Comic changes coming for Tampa Bay Times

[D.D.Degg]

The Tampa Bay Times is announcing changes, some affecting their comic strips.

"Starting Friday, we’re introducing changes to the Tampa Bay Times."

...

" We are packing more fun into our Sunday comics section and
giving it a new name: Fun & Games. This section combines comics,
games and puzzles — including some new ones. The new features
include Kakuro, Trivia, Kriss Kross and Word Wheel."

...

"We are beefing up our e-Newspaper..."

"Several of our current comics are moving to the e-Newspaper bonus page,
and we are adding more comics there.
The combination gives us a bigger lineup than we publish now."
https://www.tampabay.com/news/2019/11/11/local-news-and-investigations-e-newspaper-additions-are-the-focus-of-changes/

I'm reading this as they are cutting comics from the Sunday Funnies
and filling that space with games and puzzles moved from the
newspaper proper to the Sunday comics section.
(My local paper has a four-page weekend sunday Funnies section
with page four being crossword puzzles.)

[Jimmy Delach]

For some reason, I'm having trouble accessing this article (and I live in this area!!!).

D.D., has there been any announcement as to which comics are moving to their e-paper or added there?

[Jimmy Delach]

On Monday, November 11, 2019 at 9:17:12 PM UTC-5, Jimmy Delach wrote:
> For some reason, I'm having trouble accessing this article (and I live in this area!!!).
>
> D.D., has there been any announcement as to which comics are moving to their e-paper or added there?

Oops. Never mind. I actually checked the e-paper and I could read the article in full. They didn't name any comics that are moving out of print and into the e-paper but one would suspect this may finally be their excuse to unload the likes of "Peanuts", "For Better Or For Worse", "Family Circus" and possibly a few other aging strips.

We'll find out on Friday.

[Jimmy Delach]

> Oops. Never mind. I actually checked the e-paper and I could read the article in full. They didn't name any comics that are moving out of print and into the e-paper but one would suspect this may finally be their excuse to unload the likes of "Peanuts", "For Better Or For Worse", "Family Circus" and possibly a few other aging strips.
>
> We'll find out on Friday.

EDIT: Actually, upon skimming the e-paper, there was an announcement in the Baylink section (where they print the comics) and they did name the strips moving out of the traditional paper and into the e-paper:

Blondie
Hagar The Horrible
Mother Goose & Grimm
Cornered
Breaking Cat News
Pajama Diaries
Dog Eat Doug
Reality Check

So it looks like "Peanuts" is safe but so will "Family Circus" (why?).

[D.D.Degg]

Jimmy,
So are the affected strips Sunday only? or daily also?

[Jimmy Delach]

Daily for the time being. I likely won't report on Sunday changes until ... well, Sunday.

[Jimmy Delach]

BTW here are the exact number of years these comics have been in the Times

Blondie: Sunday since 11/14/1937, Daily since 10/31/1938 (by comparison, the Tampa Tribune began running Blondie Sundays on 1/2/1938 and Daily on 3/24/1941)

Hagar The Horrible: Somehow I thought both Tampa Bay area papers ran Hagar from the beginning but upon research, I was mistaken. The Tribune ran Hagar first when it launched on 2/5/1973 (replacing "Lil' Abner") while The Times added Hagar just over a year later (replacing "Muggs And Skeeter")

For Better Or For Worse (I apparently forgot to include them as they were named as moving to the e-paper): The Tribune ran "Better/Worse" when it started on 9/9/1979 (and dropped the strip two years into its' rerun phase in 2010 - still can't believe they brought back "Shoe" to replace the Sunday strip) while the Times ran the strip only on Wednesdays before deciding to promote it to a regular strip (replacing "The Incredible Hulk" on Memorial Day 5/25/1981)

Mother Goose & Grimm: The Times began running "Mother Goose" on 10/1/1984 with "Tumbleweeds" being sacrificed to make room (well, not just for "Mother Goose" but also the new, expanded "Doonesbury"). The Tribune didn't start running Grimmy et al. until 4/20/1992 when they did away with "Nancy" (three years before Guy & Brad Gilchrist's revival).

Dog Eat Doug: It was one of the new strips the Times introduced in the wake of Aaron MacGruder's decision to take a hiatus from drawing (and eventually end altogether) "The Boondocks" (but hey, they're back in a new series launching on HBOMax some six months from now) in 2006. "Watch Your Head" (since retired) and "F-Minus" (would eventually be Sunday only) were also added while "Cathy" was sacrificed (my mom didn't appreciate that) as was "Opus" (though reader support did bring him back). A few weeks later, "Lio" was added to replace "Marvin".

Pajama Diaries: It was the biggest beneficiary of Bill Amend's decision to reduce his "Fox Trot" work to Sundays only on 1/1/2007. I actually appreciated the strip despite the fact the family is Jewish (I'm Catholic) and it was also nice of Terri Libenson to introduce the subject of autism in the form of neighbor Nanci's son Ben (Terri named him after her father if I'm not mistaken).

