jumbobrain said, …I am convinced it is Unaging Demon Kitty that is pulling everyone’s strings in Gasoline Alley.
I hope you’re right. That would be so cool, and reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode with Billy Mumy… or the ST:Voyager episode with the clown played by the guy who was Lenny on Laverne and Shirley…
It’s dated 12/5 with a 2009 copyright notice, so I’d guess not a rerun.
The rationale here probably is: after the intense, brooding drama of Berd and Gerd, that is kept all of us glued to the edge of our seats for months on end, now it’s time for some light-hearted kitty stuff leading into Christmas.
The unaging kitty has in fact aged. It’s bigger and has the head of an adult cat crossed with a pit bull. The body remains that of a fat, giant kitten. It’s a bit grotesque. To have that thing hanging off your forearm all day would discomfort. Must be a good 15, 20 lbs.
Chef Meowrice is coming on TV in a Santa hat. Now you have to admit: that’s cute. Who wouldn’t want to watch that? I can hardly wait to hear what he says! Maybe announcing a krismas kitty kontest!
Comic Strip Nation has been posting the Tribune comics for quite some time now. I am pretty sure that the only way that the author of this - or any other comic strip - would learn about the opinions of readers would be if the reader printed out a letter containing their opinions, put the letter in an envelope with a stamp and return address on it - and mailed it to the publisher. In this case, the publisher would be the Tribune. So I doubt very much that any negative comments on any message board anywhere would ever end up being transmitted to the author of the comic strip.
What concerns me is that I am wondering if, after something like 25 years of writing the strip, the author has decided to retire - and has not been able to find anyone who would be willing to step in and take over the cartooning duties. At this point, I would rather see “classic” Gasoline Alley strips re-run rather than take a chance with a new author who would not be wiling to remain faithful to the original concept of the strip. There are some who have been reading the latest Brenda Starr strip who are beginning to wonder if the current authors are preparing to retire as well.
In the meantime, the archives for Gasoline Alley at Comic Strip Nation goes back to April of 2008. You can access the comic archives at Comic Strip Nation WITHOUT paying for a special “membership.”
Clovia and Slim were cute today in the Sunday strip - and about time to see SOME strips getting the Christmas spirit. It seems like holiday programming is down all over the place - our local malls have NOT hosted any caroling groups as they have in the past - there is very little Christmas music on the radio - or in the stores. Seems like very few classic Christmas movies are being aired on television - even on movie channels which seem to be dedicated to classic movies - such as Turner Classic Movies. It is almost as if the entire country just all of a sudden decided that NO ONE would be interested in Christmas this year!
Today, at Fair Oaks Mall in Virginia, a violinist and guitarist were playing Christmas carols next to a HD TV with the football game on. People were glued to the game, but applauded politely between carols.
@Deborah- I’m sure Scancarelli will retire at some point, and the strip will be passed along…the standard approach is to pass it to the cartoonist’s assistant (Scancarelli had been Dick Moore’s assistant when he was doing it). I don’t know that he has an assistant, I’d assume so just because of the amazing amount of detail in the strip.
Gasoline Alley has had four different cartoonists in its 90 years, and it’s held up better than a lot of the old strips. So hopefully it will continue to be good.
It just seems to me to be very odd that “traditional” strips which have been a part of Gasoline Alley history for more than 80 years would suddenly just disappear or be ignored - such as the traditional walk which Walt and Skeezix always took every fall to look at all of the fall foliage. There HAVE been other strips which have appeared to pick up on that tradition. I noticed that One Big Happy and Hi and Lois, among others, included parents taking a walk through the woods with the kids to look at the fall foliage this year. So it just seems doubly strange that Gasoline Alley would suddenly abandon that tradition.
So - hopefully, someone responsible WILL take over the strip when Scancarelli decides to retire. But, if that is NOT the case - with a 90 year history - I would personally enjoy “classic” Gasoline Alley strips. However, Mutt and Jeff has a history almost as lengthy as Gasoline Alley - but there seems to be only about a couple of years’ worth of strips which the publisher (Universal) keeps re-running. I really enjoy the Mutt and Jeff strips which are obviously from the 30s, 40s and 50s. I personally prefer the classics to attempts to “modernize” the strips. I think the Nancy strip available at Yahoo would be a lot more interesting if they were re-running classic Nancy strips from the 40s rather than modernizing the strip with stuff like cell phones and electric guitars!
Problem is, while WE would love the classic strips, it probably wouldn’t be cost effective for the editors to put them in, since they’d be a bit too slow for the modern reader (there have been experiments done in this manner with other strips, such as Little Orphan Annie, but the only one to my memory that has been at all successful has been Peanuts).
Llewellenbruce almost 15 years ago
He’s got the IV ready in case he has a serious cat scratch.
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
ok I am still a little perplexed at the sudden shift from the rambling Gertie narrative. But I will say, panel one, EXCELLENT lettering.
And I am convinced it is Unaging Demon Kitty that is pulling everyone’s strings in Gasoline Alley.
axe-grinder almost 15 years ago
jumbobrain said, …I am convinced it is Unaging Demon Kitty that is pulling everyone’s strings in Gasoline Alley.
