To the Philadelphia Inquirer and its Readers:
The comics page changed this week, and it shrunk. What’s up with that?
The idea of increasing the cost of a newspaper has always been to also offer an incentive to readers. In this case, unfortunately, more means less.
Some popular strips, including “Prince Valiant,” are gone. The paper is offering a chance for readers to vote for a new comic to be added to the roster, but not without losing “Rex Morgan, MD” and “Lio.”
There is nothing more relaxing than to come home from a day at the office, sit with the newspaper and enjoy the laughs and nostalgia provided by comics. In the old days, strips like “Dondi” and “Dick Tracy” were popular. They were around long enough for me to enjoy them. They’re gone now. Classics like “Peanuts” couldn’t possibly be pulled from circulation without risking mass subscription cancellations.
Just because the cost of living has gone up, the cost of laughing doesn’t have to.
Also, one full-page which used to carry comics is now filled with the evening television listings and puzzles. Some of the puzzles have been enlarged and others shrunken, to add to the further alienation of readers. Now nearly all of the paper requires the use of my reading glasses.
If newspapers want to continue to thrive, they must evolve into better harbingers of news. This doesn’t mean shrinkage but growth, in the form of better articles, classier photography and more entertainment value. By removing comics, nobody benefits; readers lose interest, artists lose jobs and the paper loses customers.
At least bring back “Prince Valiant.” It’s one of the best drawn strips. Also, it was remiss of the Inquirer to leave whole story lines unresolved without giving readers advance notice.
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