Breaking Cat News/Cornered/Reality Check: They were just added nearly a year ago and now they're gone from the traditional paper (wasn't happy about reducing "Dennis The Menace" to Sunday only - maybe they'll resurrect that in their e-paper - but at least they rid themselves of "Get Fuzzy" at the same time).

[D Heine]

Is Garfield safe too?

[Jimmy Delach]

Here's the Tampa Bay Times comics lineup after Today's changes

In the regular paper (only one full comics page instead of two)

Pickles Family Circus Bizarro

Baldo
Jump Start
Big Nate
Zits
Red And Rover
Baby Blues
Garfield
Sherman's Lagoon
Luann

Pearls Before Swine
Curtis
Dilbert
Rose Is Rose
Sally Forth
Macanudo
Arlo & Janis
Classic Peanuts
The Duplex

In back page

Rubes
The Argyle Sweater
Rhymes With Orange

In the E-paper:

The Pajama Diaries
Dog Eat Doug
Hagar The Horrible

One Big Happy (new)
The Other Coast (new)
Diamond Lil (new)
Beetle Bailey

For Better Or For Worse

Nancy (returns after a brief stint replacing "Non Sequitur" in the regular paper)
Wallace The Brave (new)

Speed Bump
Reality Check

Mother Goose & Grimm
Blondie
Breaking Cat News

Cornered
Marmaduke (Daily strip brought back after being dropped last year - and they couldn't do same for "Dennis The Menace"?!?!?)

[D Heine]

Will Sunday be the same or will it have changes?

[Jimmy Delach]

> Will Sunday be the same or will it have changes?

Changes because they're adding puzzles to it. Whether any comics will be added or dropped is another story.

[Jimmy Delach]

FYI in the midst of all the comic strip changes, the Times has dropped "Shoe" and "Buckles" (a former Tampa Tribune strip) from the Daily paper.

[Jimmy Delach]

Now here's what happened to Sunday....

Moved to E-paper:
Beetle Bailey
Blondie
Breaking Cat News
Dennis The Menace
Dog Eat Doug

For Better Or For Worse

Hagar The Horrible
Cornered
Marmaduke
Mother Goose & Grimm
Pajama Diaries
Reality Check
Shoe
Speed Bump

New (E-paper):
Diamond Lil
Nancy
One Big Happy
The Other Coast
Wallace The Brave

Gone entirely:
Buckles
F-Minus
Frank & Ernest
The Flying McCoys
Hi & Lois
Mutts

Also of note: "Peanuts" got moved out of their front page of their newly-titled "Fun & Games" section. The last time the Times didn't run "Peanuts" on their front page was August 18, 1968 (when it had "Dick Tracy" and "Andy Capp" - two strips long since banished).

[Jimmy Delach]

One more thing: "Speed Bump" was added to their E-paper (I assumed the strip was already running on Sundays but I was mistaken).

[D.D.Degg]

Jimmy Delach wrote:
> Now here's what happened to Sunday....
>

So what's the actual line-up in the fishwrap edition?

[D Heine]

The Sunday Tampa Bay Times Fun 'n Games section isn't part of the Press Reader version of the Tampa Bay Times on the Press Reader site.

[Jimmy Delach]

Page 1:
Baby Blues
Fox Trot
Curtis
Baldo
Garfield

Page 2:
Los Angeles Times Crossword
The Family Circus
Bridge
The Last Word In Astrology
Jumble
Wonderword
Hocus-Focus
Universal Sudoku

Page 3:
Pearls Before Swine
Sherman's Lagoon
Classic Peanuts
Sally Forth
Luann
Doonesbury

Page 4:
Kakuro
Stan James Crossword
Random Trivia
Scrabble Grams
Kriss Kross
Cryptoquip
Jumble Crossword

Page 5:
Rose Is Rose
Pickles
Big Nate
Macanudo
Zits
Red And Rover

Page 6:
Dilbert
Bizarro
Jump Start
Arlo & Janis
The Duplex
The Argyle Sweater
Rubes (credited to Liniers instead of Leigh Rubin)
Stone Soup
Rhymes With Orange
Puzzle Answers

And here's the Sunday section (e-Pages included):

https://we.tl/t-rf5cO1Z2NS

[Jimmy Delach]

Scrabble-Grams
Kriss Kross
CryptoQuip

Jumble Crossword

Page 5:
Rose Is Rose
Pickles
Big Nate
Macanudo
Zits

Red & Rover

Page 6:
Dilbert
Bizarro
Jump Start
Arlo & Janis
The Duplex
The Argyle Sweater

Rubes (credited by Liniers instead of Leigh Rubin)

Stone Soup
Rhymes With Orange
Puzzle Answers

Here's the section in full (including the two e-Exclusive pages): https://we.tl/t-rf5cO1Z2NS

[D Heine]

Peanuts is now on page 3 of the Sunday Tampa Bay Times Fun and Games section. When did the Tampa Bay Times first carry Peanuts though it never started the first page of Sunday Tampa Bay Times comics until 1968?

