Blondie still a hottie

I'm of the belief that once a comic strip's creator dies, the syndicate should pull the plug on the strip. The strip becomes a lifeless zombie otherwise (I'm looking at you Hagar the Horrible). The one exception I'd make though is Blondie. Though not consistently funny, every once in a while it will blindside me and make me laugh out loud.

The writer has been working at keeping up on the times, Dagwood has an iMac, his kids use cell phones. They've made Facebook jokes. Sometimes this seems forced and sometimes it works just right.

I like that Dithers hasn't changed in 80 years. Dagwood still has that universal, timeless appeal of being a slouch. And Blondie has a great rack.

Classics of Western Literature Part 1

I saw Phil Seuling talk at one of his conventions in Philadelphia, and he said the Golden Age of Comics wasn't the 1930s, or 40s,  it was the first year you started reading comic books. JLA #112 is probably one of the first books I bought and it was just amazing. Beautiful Nick Cardy cover. Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano doing the main story. And reprints of the JLA, the Seven Soldiers of Victory and a Starman story. I had just started getting acquainted with the DC universe, I had catching up to do and the reprints were just what I needed. 100 pages of pure magic for 60 cents. Was there ever a better bargain in the world?

I begged my dad to write a check so I could subscribe.

And I got my first issue, (#117) in which, the page count was cut to 32 pages, Frank McLaughlin replaced Dick Giordano on inks, Mike Grell did the cover. I would get twice as many issues but, the Golden Age for me was officially over.