Frazz by Jef Mallett for June 14, 2015
June 13, 2015
June 15, 2015
Transcript:
Frazz: Any plans...? Caulfield: You bet! I'm putting "writer, the paris review," on my future resume. Frazz: Caulfield... Caulfield: Who's going to check? Everyone knows it's the big, big deal. But who, exactly, subscribes? And how many of those subscribers just put it on their coffee tables to impress people? My suspicion is their actually readership is about 20 Macarthur fellows who aren't hiring interns anyway. What could go wrong? Frazz: Somebody could hire you with corresponding expectations. Caulfield: That's mighty considerate of you to dash my hopes while I still have time for a plan B.
Hey!!!
I know it’s common for newspapers (specifically the comics layout service they use) to save newsprint space by not printing the title panel of a strip, even when the cartoonist used it as an introductory panel. For example, my local paper omitted the first two panels of today’s “Doonesbury”, which I didn’t realize until I checked on gocomics.com.
But there’s no excuse for GoComics, the only online licensee of “Frazz” from United Features, to publish anything less than the complete strip.
In today’s “News&Observer” (Raleigh, NC) the title panel has Frazz saying “What I meant was, any plans for your summer?” To which Caulfield replies “I find it works best to decide what I’m doing after I’m done.”
Sadly, this sort of editorial excision has gone on since the days of “Pogo”. Some of Kelly’s best artwork was in those title panels, and never saw the light of day until the strips were published in collections.
While the newspapers could make a case for saving newsprint real estate, GoComics can’t claim that they are saving the cost of the extra pixels.
Please give us the complete strip from now on.