Lio by Mark Tatulli for March 22, 2012

Since it was a life-size cut out, how did its mouth move and how did it speak? There was no recording machine on the back.

I have one of those, if anybody wants one ;-)

hahaa Can Calvin & Hobbes Join too?

I like Lio, and Lio likes Ishy! Sorry, Charlie Brown, but you’re such a Charlie Brown!

You draw an impressive Charlie Brown (& other characters), Mark Tatulli!

Also a fairly good rendition of Sparky’s lettering in the word balloon, actually.

Good grief!

Nice comment about the franchise cartoons (even classics) which keep newer cartoonists from getting page space.

Oh Ishmael, where for art thou Ishmael?

Actually these days cartoonists should be able to get all the internet space anybody could possibly want. (Although I still read MOST of my comics in my morning paper……..)

@Farley55That was my thought too. I don’t know if that was the intent, but I reserve the right to “read into”.

And Charle takes another in a long series of Face Plants."

i’ve got no problem with running charlie brown strips because it’s a classic and funny, but mark’s point (i think) is well-taken: CB is pretty dated and not all that relevant anymore, especially for a kid who has lost his squid.

In 1956 “Peanuts” was biting satire. Remember the punchline of the premier strip? “Good old Charlie Brown. How I hate him.”

I was grateful that Cathy Guisewite opened up the space for new cartoonists when she closed down “Cathy” rather than let it go on as a zombie strip. The appropriate place for old reruns is on websites like this, not in newspapers (such as they are these days).

BTW, this does not apply to strips that continue beyond their original creators with new contributors. They deserve to be judged on their own merits.

Yeah – it’s time for Peanuts to be retired. Schulz is dead, and no one is creating new strips. There are toons being done now that deserve to hit the light, and deserve to be paid for.

Peanuts might have been hysterical in 1956. That was 55 years ago. The world has moved on. Time for Charlie to kick the ball already, and everyone to go home.

He’s not going to help you Lio!

nice tribute Mr.Tatulli. nice story arc.i like it. please keep it up.(i miss you Sparky.)

He’s amazingly two dimensional.

Lio’s always been a big Adlai man. I for one am not going to wait for the translation.

we knew he was a Blockhead but a block of wood head?

GREAT strip, and kind of a brave statement to make (against the wrath of the Peanuts lovers). Here in Chicago we have the Tribune running 40-year-old Peanuts reruns and 25-year-old For Better or For Worse reruns, and dropping great contemporary strips to keep them. One of which was Lio! Absolutely true.

P.S. But the Sun-Times wisely snapped Lio up and they’re running it now. Good for them.

Cnsidering how Lio always breaks the fourth wall, there should have been a word balloon on the ground, or maybe floating in the air.

Introduce him to Danae of NonSequitur. They’re a perfect match!

“I LIKE IKE!”(Remember a 1950’s Peanuts strip where Charlie Brown looked at a button Schroeder was wearing and said “I LIKE LUDWIG!”?

OMG, this is so meta! Plus it could be looked at as a putdown of St. Sparky (which I’m sure it wasnt)

Did I not get that or was that kinda mean?