6 minutes ago, EricMontreal22 said:

The DS comic books had some decent art but I think were a mess story wise. However, I'm thrilled with the new complete collection of the newspaper comic strip, with art by the great Ken Bald. Its writer is uncredited but I'm pretty sure it was written by Elliot Caplin, who was Al Capp's brother (and apparently a much nicer guy.) I'm a big fan of the old soap opera comic strips and Caplin co-created one of the very best, The Heart of Juliet Jones (which had stunning art by Stan Drake) which I actually just finished a complete re-read of (the final decade--the 1990s--are a mess, as Drake had retired from it and Caplin's stories become disconnected and bizarre and I don't even know what newspapers covered it.) Juliet Jones actually had a soap opera pilot in the 1950s that you can find on Youtube. But Caplin wrote DOZENS of strips (including the short lived but surprisingly edgy 1950s OTHER soap opera comic he did, Adam Aames) the boxing soap Big Ben Bolt, taking over some of his brother's non Lil Abner comics, etc, etc. And he never took credit. (I could go on and on about the fascinating parallels between the soap opera comic strips and the TV soaps during each era, but I'll save that for some time I really want to bore everyone here.)

So yeah, I recommend the comic strip collection over the comic books. The only issue, and it's a big one, is they were only allowed to use a small handful of characters (so no Quentin, my fave, though it seems if it had continued he might have appeared.)

I wrote a bit about those in the DS thread early this year when I got the '90s version of the comic strip reprints (I didn't even know there was a new one - is that version also a B&W version of the color Sunday strips). I'd love to read your thoughts on what I said at the time (my story ranking, anyway). I enjoyed them overall - they ended on a strong note, intentionally or not.

I didn't realize the people doing the animated show had a mixed reputation, but I guess that's inevitable.

Did you ever read the Gold Key comics? I have a few but rarely go through them.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by DRW50

I am familiar with both the gorgeously painted Innovation comics from the '90s (which were based on the '91 revival because they inexplicably only had the rights to that, but they wove in classic actors like Lara Parker in new roles with her blessing) and the Dynamite Comics run from the 2010s, which followed on from 1971 and stayed in strict continuity with the original series. Both had their merits, though the Innovation books were more about the stunning visuals than great writing. (Innovation also did some very strong or at least interesting stuff with Lost in Space, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. The LIS book was great.) I'm not sure either run got an ending.

DS' original series and stories are mostly continued today via the very active Big Finish audio drama range (famous for doing Doctor Who audios). I have no idea if those are any good. I'm familiar with Big Finish's Who work but I haven't listened to their DS stuff, which mixed DW personnel with classic DS actors. A strange mix I've never really been able to get comfortable with, because both franchises were huge but separate parts of my childhood. Maybe someday I will. I know DRW has enjoyed some of them.

Edited 34 minutes ago34 min by Vee

Interesting.