Frazz

I read the comics.  Some people call it the funnies.  The only reason I still get paper thrown to the house is for the comics.   Before the age of the internet, in college I would take study breaks in the library and scour papers from all over the country for new comics I have never read.    Thanks to the internet, I find new ones easier.  I now follow some comics on the internet because they have not been picked up or may have been dropped by my paper.

March 21, 2012’s Frazz, hit home after my bike ride.  I wanted to include it my blog about how my ride in Austin was not like that at all.   I will have to save that for another time.  It started an interesting email exchange between the artist, Jef Mallett and his syndicate.   I did not want to receive a notification from a lawyer that I was infringing on copyright laws.

I was in total comic fan geekdom.  Jef email was friendly and he let me know about what was coming in March 22, 2012's strip.   He is having fun with another comic artist I also read, Stephan Pastis whose strip is Pears Before Swine.   I learned that one of the reoccurring characters in Pearls Before Swine is targeted at Jef.  I love being informed about an inside joke.

I am very concerned about the newspaper comic business model.  One of Pastis' rants in his strips is how stagnate the comics are in the paper.  It is must be tough to even be noticed by a syndicate to have your strip picked up.  In addition, as papers are shrinking in size, there is less room from them to be printed.  Papers do not want to take risks with new comics is my assumption.  Ultimately, I am concerned that their true medium will go away.

Consider this a plea from a guy who wants to still read the comics.   Please go read them and create traffic on comic websites, particularly www.gocomics.com.