Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for March 23, 2024

I’m betting Charles Schultz as a zombie would be a hybrid of the Hawkings and Ninjas! Zombieland reference.

Good point, Beatrix. I’d fight a horde of zombies to tune into BCN!

Look at Baba Mouse, being an advocate!

Actually, if the Gannet #$ had zombie versions of those comics, those might be readable. I kinda want to see an undead Blondie make a literal Dagwood sandwich. :P

I can easily imagine Doonesbury doing something about zombies, even zombie comics. Steve Pastis would probably go for doing something involving zombies. The brilliant, but now-defunct web-based Skin Horse comic had a very long arc involving zombies, which showed up as as recurrent characters…”Brains…”

Oh, Beatrix, you’re making it hard to take this seriously! Kittens are exhausting! (Thanks for the comic relief. It’s been an intense week.)

OMC, are we going to see zombie comic artists of the past?!♥

Thank you, Ms. Dunn for all your wonderful work in Breaking Cat News. I look forward to seeing your future work.

I am a huge fan of Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Family Circus, Gasoline Alley and The Katzenjammer Kids, even in their present “zombie” form. I would LOVE to see Baba’s idea of classic strips on one page and new innovative strips on another!

Bea’s been reading some MARVELlous stories about the DCeased, I think… Including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies… Anyone else imagining Zombie Snoopy?

Our paper is going online only soon. Barf.

The corporate world that now controls newspapers is inherently conservative. New stuff makes them nervous. That’s why legacy media are having such a hard time these days.

That explains the Calvin and Hobbs comic that showed up on my Facebook feed ! I was wondering..

I am not a fan of Zombies, either! But, a movie with famous undead cartoonists holding up protest signs, I would watch!

Meeting your heroes can either be disappointing or inspiring. It depends on whether or not they live up to your expectations and on how you react to reality.

OT – back in the canteen for the rest of the night.

I made it about halfway through the night, then I turned wrong and my weak leg started too give way. When I tried to catch myself with the other leg, it, also, said No! I managed to catch myself between a table and a trash cam, but I couldn’t move any farther. I texted my supervisor, who came to help, then got in touch with the safety/ security team. I’m now sitting in the canteen while the nice guy from safety/ security gets my cane out of my car for me. Don’t know if I’ll be working tonight or not. Waiting for my supervisor to tell me.

Zombie sparky would

The “zombie” reference seems more like something Our IX Lives would do for a story line. Not that I’m accusing any soap opera of being unrealistic with its stories …

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Puckmosis: So you’ve decided to add new features to the Daily Scroll.

Elvis-Anum: That’s right, Puck. I have my four scribe apprentices copying scrolls from the past as a start. We have stories from Erma Bombosis, recipes from Peg Bracat, who never liked to cook, and Hints From Helen of Afar.

Puck: Ever since they discovered the classic scrolls, I’ve enjoyed learning how to make my life easier with Helen. My favorite is How to Keep a Tortie Occupied When You Have Lots to Do.

Elvis: Yes. Some things never get old.

Lupinium: And some things just age well.

Beatrixia: Here’s to the old and the new. And the best of each!

Well done Beatrix, excellent ending to the series!

lt amazes me that Rex Morgan MD and Mary Worth are still in production. Those were already old when I was born, and that was (cough cough) years ago.

I never met Charles Schulz, but I’ve read a lot about him and the accounts of people who’ve met him. I can guess what type of person he was, and he would never condone having reruns of his strip taking the place of new artist’s comics.

The imagination of kittens! Very fun scenario!

Just want to report another woman cartoonist. No one has mentioned her. It is ‘Mittens’ by Angie Bailey.

Online comics are far better than the meager offerings from newspapers. The end user has much more control of the content.

If a zombie apocalypse can save comics, then I’m all for it! Just as long as they don’t need to eat my brain. It’d give them bad indigestion.

Beatrix, while I appreciate your enthusiasm, I’m not sure that was the time and the place for your sign.

I live in a complex where i used to watch the delivery perosn get out and walk 30-40 papers door to door. The other day I noticed the deliver drove up stopped and threw exactly one paper out the window. Print dailies will soon be gone. We have to find a way for our comic writers to aurvivie without them.

When my paper started cutting out comics, I cancelled the paper. I read my comics online.

I no longer subscribe to my local paper. When I did I only got it for 3 days including Sundays. Now that most coupons are digital, I no longer saw the need for the expense. I also don’t like the paper cluttering up the house. I actually now prefer to read my comics here. More selection. Easier to see since you can enlarge them. Especially helpful with a wonderfully detailed comic like BCN. It’s also easier to save your favorites. No need to cut them out, etc.

Sure thing, Baba Mouse. It’s a real shame women cartoonists have to put up with this nonsense.

E.C. Segar would have the whole thing happening on some remote island. It’s got something to do with the Sea Hag. Castor, Cylinda, Ham, Olive, Popeye and Wimpy would be split up on different areas of the island, and each would find unique ways of defeating the zombies. The zombies think the planned zombie apocalypse is not worth the hassle of dealing with these silly live people, start a union and go on strike. Now the Sea Hag’s got a mutiny on her hands. One zombie becomes an ally and they’ll run into her now and then in future stories, like Alice the Goon. The reason you never saw this adventure is Thimble Theater ran almost exclusively in Hearst papers and William Randolph Hearst was very anti-union. Segar created this story privately just for himself and his children, and kept it going for three years. He slipped in all kinds of snide jokes and snickering references that he couldn’t have in the dailies.

