Since Garry Trudeau returned from his break a couple of weeks ago it sure looks to me like Doonesbury has computer lettering. I really dislike computer lettering for comics. A quick online check shows others also noticing the change, but nothing definitive.
This is how the lettering looked in one of the Sunday strips that was reprinted in May…
…and this is a panel from today’s Doonesbury.
I’d say there’s no doubt that the switch has been made to computer lettering. Yuck!
After Charles Schulz’s right hand started to shake, he held it steady with his left hand when inking and lettering Peanuts. In fifty years he took no sabbaticals and there were no reprinted strips. I’m not saying all cartoonists should be held to such a standard, but Schulz certainly set the standard.
Thanks very much for the clarification, Nat. I only vaguely recall this, now that you’ve brought it up. In late ’97 we were busy looking for a house to get us out of our starter home.
I was actually somewhat disappointed when Watterson returned from his first sabbatical. I was pleased he was no longer locked into panel format, but the artwork itself was exactly as he had left it. In fact, as accomplished as his work was, I feel Watterson’s drawings showed relatively little progression after he initially warmed up in the first year or two.
While I concur with you about the quality of Schulz’s effort and the greatness of his lettering, I do have to correct something here (in my nitpicking-the-internet style.) Sparky actually did take one sabbatical during which the strip went into reruns: November 27th to December 31, 1997. Sparky had been urged to take a break, and seems to have regretted doing so.
(Having said that, I’ve got nothing against cartoonists taking sabbaticals. I thought Trudeau’s first one allowed him to come back fresh, and to reinvent the strip. (Trudeau also has a need to keep timely that prevents him from building up a Virgil Partch-like backlog.)
Monte,
It seemed every time Trudeau, or Larson, or Breathed, or Watterson took a break or outright quit, your father would be asked what he thought. I always loved his reply, which I’ll paraphrase as, “Why work so hard to make a living doing the one thing you love to do most, only so you can quit doing it?” To borrow a current catchword, “ex-actly.”
UGLY! All that white space covering up the drawing. If he using computer lettering, what else is using his computer for? Berkeley Breathed colors his (awful) “Opus” strip weekly himself using Photoshop.
Dad took pride in doing in his own lettering and enjoyed all aspects of cartooning art. I think it just seemed natural for him to do that as long as possible. Only health let him down, not desire.