July 31, 2004
The Big Picture
After several years chronicling his life in The Big Picture, Lennie Peterson announces that he's thinking about retiring his syndicated autobiographical comic strip, following the death of his sixteen-year old cat, Ginger. TBP is one of my favorite syndicated comic strips since I discovered it just over two years ago. It will be a shame to see it go. I only hope that if he does decide to retire from the comic strip business, that this will be a temporary retirement, much like Cher's numerous farewell tours, except without the scary plastic surgery and the fifty or sixty-year old woman wearing a thong in front of a bunch of strangers.
TBP is a rarity in syndication -- it's one of the first (if not the first) autobiographical comic strips to be syndicated. Online, there are tons of autobiographical strips available. Heck, even this site features one. But in syndicated land, they are unheard of.
A few months after I moved to my new town, the local paper dropped TBP in favor of a fifth "bizarre slice of life" panel strip, something similar to Mother Goose and Grimm or The Far Side. Something fresh, something unique like TBP was dropped for a retread. They kept thecrap safe comics every paper carries: Family Circus, Cathy, Paws, Incorporated; they dumped something that's original.
Visit PlanetLennie.com for more info on Lennie Peterson and The Big Picture. You can read The Big Picture online at UComics.com.
Posted at July 31, 2004 11:51 AM
After several years chronicling his life in The Big Picture, Lennie Peterson announces that he's thinking about retiring his syndicated autobiographical comic strip, following the death of his sixteen-year old cat, Ginger. TBP is one of my favorite syndicated comic strips since I discovered it just over two years ago. It will be a shame to see it go. I only hope that if he does decide to retire from the comic strip business, that this will be a temporary retirement, much like Cher's numerous farewell tours, except without the scary plastic surgery and the fifty or sixty-year old woman wearing a thong in front of a bunch of strangers.
TBP is a rarity in syndication -- it's one of the first (if not the first) autobiographical comic strips to be syndicated. Online, there are tons of autobiographical strips available. Heck, even this site features one. But in syndicated land, they are unheard of.
A few months after I moved to my new town, the local paper dropped TBP in favor of a fifth "bizarre slice of life" panel strip, something similar to Mother Goose and Grimm or The Far Side. Something fresh, something unique like TBP was dropped for a retread. They kept the
Visit PlanetLennie.com for more info on Lennie Peterson and The Big Picture. You can read The Big Picture online at UComics.com.
Posted at July 31, 2004 11:51 AM
TBP is also one of my all around favorite comic strips and, after not reading it for a little more than a week, I received a double blow: first, Ginger's death and, then, Lennie's anouncement. His retirement would certainly be a big loss for all of us who appreciate good and original comic strips. I have already e-mailed him to ask that he please not retire. I don't know what else to do...
Posted by: Ribozyme at August 3, 2004 05:58 PM