Georgia posted a tweet a while back, it might have been over a year now I don’t remember exactly, maybe when a previous cut happen, about her re-enacting Weekend at Bernie’s with her in the roll of Bernie the dead guy so she could get her comic in more papers. It was pretty funny except for the truth behind it which was pretty sad.

I know comics are written in advance. I hope when other cartoonists see this week’s BCN they will speak out, too.

What do you call a zombie cartoonist? A Mort Walker.

And then there are those like Jim Davis, who are still alive and writing new comics but whose humor died out long ago. Garfield is pretty much a zombie strip recycling the same tired jokes.

I hate the newspapers. They left us a long time ago.

The march of time is often hard for people to accept. Print media is dying as the world more and more goes to online media options. Gannett, the largest newspaper chain is cutting back on their print offerings, directing customers to their online subscription services for the same products. No more expensive paper, ink, type plate creation, large machines and mass of people to physically create, print and distribute the physical product when it can be easily be read in the same format on line.

It is the inevitability of life, though it can be hard for both those in the way of progress and those who consume the progress. A hundred years ago it was the blacksmith, stable keeper, farrier, carriage builder and wheelwright. Are you willing to give up your automobile to go back to horse and buggy travel? What of the ice delivery man, would you give up your refrigerator for an ice box?

The same goes for the arts. The long held media for delivering things such as comics is dying out. The comics can die or they can evolve and adapt to the new form that media presentation is moving too. There is a market for the comics, the market however needs to change its method of delivery so as to support the creators. If you want a hard copy of the paper you plunk down your change and pick up your paper.

If you want view your favorite comic online then plunking down your subscription price to a syndicated service is not that hard or costly either. Eliminating the free offerings is not really that big a deal except for those that want something for nothing. Funny though, those same people don’t like giving something for nothing.

Cutting out on Starbucks coffee or doughnut shop pastry once a month would cover the $1.99 monthly subscription price to Go Comics or Comics Kingdom or for a saving of a few dollars you can get a yearly subscription for UNDER $20.00, $1.66 a month. Far cheaper than the price of a delivered physical paper daily or even weekly.

Ghosts are more dignified. I’d much prefer ghost Charles Schulz to Zombie Charles Schulz. Maybe he could hang out with the ghost reporters in the attic.

Not a big fan of zombie movies. I prefer the Kaiju genre (Godzilla, King Kong, etc.) I lik the idea of having two separate comics pages, one for classic strips and one for newer strips. That gives something for everyone.

No, if they turned into zombies, they’d be newspaper magnates—and you’d have to fight them to save the comics!

Zombie Charlie Brown might make a good comic, now that you mention it.

Even Zombie Mutt and Jeff has possibilities.

I can’t agree with you on this one. My local newspaper has 20 comics, only one by a dead guy, Charles Schulze. I would never ask my paper to drop Charles for some newbie. On the other hand, I only found one woman comic, Lynn Johnston. For Better or Worse is one of the least funny strips. The SF Chronicle carries only 18 comics, no women writers. Luann is now co-written by a father-daughter team which has improved the stories, in my opinion. I do my part by being a paid subscriber to GoComics.

Beatrix is insightful. We love our cat but we wouldn’t mind a visit from Bea. I think our cat would though.

What if they were Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies?

.

…somebody could make a movie about that….

I don’t think the creators of the classic strips are to blame here. They aren’t taking up “unfair” space or “watering down” newer comics! What is happening is with the newspapers themselves, cutting comics PERIOD, for the sake of more advertising, Its getting harder to get advertisers, cause there’s no content for people to read in order to see the ads. They need comics! And as far as the discrimination angle, we all know that’s illegal, so look at the top guys in newspaper “journalism” and file some lawsuits!

Charles Schulz famously encouraged female cartoonists – he was a great booster of Lynn Johnston and others.

For years I paid by the year for a subscription to the local paper. They had always had a bit of a bias against the north side schools but nothing too blatant. Then it began to get a bit personal. When my oldest son was in the Duke University TIP contest in 6th grade, his SAT score was high enough that of the dozen local kids who got state recognition, he was the only one who earned grand recognition. Think national recognition. Each of the kids got a paragraph about state recognition. My son got a half sentence about grand recognition. All the other kids attended south side schools. Strike one.

Two years later he competed in Math Counts and earned the right to go to state as an individual. The south side team also got to go to the state and got a huge write up. No mention of my son so I went to the paper and asked why not. Their response was a single sentence in the corrections. Strike two.

The next year I went in to pay for the yearly subscription and they didn’t even say thank you when I handed them the check. Strike three. I decided to give them one final chance and sure enough, the next year they forgot to say thank you again. I demanded my check back and they refused. I went to the publisher and expressed my dissatisfaction. He apologized, tried to get me not to cancel, then got my check back.

Thank you, Georgia, for taking the risk of getting into ‘good trouble, necessary trouble’. And thanks to John Lewis, too.