Every Sunday morning, the paper would come and I would wait in anticipation to be handed the Sunday Comics. To be able to read Zits, Blondie, Family Circus and Garfield.
Over time, as I grew older, the news became more accessible on an online platform. You could get the current news through just a notification on your phone. Reading a print newspaper seemed to an activity relegated to the baby boomer generation.
20 years of a comic could now be found on a website online. Print newspapers became outdated in terms of how fast news broke on social media and online publications.
For me, however, the novelty of opening the newspaper every Sunday morning and flipping through to the comics never wore off. I like having the continuity of seeing what Dagwood is going through at work, of seeing what new annoyance Dennis the Menace has developed.
The Sunday comics do provide a brief, bright spot of color and comedy rooted in my nostalgic memory of the past. But it also does more than that. It provides political and social critique in the subtle 3x3 boxes. When characters in a comic comment on the fear of being different, or on the toxicity of the political climate, it feels relatable.
In fact, that’s the point of these comics: to relate to the audience. Whether it’s a 6-year-old or a 60-year-old reading it, the comics are able to strike a cord with a variety of age groups.
The Sunday comics that have been around for a long time and it’s easy to see why. They remind us of a better time while still commenting on the present. The Sunday Comics have been around for years and will hopefully survive the technological age in order to keep the tradition of print comedy alive for the next generation.
