In B0b Mosley writes:

...No, unless you can find someone whose own life experiences matched
Sparky's right down to a devout christian upbringing, owning a beagle
who slept on a doghouse, never could kick a football worth a frack,
couldn't win a baseball game to save his life, whose only successful
real-life sport was hockey, and had a life-long unrequited love with a
little red-haired girl, then you won't even come close to being able
to even mimic the heads, hearts and souls that Sparky put into each
and every member of the Charlie Brown gang.

No, you're right. There's no strip which matches the blend
of everything which _Peanuts_ had, and kept thriving, for nearly as
long as Schulz had. And it's possible that no strip will be as
central to American pop culture, although they keep saying comic
strips never will be big again, and then new (and usually deserving)
big ones come up anyway.

There are several comic strips worthy of attention, though.
I think the strongest for capturing the world-of-children spirit is
Richard Thompson's _Cul de Sac_, although right now is a poor time
to start reading the strip since --- who says the universe isn't at
heart cruel and ironic? --- Thompson suffers from Parkinson's, and
other cartoonists are filling in while he tries new treatments. But
it has a fantastic voice.

http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/


Brian Basset's _Red and Rover_ is deliberately set in a
nostalgically-remembered circa-1970, so besides generally sweet stuff
of a kid and his dog there's prime Golden Age of NASA stuff going on.

http://www.gocomics.com/redandrover/


In between weeks of editorial cartooning Darrin Bell's
_Candorville_ is also deeply interested in space, science fiction,
and their interactions. (A recent comment about the likelihood of
launching a spaceship to travel 600 light-years within the next
millennium brought Bell around to rec.arts.comics.strips, too.)
Last week's reruns included a nifty Apollo sequence, too, starting
on March 6 and running through the 9th.

http://www.gocomics.com/candorville/


And it's a clip art strip, but it's often a really bright
clip art strip: _New Adventures of Queen Victoria_, by Pab Sungenis,
and yeah, its punch lines sometimes depend on you being able to
recognize Edward IV in a picture, but the comment threads usually
clarify who's on screen. Beethoven is of course a supporting
character.

http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadvent...queenvictoria/


None of them fill the gap Schulz left, but, between all sorts
of strips there's much to appreciate.

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: Introducing a Very Small Number http://wp.me/p1RYhY-7m
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