5.27.18 misc

Betty

Nest Heads

Baldo

Find 43 unique strips and panels inside

Big Nate

Grand Avenue Curtis

Arctic Circle

Animal Crackers

Intelligent Life

Messages in ‘Bubbles’ are timeless relections hy “Bubbles”? That’s easy.

It’s all about the fun and the words.

Comics are entertainment. The wit that comes from the talented cartoonists who invite us into their make-believe worlds provide us with sitcom-like characters whose words and expressions make life in the real world a bit more manageable.

Their messages float above the heads of these colorful cartoon characters in speech and thought bubbles. Their messages keep us engaged, reading to learn more about the world around us, as we chuckle at the silly things we experience in our everyday lives.

Comics make us think about a variety of social issues, giving us a welcome pause to question our thoughts and reflect. The words in the bubbles float of the newspaper page, getting into our heads as the characters get into our hearts.

They become our friends.

Now, that might be a heavy assignment for the hundreds of fun-loving creators of daily comic strips. We universally enjoy spending time each morning with these leaders of the craft — our paper in one hand and a cup of cofee in the other.

Whether it’s a Tribune, a Journal, a Times or a Gazette, these comics are transported from the cartoonists’ sketch books to us in the pages of our hometown newspapers.

W

After all, the comic strip is a newspaper phenomenon, and has been since 1896, when “The Yellow Kid” first appeared in the New York American.

So “Bubbles” is our tribute to the wit of all cartoonists, especially celebrated talents like Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman and Stephan Pastis featured on pages 24 and 25. It’s also our tribute to newspapers that publish daily comics and the readers who love them.

From the cast of characters to the relevant storylines to the tightly edited word and thought bubbles, cartoonists today remain messengers of the funny and the serious, and those messages serve as a mirror to our complicated lives.

In your hands, we have assembled 43 comics — many relatively new strips or panels and some that have been around — in 48 pages. Our syndicate partners helped us assemble this premium edition of “Bubbles.” We can’t thank them enough for providing a week’s worth of the many comics you don’t normally see.

In that regard, “Bubbles” is a first-ofits-kind endeavor published nationally today in Lee Enterprises newspapers.

We believe these comics have something to say. And, they want to hear from you. Subscribers will receive a survey to provide feedback about the comics in “Bubbles,” so please help your local editor find your next (comics) best friend.

Enjoy!

Published in May 2018 by

LEE ENTERPRISES

2

John Humenik, Vice President/News john.humenik@lee.net. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608-252-6102 Ben Cunningham, Director of News Presentation ben.cunningham@lee.net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219-933-4175 Phil Hands, cartoonist David Fitzsimmons and Gayle Worland, writers

All images and information published with permission from:

Andrews McMeel Syndication Creators Syndicate King Features Syndicate Tribune Content Agency

COMICS Page 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rubes Page 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Animal Crackers Page 5 . . . . . . . . . . . The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee Page 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Daddy’s Home Page 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhymes With Orange Page 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speed Bump Page 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Big Nate Page 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Half Full Page 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diamond Lil Page 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intelligent Life Page 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Real Life Adventures Page 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Middletons Page 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dog Eat Doug Page 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lio Page 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One Big Happy Page 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bottom Liners Page 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Between Friends Page 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Betty Page 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nest Heads Page 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Curtis Page 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bliss Page 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Retail Page 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breaking Cat News Page 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Strange Brew Page 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F Minus Page 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Take it from the Tinkersons Page 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brewster Rockit Page 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baldo Page 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Free Range Page 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arctic Circle Page 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wallace the Brave Page 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agnes Page 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Daddy Daze Page 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Of the Mark Page 39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carpe Diem Page 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scary Gary Page 41. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bound & Gagged Page 42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dogs of C-Kennel Page 43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 to 5 Page 44 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Grand Avenue Page 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over the Hedge Page 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flo & Friends Page 47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pajama Diaries

Rubes

BY LEIGH RUBIN Inspired by single-panel greeting cards, Rubes began appearing in newspapers in 1984.

