a popular description of an oblivious manager.

Plus, it's not afraid to take things to their logical extreme for genuinely funny effect (travel budget got cut again, time to get out the giant slingshot...)

OT: Calvin and Hobbes all the way, if only because I have endless respect for Bill Watterson after the Great No-Franchising War.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'll give Peanuts credit, it's holiday specials hold a place in my heart but no other comic, not in newspaper or a webcomic, has made me cry, other then the last Calvin and Hobbes strip, which was published on December the 31st 1995.

Spoiler

...So many feels.

I have the entire ten years of strips in one three-book collection (Sundays are all in full color, too!). I've read through it four times. And every time I reach the last page, I get this bittersweet hollow feeling. And tears. I get tears.

;___;

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Oh c'mon. C&H wins and everybody knows it. Peanuts may have some emotional depth and a little funny to it but it seems like that's all it has. C&H combined great art, awesome humor, incredible philosophy, and touching moments all into one endearing package that is timeless. When you first read it when you were young, you wanted a friend just like Hobbes. When you read it, you wish you could explore all the neat worlds that Watterson loved to draw. You may not have understood even any of the philosophical parts of the comic at the time when you were young but it didn't matter because C&H isn't a one-trick pony. Peanuts was licensed. C&H was not and yet its popularity still reached legendary heights. I, myself, owe Watterson something for helping me make my childhood more awesome with C&H.

Dang, I'm probably biased but I regret nothing all the same. There may be some darkness but man, it really is a magical world as well.

Oh, and BTW: Bloom County's also really great but it's got some issues with it that C&H doesn't have.

On the other hand, there's this:

Image doesn't work.

 

[Arakasi]

Calvin and Hobbes easily wins it from me, it's more consistently funny and far more deep than any other of the newspaper comics. A decent measure for how funny something is is to use TvTropes and see how many pages are named after it, C&H-7 Peanuts-1.
Although I will always have a soft spot for Insanity Streak.

 

[RJ 17]

On the other hand, there's this:

Image doesn't work.

Thanks for the heads up, should be fixed now.

 

[drthmik]

You cannot count all those "Calvin pissing on things" because they are not Calvin
Bill NEVER licensed anything in C&H for ANYTHING except the books and he has stated that he never will.
Which is why they are always poorly drawn from the back and Hobbes is never around.

Instead talk about how Bill fought with the Comic syndicate and forced them to allow him to change the format
talk about the art of C&H and the imagination and the Philosophy

If I had to pick one comic to read for the rest of my life
Calvin & Hobbes
Peanuts wouldn't even make it into the top 10

 

[Gorrath]

Another vote for C&H here. Peanuts has depth of character but that character doesn't really have penetration outside of the strips themselves. Yes, Peanuts is iconic but that is more as a brand than as a story. Like many others here, I think the only strip that can even try to share a stage with C&H is Far Side. They are the two most consistently funny comics ever written. I also have several Bloom County collections as well but it is a bit too topical to hold up as well as C&H and Far Side.

I think every kid can empathize with Calvin and every parent can empathize with his mother and father. The Peanuts characters might be someone you know or knew, Clavin and his parents are someone you are.

 

[Lyvric]

Far Side has always been a favorite of mine.
C&H Has always made for a charming and witty comic.
Peanuts I didn't even notice or love as a kid until after it came out of the comics. Voices really gave it life for me.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

If you guys really want to see the love for Peanuts, come to the Twin Cities and check out all the various Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and Charlie Brown statues all over the place. I just wish the jerkwads that owned the rights to Peanuts didn't force the removal of Camp Snoopy from the Mall of America just because they advertised it outside of Minnesota. *grumbles at copywright laws*

I'm also Nthing love of The Far Side. Just simple ridiculousness without a lot of pretense.

I'll give Peanuts credit, it's holiday specials hold a place in my heart but no other comic, not in newspaper or a webcomic, has made me cry, other then the last Calvin and Hobbes strip, which was published on December the 31st 1995.

Spoiler

...and now I need to find high ground before I am drowned by all the feels this post will produce.

 

[zvate]

You guys said "this one is unique" as you again failed to come to a decision... its starting to get annoying. Take a stand; start a controversy; make a flame war because this is bland and soft.