[Jimmy Delach]

Peanuts made its' Tampa Bay Times debut on 10/16/1950 (exactly two weeks after it started) and the Sunday strip was added around June 1956.

[Jimmy Delach]

And another to note. It's been three and a half years since the Tampa Tribune folded and the Times added every former Tribune strip they weren't running already. Here's the current status of those strips:

Argyle Sweater (Sunday only): Still here, Daily strip added 12/1/2018.

Arlo & Janis (Daily only): Still here

Beetle Bailey: Moved to e-Edition 11/15/2019

Buckles: Dropped 11/15/2019

Frank & Ernest (Sunday only): Dropped 11/17/2019

Herman (Daily only): Dropped 4/1/2019

Jump Start: Still here

Rhymes With Orange (Daily only): Still here, Sunday strip added 12/9/2018

Sherman's Lagoon (Sunday only): Still here, Daily strip added 4/1/2019

[Jimmy Delach]

After reader feedback, the Tampa Bay Times has brought back "Blondie" to the traditional paper starting Today (11/22/2019) with "Rhymes With Orange" moved to the e-Paper.

"Blondie" will also return to the traditional Sunday paper on 12/1 presumably with "Rhymes With Orange" moving to the Sunday e-Paper as well.

[Jimmy Delach]

Interesting development in this Sunday's Tampa Bay Times (11/24).

Compounded by the impending move of "Blondie" back to their traditional paper, they had "Rhymes With Orange" in both the traditional paper and the e-paper while "Blondie" was left out (a la "Hagar The Horrible" a few weeks back).

And with "Doonesbury" unable to fit in its' usual vertical format this week, it swapped places with "Peanuts".

[D Heine]

Hopefully Blondie's tradional Sunday comics return to the Tampa Bay Times could happen on December 1, 2019.

[Jimmy Delach]

For the first time in six months, the Tampa Bay Times has put "Peanuts" back on Page 1 of their Sunday Comics section, swapping places with "Curtis".

[Jimmy Delach]

On Monday, May 4, 2020 at 8:53:30 AM UTC-4, Jimmy Delach wrote:
> For the first time in six months, the Tampa Bay Times has put "Peanuts" back on Page 1 of their Sunday Comics section, swapping places with "Curtis".

And that lasted about a week as "Curtis" is back in Page 1 while "Peanuts" got moved back inside.

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

The Tampa Bay Times has rearranged their comics pages but none of their current strips have been dropped during the reshuffling. Here's the lineups:

E-edition exclusive

Page 1

Diamond Lil
Beetle Bailey

For Better Or For Worse

Nancy
Wallace The Brave

Page 2

Shoe
Flo & Friends
Mother Goose & Grimm
Rhymes With Orange
Breaking Cat News
Hagar The Horrible

One Big Happy
The Other Coast

Reality Check
Cornered
Marmaduke
Speed Bump

Regular paper (Wednesdays only, online exclusive rest of the week)

Page 1

Pickles
Baldo
Jump Start
Zits
Red & Rover
Baby Blues
Sherman's Lagoon
Garfield

Page 2

Bizarro
The Argyle Sweater
The (Recycled) Family Circus
Rubes

Luann
The Duplex

Pearls Before Swine
Curtis
Dilbert
Rose Is Rose
Sally Forth
Macanudo
Arlo & Janis

Page 3

Blondie
Classic Peanuts
Big Nate

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

Giving this a bump.

Just saw in the Tampa Bay Times that beginning next week, nearly all their comics will be moving to the exclusive e-Edition of the paper (which in itself is ironic given that the Times has only been printing actual newspapers on Wednesdays and Sundays for almost two years).

Remaining in the actual paper will be Blondie, Peanuts and Pickles. That's one strip in constant reruns, another that is over 90 years old (and briefly got moved to the e-Paper before its' elderly fanbase complained) and one that mixes new strips with reruns.

There will be no comics-related changes to the Sunday paper.

[Darryl H]

What if Pickles ends sometime in 2022? Will there be a replacement like Garfield or Luann?

[jdelac...@gmail.com]

With the new changes effective Today in the Tampa Bay Times lineup, here's the lineups (which looking back I realized they actually started Saturday):

Main paper (Wednesdays only):
Blondie
Classic Peanuts
Pickles

E-paper exclusive:

Diamond Lil
Beetle Bailey
For Better Or For Worse
Nancy
Wallace The Brave

Shoe
Flo & Friends
Mother Goose & Grimm
Rhymes With Orange
Breaking Cat News
Hagar The Horrible
One Big Happy
The Other Coast

Reality Check
Cornered
Marmaduke
Speed Bump

Baldo
Jump Start
Zits
Red And Rover

Baby Blues
Sherman's Lagoon
Garfield

Big Nate

Bizarro
The Argyle Sweater

[Darryl H]

Glad this revamped Tampa Bay Times epaper comics lineup doesn't carry daily rerun Doonesbury nor rerun abused 7 days a week since 2019 Get Fuzzy!