3

Animal Crackers

BY MIKE OSBUN Embarking on a series of humorous adventures that feel familiar but roar originality, Lyle Lion, Eugene the Elephant and the rest of the civilized creatures in “Animal Crackers� deliver a glimpse into the always-amusing life inside the Freeborn Wildlife Preserve.

4

he Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee

BY JOHN HAMBROCK Edison Lee, who was introduced in 2006, is not your average ten year old . His obsession with politics and the ironies of life are relected in his many inventions and his often pointed interactions with members of the establishment.

5

Daddy’s Home

6

BY GARY MARKSTEIN AND ANTHONY RUBINO JR. Daddy’s Home, launched in 2008, details the humorous happenings of Pete, a stay at home dad, his working wife, Peggy, and their son, Elliot.

Rhymes With Orange

BY HILARY PRICE Rhymes With Orange approaches the universal truths about subjects like relationships, work, pets and holidays.

7

Speed Bump

8

BY DAVE COVERLY “If life were a movie, these would be the outtakes.”

BY LINCOLN PEIRCE

Big Nate

Aspiring cartoonist Nate Wright is 11 years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for detentions in school history. He’s a self-described genius and sixth grade Renaissance Man. Nate, who lives with his dad and older sister, enjoys pestering his family and teachers with his sarcasm.

9

Half Full

10

BY MARIA SCRIVAN Started in 1999, this comic displays the author’s worldview with freshness and conidence and a wry and irreverent perspective on everyday life.

Diamond Lil

BY BRETT KOTH Diamond Lil, started in late 2008, is a mash-up of many older ladies the cartoonist has known over the years. Since 1986, Koth has collaborated with Jim Davis on the writing and art for the Garield comic strip.

11

Intelligent Life

12

BY DAVID REDDICK Since 2014, the comic follows the personal life, the work life, the hobbies and obsessions of Skip, Gwen, Mike and Barry, and glimpses the mania of our world.

Real Life Adventures

BY GARY WISE AND LANCE ALDRICH Since 1991, Real Life Adventures inds humor in the everyday slog—bosses, cheating at golf, clogged pipes, clogged arteries, and parking crooked at the mall.

13

he Middletons

BY RALPH DUNAGIN AND DANA SUMMERS The thought of an idyllic life on a quiet suburban street with quiet suburban neighbors can seem like the stuf of middle-class cliches until you actually live on that street and meet those neighbors. In “The Middletons,� the cartoonists tap into the zeitgeist of middle-class America with a cast of characters that includes Morris and Midge Middleton and their next-door neighbors, Ernest and Peg Wade.

14

BY BRIAN ANDERSON

Dog Eat Doug

Sophie, a chocolate lab, and Doug, a baby, share a love-hate relationship in their everyday lives and imaginations, with Doug often responding to Sophie’s actions by saying “Bak!” Doug’s parents also appear in the strip, which debuted in 2004.

15

BY MARK TATULLI

Lio

16

The world of Lio is illed with the extraordinary — monsters under the bed, wild reptile pets, robot inventions, weird science — but it’s all commonplace for this most uncommon irst-grader.

BY RICK DETORIE

One Big Happy

Since its start in 1988, this comic details the life of Ruthie, a 6 year old girl, her brother Joe, parents Frank and Ellen, and grandparents Nick and Rose, who also happen to be their neighbors.

17

BY ERIC AND BILL TEITELBAUM

Bottom Liners

18

Most who work in Corporate America are well-versed in the occasional foibles and frustrations of the 9-to-5 life. Since 2001, this comic injects humor into a variety of business predicaments.

Between Friends

BY SANDRA BELL LUNDY Witty and personal, sometimes poignant and candid, this slice-of-life strip celebrates the essence of women in all their stress-illed, scintillating glory.

19

BY GARY DELAINEY AND GERRY RASMUSSEN

Betty

20

Betty is a smart, savvy comic character who is unapologetically ordinary, happy and female. She is a truly modern woman — a wife, mother and working woman.