Also, while I love Calvin and Hobbes I can not remember the last time I saw it in a paper, much less the sunday paper (same for peanuts, actually). if its no longer in paper it shouldn't be available for debate (although I can't think of which ones you'd debate then; maybe Garfield and Dilbert?)

I know its called 'no right answer' but taking a stand sparks a much better debate and provokes a far greater reaction then weakly putting a debate out there unresolved.

 

[Chris Pranger]

You guys said "this one is unique" as you again failed to come to a decision... its starting to get annoying. Take a stand; start a controversy; make a flame war because this is bland and soft.

Also, while I love Calvin and Hobbes I can not remember the last time I saw it in a paper, much less the sunday paper (same for peanuts, actually). if its no longer in paper it shouldn't be available for debate (although I can't think of which ones you'd debate then; maybe Garfield and Dilbert?)

I know its called 'no right answer' but taking a stand sparks a much better debate and provokes a far greater reaction then weakly putting a debate out there unresolved.

You seem to have caught us in a weird string of episodes. We usually film episodes in 6-10 episode chunks but then mix them in around episodes from the last filming block, so with this you have Best Sunday Comics (an episode from a previous filming group), right after Giant Robots vs Giant Monsters (from the new group and also tying in to Pacific Rim), and then two episodes previously with Sex vs Violence (which we decided not to pick sides on for the sake of more honest debate in the forums).

Rest easy knowing that to my recollection, we don't have any more ties coming up in the next month or so.

 

[Lightknight]

Yeah, this would have been an awkward time to drop in on the series. But ties are a lot rarer than this.

To contribute to it myself, I'd say that Calvin and Hobbes is a LOT more thought provoking than Peanuts. Peanuts is a nice, simple read. Well established but light on the ol' thinking cap.

I guess what I'm trying to evaluate is the point they're driving for. Perhaps comics shouldn't be evaluated based on meaning, maybe that's unfar. But Calvin and Hobbes, by the virtue of even its philosophically weigthy name-sake, is a deeper delving search for meaning than Peanuts ever takes a shot at. I mean, there's a lot of metaphor in Peanuts, or there's not. I guess it depends on how deep you're willing to dig for meaning in it. Lucy with holding the football (spoiler... hah) constantly can mean all sorts of things that you want it to. But Calvin is much more overt about it. That's why Calvin sticks with me and Peanuts doesn't. I think of peanuts as a body of work while thinking of specific Calvin and Hobbes works and references that were meaningful and though provoking.

They are both time honored and beloved. One simply has more meaning. I would put Farside in an equally thought provoking arena (at times). Garfield is one I'd put in the Peanuts category, but as a newer and more relevant one.

 

[Phanixis]

Calvin and Hobbes all the way, if for one simple reason: the writer knew when to retire. I was really disappointed when I first found out that the writer was retiring, but seeing what has happened to Peanuts, it was definitely the right move in retrospect. I used to like Peanuts, but it got stale decades ago, and even death hasn't been able to get the papers to stop running the comic. I now regard Peanuts with the same disdain I regard Garfield. Peanuts is just an empty shell now, its creator long dead and its characters more useful for selling insurance than entertaining. The cartoonist that pen the Sunday comics really need to learn when to retire, it makes the difference between immortalizing ones art and leaving it out to rot.

 

[BiscuitWheels]

Oh, I have such a special place in my heart for Calvin & Hobbes. One of the most infuriating dreams I ever had was going to bookstore and finding a whole shelf of new books.

I'll give Peanuts credit, it's holiday specials hold a place in my heart but no other comic, not in newspaper or a webcomic, has made me cry, other then the last Calvin and Hobbes strip, which was published on December the 31st 1995.

Spoiler

Oh, damn it all...that strip still does it to me. Even today.

 

[marioandsonic]

Going to be perfectly honest here: I never cared for Peanuts. Not even their TV specials.

C&H wins.

 

[Rect Pola]

Good debate, and good choices, but I'm all Calvin and Hobbes on this one.

I cannot believe you didn't touch the art. Many of C&H sundays, especially the standalones, were visual feasts that haven't been done since the days of full page sprees like Little Nemo. Coloring the characters and doing more background is one thing, but Watterson outright crafted.

 

[Eve Charm]

Eh I'm saying Peanuts. Your basically debating the grand daddy of sunday comics vs the short lived edgey one trying to be cool and colorful and marketed at for kids and have meaning in it for adults. Basically Mario vs call of duty in the exact same way.