The Comics

When I was a little kid, I would anticipate the Comics every Sunday like it was my Birthday and I was waiting for the cake. Back then, my Grandparents used to call them The Funny Pages, and as soon as they got their thick Sunday papers, they would extricate the Funny Pages from the pile and swiftly hand them over to me.
As I grew older, I never got away from loving that simple slice of Americana: working through jobs I often hated, I would grab the daily paper and once the headlines were read, I would work my way back to the Lifestyles Section and find the daily frames.
It's an innocent-fun type of thing that I still indulge in to this day. I actually don't buy a paper every Sunday any more (no time) and I generally get my news online, but when I do...oh, that six-year old self comes right to life, and I dive into the print looking first for the Funnies.
This past Sunday I didn't grab a paper, but I did manage to get a copy of the Funnies yesterday. I was surprised and thrilled to see that several weekly strips honored those who perished and served on Sept 11th, 2001.
Long-running comics like Hagar the Horrible and Beetle Bailey managed to bring tears to my eyes; frames like Blondie and even The Family Circus addressed the issue that perhaps this past Sunday was not a typical Sunday. As an artist, I tip my hat to those artists that poured their hearts into their frames, so that even in the Funny Pages, we could all be connected on September 11th.