Nest Heads

BY JOHN ALLEN “Nest Heads” follows a middle-aged couple, baby-boomers Charlie and Jeannie, who could enjoy the peacefulness and quietude that belongs to empty nesters — if their children and grandchildren would actually leave them alone.

21

BY RAY BILLINGSLEY

Curtis

22

This comic, which debuted in 1988, details the day-to-day life of a close-knit contemporary African-American family living in the inner city. The cartoonist uses his own childhood of growing up in New York’s Harlem as the template.

Bliss

BY HARRY BLISS Ofering illustrated observations of men, women, smug pets, relationships, hackers, slackers, modern life and modern strife — all fair targets for this artistic comic that debuted in 2004.

23

‘Eyes open in the world’ ‘Zits’ cartoonists, authors ofer unique perspective on creative process JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN have been producing the wildly popular comic strip “Zits” — starring loveable teenager Jeremy Duncan, his parents Connie and Walt, and a parade of memorable friends — since 1997.

The strip is distributed to some 1,700 newspapers in 25 countries — proof that the experience of living with a teenager is universal, or at least relatable.

Scott, who began his newspaper career delivering the South Bend Tribune in his home state of Indiana, is the writer for “Zits” — and co-creator of the comic strip “Baby Blues.” That double-duty makes him one of just four cartoonists in history to have simultaneously produced two daily strips running in more than 1,000 papers each. Borgman was hired out of college as a cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer, where his work won him the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1991.

After a chance encounter in the Atlanta airport more than 20 years ago, they met again in Arizona where Scott showed Borgman a sketchbook with ideas for a comic strip about a teenager.

“His ideas were all great ideas, but the characters were all sort of squatty. My son had just turned 15,” Borgman says.Teen boys“drape themselves over the furniture.They slouch,their clothes hang of them.I started to draw teenagers in the sketchbook — and we both sort of knew that something was happening.”

YOU SAY ON YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU’RE INSPIRED BY MANY CARTOONISTS — BUT ALSO ROCK STARS LIKE TOM PETTY, BOB DYLAN, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN… SCOTT: Oh, being a cartoonist is so much like being a rock star, in so many ways. (Borgman laughs heartily.) For me, the poetry that these songwriters use is inspiring. I love the stories that I’ve learned through Tom Petty’s music, especially, and other singer-songwriters that I admire. It’s not a dissimilar thing that we do — boil down an emotion into a few words.

BORGMAN: What’s really diferent — and I so envy them — is the immediate reaction. They’re on stage, they sing a song, the crowd erupts. There’s that immediate sense of connection. We have just the opposite. Jerry works in his room by himself. I work in a room by myself. Eight weeks later, the (comics) show up in the newspaper, and you never hear the laugh. ... Thank you for these people who reach back out to us and say, “This one really meant something to us,” or they loved it or put it on the refrigerator door. Other than that, we would think that our parents were paying people to let us do this job.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR JEREMY AND “ZITS”?

SCOTT: Could you give ME some ideas? We’ve spent the years we’ve been doing this strip sort of making it up as we go along, doing what feels right at the moment.

We toy around with some ideas — how long is (Jeremy’s) van going to keep running? Is he going to graduate from high school?

He’s inched up in age over the years from a 15-year-old to where he is now, I’d say around 17. Part of me thinks it’s inevitable to take him out of high school.

So, basically, we have no idea.

Jerry Scott, left, and Jim Borgman

HOW DO YOU STAY IN TOUCH WITH TEENAGERS? SCOTT: I don’t. I try to avoid that, actually. We don’t write a comic strip about teenagers. There’s a teenager in it, but I think the comic strip is about living with a teenager.

BORGMAN: You certainly don’t want to be the guy drawing letter sweaters on kids. But as long as you have your eyes open in the world, I think you pick up enough about what’s going on. For us it’s really more about the personalities of the strip, and how they interact, and those universal dynamics of parenting and being a kid struggling to break free. That just doesn’t change.

SCOTT: And it’s the same way around the world. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve gotten letters from readers or talked to people in other countries (who can relate). At a book signing in Sweden, a reader (asked), “How in the world have you been able to capture the experience of the average Swedish kid?”

