Cartoonists hate them. Editors pay too much attention to them. Newspapers shouldn’t use them. They’re completely unscientific. The only people who do enjoy them are 105 year-old readers who live in fear that Beetle Bailey may get court-martialed and they’ll have nothing left to live for. Coincidentally, they’re the ones who have nothing else to do but sit around all day filling them out. You guessed it: it’s time for another newspaper comic strip survey.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is running what another cartoonist described as a “keep or drop” survey. Strips on the chopping block include:
Candorville
Dog Eat Doug
Fred Basset
Lio
Mutts
Non Sequitur
Piranha Club
Red and Rover
Sylvia
Every reader can vote once a day (yes, I know, that makes no sense at all, but it’s their rules) by e-mailing comics_survey@pioneerpress.com and naming one strip from that list you want them to keep, and one from that list you want them to drop. If you want to keep reading Candorville in the Pioneer Press, you need to e-mail them every day (I guess for the next month) and tell them to “Keep Candorville.”
Candorville’s always got a handicap in these polls, because while unfunny comics don’t prompt a lot of hatred from readers, comics that discuss politics certainly do. Candorville has to contend with people who believe the comics page shouldn’t explore anything more controversial than whether cats should be eating lasagna. You can bet all the people who are shocked by the issues discussed in Candorville are going to be writing in to get it dropped, and all the people who think it’s just a “black interest strip” (believe me, there are plenty of those people out there) will be calling for it to get the axe, so it’s up to you, the readers, to keep those guys from getting their way.
View Comments (16)
Just wanted to say that I was not planning on "breaking the rules" and vote to keep Candorville in a paper that I don't read. (Don't want you to think that about me!)
I was just mostly curious as to why editors put sooooo much stock into these things, especially if they won't even take the time to verify who's actually voting!!
-ZW
P.S. Is ANYONE else out there even a wee-bit concerned that a post about a comic-poll has quickly degenerated into (yet another) "Right v.s. Left" thing???
I've been voting, and from the time I found the Press was considering the drop. I prefer Candorville over most of the others.
Israel didn't start the mid-east conflicts. Other mid-east nations have been trying to destroy Israel for thousands of years. They've not been successful, and there's a good reason for it...but those other nations can't accept facts.
Stupidity runs rampant in politics. It always will.
Reminds me--I've seen bumper stickers for two "Undeclared--non-candidates" already--for the Presidency in 2008. Opposite sides, opposite opinions. One, a PHD, the other a lawyer. Both, highly active, yet have stated "probably no". And both subject of "Draft" movements.
The two I'm talking about? Our non-candidate frontrunners.
How do you know that?? You don't know who those people vote for. I'm only recently from St. Paul, I'm from Israel originally so don't lecture me about swastikas and about who hates Israel.
I listen to enough liberal talk radio to know you're completely wrong about "the left" having a problem with my homeland surviving. I, and Candorville it seems, have a problem with Israel's tactics being counter-productive and creating more terrorists than it kills. Using cluster bombs and mines is NOT the way to take out missile launchers. Those weapons are very bad at precision strikes but very good at killing civilians indiscriminantly. A variety of weapons? Sure, but when you're at war you order the weapons you need for that war, and there's no good reason to order cluster bombs when you need precision weapons. Nothing's gone right since Rabin was killed, but at least under Sharon we had a leader who knew not to overreact.
I liked Candorville when I first read it last year, but I fell in love with it yesterday. If you think Candorville is anti-Israel, go read yesterday's cartoon about Iran and you'll see that you're wrong.
Can't Israel have a variety ("diversity" in liberal terms)of weapons? They are surrounded by millions of people who want to exterminate them.
So many people on the left seem to have a problem with the Jewish state trying survive. If you're from St Paul, perhaps you've seen the anti-Semites on the corner of Summit and Snelling. Protesting against Israel with swastikas on their signs. Those aren't Republicans.
Why did Israel order cluster bombs if they were trying to be precise? Just so you know, I came here from Israel and am not anti-Israeli. But that Olmert's a jackass. Sharon never would have done what he did.
I'll vote if only to cancel out the vote of this "moonbat"-obsessed guy.
I subscribe to the Saint Paul paper and I am voting frequently to drop you little cartoon. Especially after todays cartoon where you accuse Israel of trying to murder civilians.
You are one ingnorant moonbat tool.
Well, if "anonymous" guy's voting, I'm gonna vote. What a jerk.
Just voted for Candorville and will vote every day. Not saying publicly which comic I want them to drop, because that would be bad form.
Thanks for the daily dose of sanity!
Shhh, don't discourage him. Papers rarely drop a comic strip that gets high numbers of "drop it" votes, because that indicates those people are reading it. If it's like previous polls, they're going to drop the strips that get the fewest votes either way, because that indicates no one cares enough about them to write in.
Just curious, "anonymous," do you actually READ the St. Paul Pioneer Press?
-Gail