“Home and Away” on the comics pages

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The Times is giving a new strip a trial run in the spot where ‘Luann’ has been. Here’s the note to readers that appears in Calendar starting today:

‘Home and Away’ joins the Calendar section today for five weeks. This new comic strip is one of four that we are asking readers to sample as a possible replacement for “For Better or for Worse,” which is now in reruns. ‘Home and Away,’ by Steve Sicula, will continue until Jan. 18. After that we’ll sample one more comic, then make a selection. Please email your comments to comics(at)latimes.com and include your name and city.

For those keeping score, yes, the game of picking a new strip is going into overtime: The editor who oversees the comics pages, Sherry Stern, says, ‘We originally planned to offer three comic strips for readers to try out, but we’ve decided to sample a fourth, which will begin after ‘Home and Away’ ends its trial run on Jan. 18.’

Here’s what the Washington Post Writers Group syndicate says about ‘Home and Away’ on its website: ‘The feature’s premise is about a husband and wife dealing with the juggling act that is maintaining a home in today’s hectic world. The husband, Sam, telecommutes and mostly manages the home, while his wife, Sandy, is often away on business. They have two kids.’

Since August, when ‘For Better of for Worse’ returned to its earliest strips, The Times has published two other strips: ‘Between Friends’ ran Oct. 6 through Nov. 9; ‘Luann’ has been published Nov 10-Dec. 14.

Panel from ‘Home and Away’ courtesy Washington Post Writers Group