RJ welcomes 2 new comic strips
A 10-year-old boy genius with an attitude.
Four colorful friends immersed in geek pop culture.
These are the focuses of two new comic strips coming to the Las Vegas Review-Journal starting Sunday and Monday.
“The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee” revolves around a precocious young boy who is obsessed with science and curious about the world around him. Edison has strong opinions on everything from bureaucratic waste and health care reform to the high cost of gasoline. And he isn’t afraid to speak out.
The strip, which will run on the weekday comics page, was created by John Hambrock and launched in 2006. It was nominated as the best comic strip n 2009 by the National Cartoonists Society.
“Edison might remind you of Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, from another strip that was extremely popular across the nation when it ran between 1985 and 1995,” said Review-Journal Editor Mike Hengel. “Edison is a Calvin in modern times, and will bring to the Review-Journal some good laughs.”
“Calvin & Hobbes” was discontinued by its creator, Bill Watterson.
The other comic page addition, “Intelligent Life,” follows the personal lives, work lives, hobbies and obsessions of Skip, Gwen, Mike and Barry. It deals with the stuff of life in these times — music, pop culture, geek culture, video games, sports fantasy and fandom, social media, science fiction and fantasy, and trends.
It “celebrates the geek in all of us,” said artist David Reddick, who has written and drawn for the “Garfield” comic strip.
“How these four characters interact will make you laugh,” said Hengel about the strip, which run on Sundays and weekdays. “You’ll never know what to expect next.”
The two new strips will replace “Doonesbury” and “Over the Hedge,” which were ranked at the bottom of the list by the newspaper’s focus group made up of more than 100 regular readers.
“Doonesbury” artist Gary Trudeau stopped drawing the daily comic in 2014. The newspaper has been rerunning some of his old strips, but they’re dated, offering humorous comment on the political events in the ’70s through the turn of the century.
“We polled our readers, asked them what they liked about the comics page, and these two strips, along with ‘Wumo,’ were low on the list,” said Hengel.
“Then we searched for something fresh, something interesting, and something we think will make our readers laugh. And we think we’ve found two strips that meet those requirements.”
Readers who want to comment on the new additions can email Hengel at mhengel@reviewjournal.com.
