Ever read a comic strip daily, just because it’s bad?

I’m not going to mention any names and for all I know, my own work is in this horrible category, but I’ve noticed that I’ve always been drawn to terrible work. Of course, I love all the classics and read the best of the best, but for some reason, I am drawn to the bad ones. I’m not sure if it’s the content, the writing or the drawing, but I read these bad strips often. Many I see on Facebook, they pop up in my feed. I don’t seek them out.

When I was a kid, we used to get a few newspapers (I miss those old daily newspaper days), and some newspapers ran the lower-end comics, I guess they weren’t as popular and they were cheaper to purchase for the newspapers than say “Doonesbury” or “Peanuts.” So there was room for everyone back then with the multitude of newspapers and features.

We used to get the Miami Herald daily and the South Dade News Leader and I would sometimes buy the Miami News. We also had access to the Hollywood Sun-Tattler (love that name) and the Ft. Lauderdale News and Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. So we had daily access to six daily newspapers and if I would travel through the south end of our state, I would read the Naples Daily News and Key West Citizen. Lots of newspapers.

The South Dade News Leader had the lower end comics, most from the NEA Syndicate and I would read these and enjoyed them. I also remember free weekly newspapers that had the worst comics, but I looked forward to them.

Today online, I see comics that make me shudder. I don’t ever want to put down a fellow cartoonist, so I don’t ever put them down outside my head, but yet I read them, so there is something there. And I guess posting on Facebook works because I always click on them and read them.

Maybe it’s like a bad tv commercial. It may be terrible, but you remember the product.