— By Gayle Worland, Wisconsin State Journal

Jeremy Duncan, the cartoon teenager from of the popular comic strip “Zits,” which debuted in 1997.

‘PEARLS BEFORE SWINE’

Career in cartoons, not court

BY DAVID FITZSIMMONS, Arizona Daily Star staf editorial cartoonist for 30 years

Recently this cartoonist had the pleasure of interviewing Stephan Pastis, the brilliant creator of “Pearls before Swine.” I thanked the former attorney for celebrating newspaper comics with us and for not billing me for the following deposition: Where did your love of language and wordplay come from? Were you beaten with a thesaurus as a child?

When you tell a pun, it seems to annoy at least half the people who hear it. Being the obnoxious person I am, that seems satisfying.

Were you a doodler in school?

Always. Grade school. High school.

College. And most importantly, law school, where I irst created Rat. When I hear the phrase, “second-generation Greek-American,” I picture a mom rolling her eyes at a son who wants to give up a good law practice to draw “silly” cartoons. Were your parents always supportive?

I remember when I told my mom I was going to quit being a lawyer and become a cartoonist, she replied, “Well, if it doesn’t go well, do you have a Plan B?” I thought about that for a second and said, “No.” She didn’t ind that reassuring.

I love “Pearls before Swine” because your jokes are beautifully crafted.

Does the amount of time and labor you invest in each strip vary?

Oh, for sure. Some come to you fully formed in about 10 seconds.

Others you keep re-doing and re-doing in your head and on paper. The latter are almost always the weaker jokes.

When I get writers block I go for long bike rides. What are your creativity triggers?

Long drives, showers, walks — those all work. But the trick I use the most is to sit around a café playing an app on my phone called Boggle With Friends. You try to form as many diferent words as you can. Oddly, the mindless repetition of it gets me going creatively. I’m not sure why.

Stephan Pastis “Pearls” wasn’t the irst concept you tried to sell to syndicates. What was the magic ingredient that “Pearls” had that your previous attempts lacked?

Probably balance. It was the addition of Pig. Before, the ones that were rejected just had Rat. So when Pig came along, it added a sweet element to the strip. Rat alone is probably too harsh and overwhelming. That said, if I could, I would write jokes for Rat all day. He’s the easiest character to write for.

Ever catch heat for making fun of other strips in your strip?

Yeah, there were always people who rushed to the defense of strips like Family Circus. They could get pretty angry. Those emails were fun to read.

Rat is a smart-assed impatient arrogant know-it-all. Do you still insist Rat is a self-portrait?

Yes. Easiest answer so far.

Is there a little bit of you in Pig as well?

Oh, for sure. All the characters acte are somewhere in me.

Do you have a prophetic vision for the future of comic strips?

I think the world ends in nuclear apocalypse. But comic strips and cockroaches survive. So it’s not all bad.

Retail

26

BY NORM FEUTI Created 2006 by Massachusetts retail management veteran Norm Feuti, the humor of Retail plays out through the day-to-day trials and triumphs of four main Grumbelrsquos department store employees and the customers they encounter.

Breaking Cat News

BY GEORGIA DUNN Elvis, Puck, and Lupin — based on the cartoonist’s real cats — report on all the news that matters to cats and events in and around their home.

27

BY JOHN DEERING

Strange Brew

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Whether he’s poking fun at suburban life or the animal kingdom, this cartoonist often uses his in his own back yard as inspiration — in the form of his two pets, Trixie the cat and Suzie the dog.

BY TONY CARRILLO

F Minus

F Minus — a strip short on life lessons, precious moments, and pearls of wisdom — begs the question, “Why are we here?” “What is life all about?” and “Can I take only one shower per week if it’s seven times the normal length?”

