Do you remember when your local newspaper had a full page of comics? And when the strips were printed in a size that didn't cause eyestrain trying to read them?

It feels like it was just a couple of years ago, but it's actually 20-30 years since the daily comic strips went from the papers most popular section to something they squeeze into a corner. The strips today are smaller, but also have fewer panels; 2-3 instead of four. Four BIG panels if you compare them to the golden age of comic strips in the 1930s to 50s.

The number of strips around today is also much, much lower than it used to be.

BUT!

If you miss reading a whole stack of strips in your morning paper, you can always have a look at the two major syndicates' websites, where you also can read their strips. And get ready for some more surprises when you visit the sites: there are after all more strips than you knew of. There are even several continuing adventure strips atill around! However, they aren't really what they used to be. The Phantom looks pretty stiff and almost nothing happens from day to day. Prince Vialiant is sursprisingly still around, but looks utterly weird these days. The Amazing Spiderman still looks like it did 35 years ago, which I think is good, and amazingly, it's still written by Stan Lee and drawn by his younger brother Larry Lieber (unless somebody's ghosting it).

Some strips are reruns from their golden days, like Tarzan, and there are of course lots of new comics.

King Features Syndicate's website is HERE, while you can access United Feature from the link below.