The view from my cup…comic pages. It has been years since I regularly read the comics in the newspaper. Probably since Calvin and Hobbes went away. That was December 31, 1995. On the first day of the same year, The Far Side ended too. Not a good year for the comic pages.

I first started reading comic strips when I was a child. That was about the only section of the paper that held any interest to me when I was in grade school. The Family Circus was always cute, and it still is. I marvel at the family that never ages one scintilla. At some point, I began reading the serial comics. Dick Tracy (1931-present), Judge Parker (1952-present), and Rex Morgan, MD (1948-present). They were like tiny, encapsulated soap operas, only without the dramatic music and commercials.

I followed these faithfully for several years. The lives of these characters being told in just a handful of frames each day seemed remarkable. Looking back now, I see that it would require a gifted writer to give you enough of a story to keep you interested and reading. But also, to end each strip on a bit of a cliffhanger to compel you to return the following day to see what transpired.

In my mother-in-law’s town, the paper has shrunk to a tiny version of its former self, like most newspapers these days. But on Sundays, to my surprise, I discovered there is a two-page spread of comic in full color! Just like the old days when I was a child. Once more, I saw what Rex, Dick, and the Judge looked like in living color.