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Comics: Two more subtractions and one big addition

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Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

On Monday, The Times instituted its second change this month to the Comics section. Because of a reorganization of the section, which included the addition of a second advertisement, two more strips have been removed: “Home and Away” and “Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!” Earlier this month, “Cathy” retired and “Rex Morgan, M.D.” was cut to make room for the addition of the KenKen puzzle.

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However, there also has been an addition this week on the comics front. For the first time, a selection of comics is available on latimes.com. “Rex Morgan” and “Brewster Rockit” are among them. So are others that readers ask about, such as “Mary Worth” and “Sally Forth.” (But readers have been disappointed to discover that “Home and Away” is not included in the prebundled package to which The Times subscribes. However, the strip is available on the website of its syndicate.)

As of Tuesday morning, about 15 people, most of them “Brewster Rockit” fans, had e-mailed The Times to protest the cuts.

For a sampling of the response, keep reading...

“I wasn’t at all upset when you removed ‘Rex Morgan,’ a strip that tediously plodded along. But you’ve just deleted another of my favorites –- ‘Home and Away.’ With all the dreary news, the comics are the last part of the paper that I read. They kinda get me back into a good mood. There are so many good cartoons that you could bring back: ‘Sally Forth,’ ‘Shoe,’ ‘Andy Capp’ and ‘The Wizard of ID,’ to name a few.”
-- Barry Ulrich, Claremont ---

“I enjoy reading the print L.A. Times and hope that I pass the joy on to my kids. Just as my parents did with me, I recently introduced the paper to my eldest, a second-grader, by reading the comics together. Our family was very disappointed to see that our favorite strip, ‘Brewster Rockit,’ has been missing this week and that the comic section has been getting increasingly smaller. ‘Brewster Rockit’ was one of the smartest strips in your paper. We sincerely hope that you bring ‘Brewster Rockit’ back.”
-- Janet Ho, Anaheim Hills

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“We’ll keep this simple. Bring ‘Brewster Rockit’ back to your comics page. Drop one of the ads, drop the idiotic ‘Chickweed Lane,’ drop whatever (but not, we hasten to add, ‘Zits,’ ‘Pearls Before Swine’ or ‘Get Fuzzy’), but bring back the Space Guy.”
-- Bill and Ann Courtney, Long Beach

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“You have been running Snoopy for a thousand years. It was OK the first time, old the second time and downright old now. Yet you keep that and get rid of ‘Brewster Rockit,’ which is actually funny. What gives?”
-- Leslie Brown, Thousand Oaks

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“So, ‘Times change, and The Times changes with them.’ This is translated, by my long experience as an L.A. Times reader, into the following thought: ‘As the times squeeze the finances of The Times, The Times squeezes the comic strip page.’
-- Jack E. Oakes, Santa Ana

-- Deirdre Edgar

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