I’ve been traveling this week and still am. I apologize for the sporadic updating, but it has been largely unavoidable. You probably want to hear about Boston Comic Con. I met some wonderful readers in Boston. I had so many people come by and say such nice things. However, so many kind words were prefaced the same way: “I used to read you all the time in the newspaper!” Of course, I would point out that I’m still in the newspaper, and they’d say, “Yeah, well, we don’t get a paper anymore.” Aside from being flagrantly reminded how far the scene has shifted from my professional turf, Boston was great. I will talk a lot more about it in days to come. Vermont Comic Con is yet to come!
213 responses to “Boston Is History”
Well now we are an electronic society now you know!
I still get the newsprint, but often wonder why.
Well, our “daily” paper is now twice a week plus Sunday – I used to read you every day – now just Tuesday and Thursday as I don’t get the Sunday edition. It takes commitment as I have to go and GET the paper – no home delivery where my house is located!
I admit I’m not a newspaper insider, but it does seem as if the papers gave up all too easily. We don’t get our local paper because it’s gone from four sections and 30+ pages to around 8-10 pages and 1 or 2 sections (Not counting Sundays). The paper we do get, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has A&J in it, and is still a true “news” paper. But it was recently purchased by Gannett, and is morphing into that well-known national paper they own. If it becomes too much like that aforesaid paper, we’ll drop it, too. How very sad. And, lest you think I am an old curmudgeon, I own an iPad, a laptop, and buy much of my non-grocery items online. I don’t object to the internet, but I do think it needs to learn its place! Thanks for listening…
We have a pretty decent paper where I live and I take it (home delivery) for the editorial page, the local news and the comics section. The nat’l news is always 2-3 days old by the time it appears in the paper. I read all the comics and do the crossword nearly every evening before bed. I read A&J online (GoComics) at work (it’s in the paper tho) and Calvin and Hobbes (not in the paper).
I’ve said it here before, but when I stopped buying the daily paper, the newspaper industry was doomed. My kids’ enduring memory of me had to be me laying on the sofa reading the Sunday paper. I gave it up when the Detroit papers stopped delivery 4 days a week and the those 4 days were filled with a very puny paper that cost a dollar. Worse, I could get more up to date news by going to their websites.
I still look at 4-5 strips each day religiously. The site that I go to does not have Blonde or Beetle Bailey and sometimes when I think of it, I will look for them somewhere else. I think the future of comic strips is via social media. In the old days, I would cut out the A&J strip and put it on the refrigerator. Now I post them on Facebook.
BTW Jimmy, did you take a Duck tour around town? That was pretty informative and something Arlo might do.
I was one of those people fortunate enough to see JJ in person at ComicCon Boston. What a hoot to meet and talk to the creator of our beloved A&J in the flesh. Of course, there was a LOT of flesh at ComicCon. The sheer masses of humanity, not to mention the amazing costumes worn by so many attendees was mind boggling. And let’s not forget the dozens and dozens of talented illustrative artists who were in attendance.
About newspapers. As with many newspapers, you can buy an online version much more cheaply than the paper version. I find them unwieldy to use and am likely to overlook something I might actually be interested in. But…. our Boston Globe ALSO offers an e-reader version. It looks EXACTLY like and you peruse it EXACTLY like the paper version. I love it and was able to get my hometown “paper” every day during a 6 week 10,500 mile cross-country road trip last year. We hit 26 states and 2 Canadian provinces. I can only hope that more newspapers would offer their product in this format – and advertise it – because I think readers would jump at the chance to buy them. The subscription costs about 25% of the newsstand copy and I never have to leave my house to get it. Blizzards be damned! I do miss the tactile sensation of holding the newspaper, though. And lastly, you can’t cut out a digital version of A&J to stick onto the refrigerator. *sigh*
I stopped getting print copies of the daily paper a couple of years ago and switched to only Wed & Sun editions for the sale fliers and coupons. This year I added the digital version for the other days of the week and a digital subscriptions to second newspaper. It’s a win-win for everyone: I get the benefit of the reading the paper, they get the benefit of the subscription fee, and the planet gets the benefit of less pollution.
How interesting to hear from so many thoughts on subject. I have lived here twenty years and while I think the Tulsa paper is a good one stopped my subscription when my mother died. She loved it.
But it did not carry Arlo and Janis. So for some reason I was reading the McAlester, OK paper recently and found they did. Since I do little in McAlester which is closest town to me other than gym, Lowe’s and one department store I had never read the paper as it was written for “locals.” That is good, for locals.
I see that JJ’s Sunday update did not extend the time for comments herein. Apparently, the time of original entering by JJ is the controlling factor.
A number of comics not carried by GoComics.com can be found at comicskingdom.com . I find that site easier to use, as well. Blondie and Beetle Bailey are among those available.
PS: We still get a daily & Sunday paper. I like it for the cryptograms and sudokus.
Someone commented on our local paper, the one in McAlester, that they should run all obituaries for free because that was why anyone subscribed to them. They charge large fee to run obituaries and do not consider them news but notices, like legal notices.
Dear Ghost, it is official. Hef has sold the mansion and will live on with the gargoyles. Oh that’s right, he is one.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154524740363010&id=5863113009
When the local paper went lame and I dropped my subscription I started reading A&J on GoComics, but they started having viruses from time to time. I have had a good experience with the Seattle Times. Too bad I live on a different coast.
I use the Seattle Times as well.
Thanks cep. I’ll try comicskindom.com in the future.
Happy belated birthday, Debbe!
I subscribe to my local paper (which carries A&J); home delivery several days a week by the newspaper agency and the balance by an independent carrier. I am never giving up my newspaper.
Good for those with a paper paper. Magazines are going too.
Mark is home from hospital. He says they discharged him about a week too early. Llee is on Facebook as is Miss Charlotte and Gary so those three accounted for.
We still subscribe to the incredible shrinking print editíon of the Orlando Sentinel. It never did carry A&J – my introduction came through a truly local paper, the Sanford Herald, when they were still a daily. I subscribed to the Herald at the school where I worked because they did more coverage of Seminole County news, especially high school sports, than the Sentinel.
When we’re traveling I do read the OS enewspaper on my tablet but I’m not a fan. We can read quite a few magazines online through our local library but I find the format awkward at best.
There’s also a stack of print magazines on my footstool for “one of these days” 🙂
Wow! Looked out the window just in time to see a pair of swallow-tailed kites fly over.
Delivered paper in our household is down to a weekly news magazine and the Sunday newspaper. The Sunday paper does not carry A&J, is just a cheap way to get the online edition. Last physical newspaper I read was the Memphis Commercial Appeal, it did carry A&J.
Jimmy, here is a link to a great day visit in Burlington, http://www.shelburnefarms.org
Think you would enjoy, travel schedule permitting.
Son of a gun. I had forgotten that you were going to the Boston Comic Con.
This afternoon, the bank’s president and I were talking about his trip last week to Boston for the Ohio Bankers League convention, and he mentioned that a comic con was going on while he was there.
He missed the chance to meet you; he likes A&J, too.
And I am happy to say that A&J still appears in my local paper.
Actually, I’m the one who convinced the publisher to add it quite a few years ago.
No brag. Just fact.