I hope you’re right. That would be so cool, and reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode with Billy Mumy… or the ST:Voyager episode with the clown played by the guy who was Lenny on Laverne and Shirley…
vasaaaa almost 15 years ago
Who pulled Rufus out of the open grave? The story never ended.
davidf42 almost 15 years ago
Seriously - Does anyone know what the IV is for? I really don’t know.
alondra almost 15 years ago
I’m looking forward to seeing what Chef Meowrice comes up with.
ocean17 almost 15 years ago
It’s dated 12/5 with a 2009 copyright notice, so I’d guess not a rerun.
The rationale here probably is: after the intense, brooding drama of Berd and Gerd, that is kept all of us glued to the edge of our seats for months on end, now it’s time for some light-hearted kitty stuff leading into Christmas.
The unaging kitty has in fact aged. It’s bigger and has the head of an adult cat crossed with a pit bull. The body remains that of a fat, giant kitten. It’s a bit grotesque. To have that thing hanging off your forearm all day would discomfort. Must be a good 15, 20 lbs.
Chef Meowrice is coming on TV in a Santa hat. Now you have to admit: that’s cute. Who wouldn’t want to watch that? I can hardly wait to hear what he says! Maybe announcing a krismas kitty kontest!
noreenklose almost 15 years ago
IV = intravenous. The needle goes into a vein, and the other side is a bag with some kind of medicine in liquid usually water.
DebJ4 almost 15 years ago
Comic Strip Nation has Sunday’s Gasoline Alley strip posted already
COMIC STRIP NATION Sunday’s Gasoline Alley and more
http://www.comicstripnation.com/
Durak Premium Member almost 15 years ago
So, Jim finally got tired of all the negativism and decided to post somewhere else? Sure hope not!
DebJ4 almost 15 years ago
Comic Strip Nation has been posting the Tribune comics for quite some time now. I am pretty sure that the only way that the author of this - or any other comic strip - would learn about the opinions of readers would be if the reader printed out a letter containing their opinions, put the letter in an envelope with a stamp and return address on it - and mailed it to the publisher. In this case, the publisher would be the Tribune. So I doubt very much that any negative comments on any message board anywhere would ever end up being transmitted to the author of the comic strip.
What concerns me is that I am wondering if, after something like 25 years of writing the strip, the author has decided to retire - and has not been able to find anyone who would be willing to step in and take over the cartooning duties. At this point, I would rather see “classic” Gasoline Alley strips re-run rather than take a chance with a new author who would not be wiling to remain faithful to the original concept of the strip. There are some who have been reading the latest Brenda Starr strip who are beginning to wonder if the current authors are preparing to retire as well.
In the meantime, the archives for Gasoline Alley at Comic Strip Nation goes back to April of 2008. You can access the comic archives at Comic Strip Nation WITHOUT paying for a special “membership.”
Clovia and Slim were cute today in the Sunday strip - and about time to see SOME strips getting the Christmas spirit. It seems like holiday programming is down all over the place - our local malls have NOT hosted any caroling groups as they have in the past - there is very little Christmas music on the radio - or in the stores. Seems like very few classic Christmas movies are being aired on television - even on movie channels which seem to be dedicated to classic movies - such as Turner Classic Movies. It is almost as if the entire country just all of a sudden decided that NO ONE would be interested in Christmas this year!
OldManMountain almost 15 years ago
Today, at Fair Oaks Mall in Virginia, a violinist and guitarist were playing Christmas carols next to a HD TV with the football game on. People were glued to the game, but applauded politely between carols.
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
@Deborah- I’m sure Scancarelli will retire at some point, and the strip will be passed along…the standard approach is to pass it to the cartoonist’s assistant (Scancarelli had been Dick Moore’s assistant when he was doing it). I don’t know that he has an assistant, I’d assume so just because of the amazing amount of detail in the strip.
Gasoline Alley has had four different cartoonists in its 90 years, and it’s held up better than a lot of the old strips. So hopefully it will continue to be good.
DebJ4 almost 15 years ago
It just seems to me to be very odd that “traditional” strips which have been a part of Gasoline Alley history for more than 80 years would suddenly just disappear or be ignored - such as the traditional walk which Walt and Skeezix always took every fall to look at all of the fall foliage. There HAVE been other strips which have appeared to pick up on that tradition. I noticed that One Big Happy and Hi and Lois, among others, included parents taking a walk through the woods with the kids to look at the fall foliage this year. So it just seems doubly strange that Gasoline Alley would suddenly abandon that tradition.
So - hopefully, someone responsible WILL take over the strip when Scancarelli decides to retire. But, if that is NOT the case - with a 90 year history - I would personally enjoy “classic” Gasoline Alley strips. However, Mutt and Jeff has a history almost as lengthy as Gasoline Alley - but there seems to be only about a couple of years’ worth of strips which the publisher (Universal) keeps re-running. I really enjoy the Mutt and Jeff strips which are obviously from the 30s, 40s and 50s. I personally prefer the classics to attempts to “modernize” the strips. I think the Nancy strip available at Yahoo would be a lot more interesting if they were re-running classic Nancy strips from the 40s rather than modernizing the strip with stuff like cell phones and electric guitars!
imrobert almost 15 years ago
Sunday’s GA:
http://www.comicstripnation.com/gasoline-alley/gasoline-alley-20091206.html
Airboy20 almost 15 years ago
Problem is, while WE would love the classic strips, it probably wouldn’t be cost effective for the editors to put them in, since they’d be a bit too slow for the modern reader (there have been experiments done in this manner with other strips, such as Little Orphan Annie, but the only one to my memory that has been at all successful has been Peanuts).