New Comic - The Argyle Sweater!

The GoComics blog has exploded since the announcement of FoxTrot's new Sunday-only publication schedule. Fans of Bill Amend's popular strip have been weighing in with reactions ranging from congratulatory cheers to bitter despair, and everything in between. We've especially enjoyed the discussion of classics such as The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and The Boondocks, and seeing several ongoing GoComics strips (Lio, Pooch Cafe and Ink Pen, just to name a few) recommended as alternatives for the FoxTrot-deprived.

Hoping to one day be considered among those greats is the newest addition to GoComics, Scott Hilburn's The Argyle Sweater. This clever single-panel comic made the jump from Comics Sherpa to GoComics about a month ago, and has delivered enough cavemen, cowboys and carnivores since then to keep even the most nostalgic of Far Side fans happy. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Comments

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[Jeremiah]

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oh! its winter, the sweaters are so useful for those days! i really love them!!

[big baby]

It may be a Far Side ripoff, but who cares? I miss Gary's stuff, but Argyle fills the void nicely. I can tell a good cartoon by when I get up from the kitchen table to show my wife in the other room, and she laughs. She never laughs, except AT me.

[gary larson fan]

I saw it and instantly thought: The Far Side ripoff. It's funny, yeah. But it's painfully obvious that his primary inspiration is Gary Larson. A little originality wouldn't hurt.

[Mark]

This guy is most ceratinly ripping off Larson. I have sapotted over 10 panels already that are so close he must be fingering through Gary's works and seeing how he can twist it just a bit for the same laughs. Steven Hawkings replaced God on a game show panel.......Smurfs replaced ants while being toasted by a kid with a magnafying glass.....snakes just realizing they don't have hands...Tarzan arriving home to his 'parents' instead of Jane...farm animals galore. Borrowing one aspect is a compliment but copying format (panel), characters, drawing style and even secific gags is shameful.

[Don Reed]

There's no need to defend Larson.

1) The A.S. artwork is infinitely better than Larson's (almost every artist is more talented than Larson).

2) Larson himself screwed his fans but good @ 3 three years ago with his two-volume collection of everything - every Far Side cartoon ever printed.

Printed on extremely heavy glossy paper and bound in bullet-proof hard-cover, both books are so huge and so heavy that you need a forklift to pick them up, and a catapult to turn the pages.

All unnecessary. At least 25% of the cartoons are losers, garbage. Another 25% are just marginal; 25% are quite good; and the rest are brilliant.

But you had to buy them ALL, and the price was outrageous.

So if you like being coerced into having to buy pre-season football game tickets in order to be able to buy regular season tickets, you're probably defending Larson on this message board right now. I'm not.

I'm busy planning for the day when I can take a razor to these books to cut out & save the winners - and toss all the rest.

[Comics reader]

That's Life, Close to Home, Loose Parts, Bizarro, Brevity, Speed Bump, and many other single-panel comics that have no recurring characters and an absurd gag every day could all be accused of being Far Side ripoffs, but really, what I would look for is a consistent humor, which was something that Gary Larson somehow achieved daily. The Argyle Sweater isn't the first of its kind, and it won't be the last, but what is good about it is how it is consistently funny.

And Orpheus, Calvin and HObbes ended in 1995. There are no new ones, the ones on this site have all been reruns.

[Josh]

You weren't the only one to notice. Scott Hilburn answers this question on his website, in the News section.

http://www.theargylesweater.com/

[bob mckenzie]

http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=288

Ripping off Far Side?

[bob mckenzie]

http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=288

Argyle Sweater rips off Far Side?

[Josh Peres]

Yes, it's true. Big Top folds up the tent on March 25th. There is a short article on the Universal Press Syndicate website: http://www.amuniversal.com/ups/newsrelease/?view=527

Harrell cites professional and financial reasons for ending the strip, but also doesn't rule out the possibility of returning to comics someday.

[Gil Jared, Jr]

Don't tell me another comic strip is on the way out! There's a storyline in Big Top about the bank repossessing the circus. Is this another line of comics strips in which their sorry creators can't keep up with deadlines?! Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, Mudpie, The Boondocks, Fox Trot, and Silo Roberts (from comics.com) are gone or reduced to weekend runs just because their creators/writers can't keep up with deadlines like those of the old school creators of comic strips (such as Blondie or Beetle Bailey). I jest started reading this strip at the start of this year as a replacement for the strip Fox Trot (now on weekends). What other strip will discontinue before the end of this year?

[Blah]

omg, I just flipped through the archives and this strip makes me LOL. This one was brilliant:

http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2007/01/25/

What's the best way to get my local newspapers to carry this strip?

[Blah]

I don't care that it's a Far Side rip off, I really like this Argyle strip, I will bookmark it!

[Sheila Myers]

I like it!! I know many have compared it to Far Side but I believe it has so much more to offer. Keep up the good work!!

[fetusboy]

Well, it could certainly do with something to set it more apart for being a Far Side rip-off, but I must admit it's funny.

[kris]

The Argyle Sweater is a much-needed breath of fresh air! With its wonderfully clever humor (and its very own original take on it) and superb artwork, I can't wait to see what's in store for this new strip. Love it.

[Snowman]

I’ve had Larson withdrawals since The Far Side left the funny pages 10 years ago. This is the first time I’ve seen anything come close to being as funny, IMO

[lefitte]

smells a lot like Far Side.

[rob]

I've been following Argyle too. It's a good strip. I'm on the fence as to whether it's a huge Far Side rip off or not. But either way, it's witty and makes me laugh which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of the new strips making their way into syndication.

[Roger]

Sorry to see Foxtrot disappear daily, but what about James Bond? It has vanished from the lineup today. I know they're just reprints, but in the middle of a storyline?

[Orpheus]

It's interesting that you recommend Calvin and Hobbes, when you've stopped putting up new ones! Why has it gone back to the very beginning? Are we ever going to see the rest?

[Howard]

Argyle is my newest fav. Love it! Thanks for giving it a chance.