But what do you really think, comics readers?
| Monday, Dec 26 2011 01:00 PM
Last Updated Monday, Dec 26 2011 01:00 PM
The Californian welcomes your comments and suggestions. To offer your input by phone, please call 661-395-7649 and leave your comments in a voice-mail message or send an email to soundoff@bakersfield.com. Please include your name and phone number. Phone numbers and addresses won't be published.
Arthur: We've got a single topic today:
I'm sorry that you didn't consider Fred Basset as "family oriented."
He was a dog and he had a family - the same as millions of dogs and people in the world. I think that your comment regarding the comic was very shortsighted on your part. Cul de Sac is a very poorly drawn comic and one I won't and do not have to read. Happy New Year!!
Alice Manalo
We have been getting the paper since we moved to our present address for 28 years and 20 years before that. This is one time I must say something. I don't live for Fred Basset but the replacement cartoon is not funny and not my taste. It's like having a favorite television show and then to have it replaced with something awful. Very disappointed.
Betty Gallagher
After reading your remark in today's paper about minimal negative reaction to the comic strip change I decided to respond. The strip is terrible, the "artwork" is horrible and it is NOT funny. Maybe the reason you didn't get many complaints is because most people feel as I do, The Californian is going to change whatever it wants no matter how the customers feel.
Janet Torres
Don't know how you managed to eliminate my favorite comics and replace them with garbage. Family Circus with Bizzaro and Fred Basset with something that I couldn't decide was a comic or a mistake -- mistake won. What's next?
Al Greif
I totally agree that Cul de Sac isn't cute, funny and doesn't make any sense at all. I didn't complain before now, wanting to give it a chance, but now is the time to tell you I won't read it any more.
A ''dog'' is cute and brings smiles to young and old. Bring Fred Basset back, please!
Judy Evans
I have tried for a week to like this so-called cartoon, but I just can't.
Mana Houck
Your new cartoon is awful. Please bring back Fred Basset, Brewster Rockett or something else. Now you have one mans' opinion.
W.D. Soule
Cul De Sac (is) is a poor cartoon. The graphics and content are not very good.
Jay Bresee
Well, I was reading your paper this morning (Dec. 18) where you say the negative reaction to the change was minimal ... It occurred to me that maybe a few people are like myself and didn't figure it would do a lot of good to complain. So since you said it was minimal, I thought I'd add my vote -- ridiculous!
Donna Kocks
Somebody must have been drunk or stupid or something. That is the worst! Anyway, I just returned from a trip to Wichita, Kansas and I was amazed at the beautiful spread they have of available artists who have very entertaining comic strips. After all, for The Californian that's a big event for us. So get rid of this Cul de Sac and get a subscription to Wichita, Kansas newspaper.
Pat Patterson
This Cul de Sac is really obnoxious. It's not funny. It doesn't look good. How in the world can you enjoy that.
Andrew Darby
The Californian's comic strips have been getting worse for years. Just look at the LA Times or Fresno Bee, for some REAL COMICS.
You claim to want to reach readers with some "family quality" comics, yet you put such stupid strips like "Cul de Sac" with dorky looking persons, "Over the Hedge" that I don't even waste my time looking at, "Pearls Before Swine" which is not even worth looking at, "Bound And Gagged" which should be "bound and gagged", and Bizarro, which is not even remotely funny.
Harold Yingst
I'm really unhappy...
Ola Langley
Reader: Why do keep picking on Fred Basett? It's the best cartoon you have in the whole paper.
Richard Pandolfi
That Cul de Sac thing -- no good!
Barbara Rucks
We have tried for the last week on your new comic and it is dumb! Bring back sweet old Fred. My gosh, he was at least something you could laugh at. This thing is stupid. You said in the paper last Sunday that you have had hardly any comments. That's because people can't be bothered. I haven't talked to anybody who likes it.
June Cochran
Arthur: The comics, clearly, bring out passions. They also are a matter of very personal taste. For example: the one comic I hated, the one I thought we easily could lose, turned out to be the favorite of several of my co-workers. (We kept it.)
Fred Basset has had a great run but did come up short in our in-house poll, and not by a thin margin. Nor was Cul de Sac specifically meant to replace Fred Basset. We lost an old comic and added a newer one. Perhaps we shouldn't have put the new one in the same spot. It's a different comic for a different audience.
We do feel strongly that the newspaper has to evolve, that no features, designs, editors or even columnists have guaranteed lifetime tenures. In fact I'm sure many of you would like to see me go sooner rather than later!
But not yet. This feedback forum is designed to give readers a way to voice criticisms and compliments or ask questions about news coverage. Your questions -- which may be edited for space -- are answered each Sunday by Executive Editor John Arthur. Sound Off
