Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride

May 16, 2015

Saturday Comics likes to check in on classic strips and see how they are faring in the modern age. Alley Oop began in 1932 and is still lurching along, I checked in on it in 2011 and again in 2012. I wasn’t impressed. In fact, in 2011 I was convinced they had stooped so as low as to be ripping me off! (And if you are ripping off Mr. Blog’s Tepid Timewaster, that’s low.)

Before going on, it would be very helpful to you to read that 2012 run, as it is very similar to this week’s run. Just click here.

Back then, I complained that it was slow moving and really, nothing much happened in that series. Now let’s see what’s happening right now, in the weeks ending with May 15. I can’t wait!

Please note that I have no copyright or ownership of Alley Oop, nor is any implied.

Well that sucked.

Talk about long goodbyes! OK, I had the misfortune to come in at the end of a storyline, but how long is it going to take to start the next one? I think nine days is long enough to get moving, especially considering that the majority of the strips are concerned with characters who are leaving the storyline, and presumably won’t be seen again, or at least for quite some time.

But man, nine days? Do I really want to stick around? No I do not.

And to make matters worse, here is the Sunday strip that went in the middle of all that.

Seriously?

Wow, I could have skipped all the dailies and just read the Sunday strip. Some strips have separate Sunday stories, some continue the weekly story, this one is just a recap! (And the art is recycled from the weeklies too.)

This strip used to be huge. What the heck happened? Dick Tracy still manages to be a fun and well-written strip after all these years so I can’t blame age. I think this strip (and yes, this is a very limited view of the strip) needs an injection of new blood.

I’ll check back in another three years. I’m sure that by then Oop will be, well, probably about the same.

Tags: Alley Oop, art, bmj2k, classic, comic strips, comics, Mr. Blog, Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride, Mr. BTR, newspaper strips, newspapers, rant, reruns, Saturday Comics, Sunday comics