29

Take It From the Tinkersons

BY BILL BETTWY

Nothing comes easily in life, especially for Ted and Tif Tinkerson, a happily married couple with two children: A charmingly naive son, Tillman, and a moody tween daughter, Tweetie. This timely comic strip focuses on the hopes and dreams of a modern family, working together to keep their heads above today’s choppy economic waters

30

Brewster Rockit

BY TIM RICKARD Brewster Rockit is an unlikely captain, woefully ill prepared to lead but always ready to take control as he and his crew orbit the stars in the space station R.U. Sirius.

31

Baldo

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BY HECTOR D. CANTU AND CARLOS CASTELLANOS Focusing on the exploits of teenager Baldo Bermudez and his family, Baldo provides a humorous look at the Latino experience, but it also lets readers remember what it was like to be young in America.

Free Range

BY BILL WHITEHEAD

Featuring a cavalcade of topics, this comic originally debuted in 2007.

33

Arctic Circle

34

BY ALEX HALLATT

Three penguins who migrated from the Antarctic to the small town of Snowpeak have joined a polar bear, a snow bunny, a lemming and an Arctic tern.

Collectively, they deal with everything the 21st century has to throw at them.

Wallace the Brave

BY WILL HENRY

With his friends from Moonstone Elementary School by his side, Wallace experiences the thrills of childhood with the youthful bravery of a six-year-old.

35

BY TONY COCHRAN

Agnes

36

Agnes chronicles the adventures of an elementary school-aged girl living in an Ohio trailer park called “The People’s Court.” Agnes is poor and not what one would consider a classical beauty, but she is a dreamer and schemer, whose limitless imagination and ambitions are constantly brought down to Earth by her limited resources and social standing.

Daddy Daze

BY JOHN KOVALESKI A brand new comic starting in June, “Daddy Daze� features stories about giddy romps and imaginary adventures that highlight the special relationship between a single father and his son.

37

Off the Mark

38

BY MARK PARISI Of the Mark features a world of scheming pets, evil computers and talking plants that puts an ironic, absurd or just plain silly spin on the ordinary occurrences of everyday life.

BY NIKLAS ERIKSSON

Carpe Diem

“Seize the day” — this comic is really about any conceivable day, from the dawn of the universe, to the age of dinosaurs and cavemen, and knights and witches, and medieval diseases, to modern-day couch potatoes and Stone Age diets, iPhone worshippers and androids, 3D printers and Google cars.

39

BY MARK BUFORD

Scary Gary

40

This comic, which debuted in 2009, centers around Gary the vampire and his demonic sidekick Leopold as they try to adjust to life in the suburbs. Follow Gary, Leopold, and Travis, the severed head in a jar.

Bound & Gagged

BY DANA SUMMERS From the ridiculous to the sublime, the sight gags in this comic help explain common but unexplainable occurrences.

41

Dogs of C-Kennel

42

BY MASON AND MICK MASTROIANNI Dogs of C-Kennel follows three dogs who must endure life in an animal shelter. Will, the street-wise pit bull, has found himself living in a concrete cell with a large lovable half-wit husky and a Chihuahua hypochondriac.

BY HARLEY SCHWADRON

9 to 5

Populated with obtuse corner-oice bigwigs, feckless cubicle-dwelling drones, social media-addled kids and all sorts of characters on the make in business, politics and love, this comic, which debuted in 2001, ofers a wry look at the chaos and camaraderie of oice life.

43

Grand Avenue

44

BY MIKE THOMPSON This comic stars Gabby and Michael Macfarlane as energetic twins being raised by their grandmother. Grandma Kate is a with-it woman, an avid sports fan who power walks to stay in shape and solves crossword puzzles to stay sharp.

Over the Hedge

BY MICHAEL FRY AND T LEWIS The strip, which takes a freshly skewed look at suburban living from the perspective of the animals who lived there irst, stars RJ, a mischievous raccoon, and Verne, his sensitive best-buddy turtle.

45

Flo & Friends

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BY JENNY CAMPBELL This strip features a group of older women and men dealing with the perils and perks of being old, the rules of chocolate, and dealing with families.

he Pajama Diaries

BY TERRI LIBENSON The strip provides readers with an intimate and candid view of modern marriage, work, and motherhood from the journal of Jill Kaplan.

47

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