Late 80s, so that would be the Iran-Contra affair aka the Ollie North hearings that were widely watched, back before cable TV was Balkanized by Fox News.
So "comics getting smaller" was actually a real thing.
Collectively across the US, the daily newspapers shrunk the size of comic strips, which freed up more precious page space for other things like ads, or in rare cases, more comic strips.
Comic strips are an expense for a newspaper, so having them take up less space was a common practice.
Eventually with declining readership, and especially younger readers, and corporate buyouts of local newspapers, many papers eliminated their comics page altogether.
There's a great Bloom County Sunday strip where Opus is dreaming they're on the Enterprise, and Scotty is shrinking the comics, "All except Doonesbury - it won't budge!" But they shrink into a black dot.
7 Comments
7112@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 156d
"Iran goes ... President... "
Wonder when this was published? Carter or Bush ?
LemmyBe@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 156d
Published in 1988 (upper-right), so that would be Reagan.
zabadoh@ani.social · 13 pts · 156d
Late 80s, so that would be the Iran-Contra affair aka the Ollie North hearings that were widely watched, back before cable TV was Balkanized by Fox News.
7112@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 156d
Totally missed that date. Thanks guys!
zabadoh@ani.social · 15 pts · 156d
So "comics getting smaller" was actually a real thing.
Collectively across the US, the daily newspapers shrunk the size of comic strips, which freed up more precious page space for other things like ads, or in rare cases, more comic strips.
Comic strips are an expense for a newspaper, so having them take up less space was a common practice.
Eventually with declining readership, and especially younger readers, and corporate buyouts of local newspapers, many papers eliminated their comics page altogether.
limelight79@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 155d
There's a great Bloom County Sunday strip where Opus is dreaming they're on the Enterprise, and Scotty is shrinking the comics, "All except Doonesbury - it won't budge!" But they shrink into a black dot.
PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 155d
Ack!