A long time ago, the most relevant source of news was the daily newspaper. It was the only place to fill you in on what happened yesterday.
However, as the Internet changed the way you got your news, dailies were relegated to local news. If you wanted more than a 30 second recap of last night’s city council meeting, you turned to your local Times or Herald.
However, now that the power of the World Wide Web has trickled down to the backyard level, even the daily rag is irrelevant by the time it comes out.
However, until recently, one thing kept the daily useful to many people: The Funny Pages (or page or half-page as many of them have become).
For the most part, there was no other way to get you dose of Garfield, Dilbert or Foxtrot. With all the rules and fees involved in syndication, getting comics on the Web lacked feasibility.
Of course, that was then, this is now. And now has several options for getting your daily laughs—customized to your taste—delivered to your e-mail or web browser without the 75-cent hassle of buying a print copy for a few comics that you might like.
Candorville by by Darrin Bell, available on Comics.com, combines political satire, current events and a cast of regular characters to create a unique view.
The first service I discovered is Comics.com and it opened up a new world of daily comics. With Comics.com, you can customize a home page to show you whatever comics you choose. You can also choose to have those comics, both regular strips as well as editorial cartoons, delivered to your e-mail. You can also set up an RSS feed for your chosen comics.
Eventually, I found a strong competitor to Comics.com that offered me the opportunity to expand my personal funny page to a whole new variety of comics. Gocomics.com offers a similar set up to Comics.com, although their e-mail and RSS services are not as robust. It is better to go through their site and flip through your favorites list.
The advantage to both of these sites is the wide variety of titles offered. Instead of a few “family-safe” or “edgy-but-still-safe” strips selected by an editor restricted by budget and the antediluvian attitudes of its key demographics, you get a chance to see up-and-coming stars in the comic strip world, strips that might one day find their way into the local daily’s funny page. If they still exist.
Garfield Minus Garfield by Paws Inc. takes a fresh look at the classic feline comic…by erasing the title character. This strip is available at gocomics.com
Christopher Huff is a self-confessed and unrepentant geek who as been living, writing and playing on the Grand Strand for several years. You can learn more about him and his writing at www.piratejournalism.com. Comments can be sent to chris@alternatives.sc
