Funnies

As a kid, I would wake up bright and early every Saturday morning to watch cartoons and I couldn't understand why a) my parents didn't wake up to watch them with me and b) why they would instead choose to read the paper! The only good thing about the paper was, of course, the funnies. The Sunday paper promised page after page of funnies, and in color to boot! I always read all of them except the soap opera/serial ones (although my sister and step dad always shared a love of Prince Valiant, and I think secretly Apartment 3G also). My grandfather loved Calvin and Hobbes for the slapstick and dark humor it provided and as dopey as The Family Circus is, who doesn't love the strips where Billy's tracks are traced through the neighborhood? Doonsbury validates our liberal leanings and Dagwood's giant sandwiches look delicious even first thing in the morning. Finding consistency in the funnies is always nice, first thing in the morning, also: Cathy will always freak out about her Christmas cards, Garfield will always get the best of Odie and, of course, Lucy will always pull the football away from Chuck.
As I got older Saturday morning cartoons did lose their charm (mostly though, they just ceased to exist!) and I learned to appreciate the newspaper. By the time I graduated college I actually craved the Sunday morning ritual of reading the paper while having coffee. I read the paper online now and don't have much time to read the funnies, although I allow myself to check in on For Better or Worse each day. Michael, Elizabeth and April have grown up with me and I love finding out what will happen with Michael and Deanna's awful neighbors, or who Elizabeth will date next. April remains a pesky little sister to Elizabeth, but they've grown to be more adult friends, much like me and my own sister.
I was introduced to a friend of a friend's comic blog awhile back and am always excited when it's updated. Since she chronicles her real life, her blows are equally poignant to her readers (at least to me and the two friends with whom I discuss this comic); we truly empathized with her when she and her boyfriend broke up. When that happened, I realized that technically, I wasn't reading a funny anymore. In fact it's bittersweet under (sometimes over) tones are found in all my favorites. Blondie will always essentially be a housewife and Cathy will never truly get over her neuroses. Charlie Brown will always be lonely, with even Snoopy being "cooler" than him. Calvin is really just a lonely only child.
Sometimes toward the end of the day, if I feel like something's missing, I'll go online to read a comic, and my day feels complete, if only because even in the funnies, the characters are going through the same trials and tribulations.