Month: June 2008

Boston readers have written to let me know they’ve been missing Candorville the past few days. Apparently when the Herald replaced “Brenda Starr” with Keith Knight’s “The Knight Life,” people were outraged. So they decided to bring it back. In order to make room for it, something had to go, and that something was Candorville. It probably had more to do with Candorville being one of the most recent additions than with the usual “too many black strips” problem. In comics, the last strip to be added is usually the first to go next time there’s a comics page shuffle, simply because it hasn’t had fifty years to become a security blanket to the people who grew old with it.

It seems like for every four steps forward, there’s one step backward. Over the past few months, Candorville’s been filling in for the vacationing Doonesbury in several papers. Almost all of those papers decided to keep Candorville after Doonesbury returned because readers liked what they saw. The San Francisco Chronicle, thanks to hundreds, or maybe even billions, of letters from readers (some of you sent me copies, and they made my year), has decided to make room for Candorville. They’re going to run a poll next month so readers can weigh in on which other comics they want the Chronicle to add IN ADDITION to Candorville. Reader feedback is essential.

Candorville’s been dropped several times around the nation, and in nearly every instance from Detroit to Seattle to Los Angeles and more, those of you who live in those cities made your voices heard, told them what you wanted to see, and the editors listened. If you live in or around Boston or you somehow read the Herald and you want to see Candorville back in your paper, now’s your best chance to make that happen. Write to the Features Editor, Linda Kincaid, at [email protected], or call her at 617-426-3000.

Be polite, don’t bash other comics, but do tell them what you want to see. In newspapers, as in life, you can usually get what you want if you’re persistent.