Many (if they remember it at all) recall U.S. Acres as the back-up 'toon on the old Garfield and Friends TV series.
When I was a kid, I was aware of it as a comic strip...a comic strip that didn't last as long as the cartoon, but tended to be a lot funnier...both in gags and character personalities.
I've found a webpage that contains many scans of this "lost" strip here...
It's easy to see why the strip failed to get an audience. By keeping the first two years focused on setting up the situation and s-l-o-w-l-y introducing the cast...by the time the actual gems of humor began showing up, nobody was reading.
But there's some funny stuff here. The comic strip was not forced (as the cartoon was) into delivering a moral, and the characters weren't watered down into something a bit more poltically correct for Saturday morning. It also includes Toby and Blue, two characters who never made it onto the cartoon.
The page even has the final strips, previously only seen in an ultra-rare UK collection.
[ May 23, 2006, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Oh I do remember that as the backup cartoon. I'm making it my goal for the weekend to figure out where Jim Davis grew up and try to find the house.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I remember it being in the Boston Globe for quite a few years, maybe the entire run...
-Bok
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Although I can't stand Garfield (and don't like U.S. Acres, although it was always more bearable than the inane steaming pile of crap that was Garfield), I love and respect Jim Davis because he readily admits that he was not striving for quality or artistry, but purely for fame, recognition and money.
And he succeeded.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :