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Pickles (comic strip)

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Pickles
A green banner with the strip's name in yellow letters above a drawing of the strip's main cast
The main cast of Pickles
Author(s)Brian Crane
WebsitePickles Comic
Current status/scheduleRunning
Launch dateApril 2, 1990
Syndicate(s)Andrews McMeel Syndication (July 1, 2022–present)
The Washington Post Writers Group (Apr 1990–June 2022)
Publisher(s)Baobab Press
Genre(s)Humor

Pickles is a daily and Sunday comic strip by Brian Crane focusing on a retired couple in their seventies, Earl and Opal Pickles.[1][2] Pickles has been published since April 2, 1990.[3]

Publication

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As of 2016, Pickles was syndicated in close to 1,000 newspapers worldwide.[4]

In 2022, Pickles moved syndicates from The Washington Post Writers Group (which had previously announced it was shutting down its comic strip business) to Andrews McMeel Syndication.[5]

Story and characters

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Inspired by Crane's in-laws,[6] the strip describes their efforts to enjoy retirement, which instead proves quite imperfect for both.[7] Earl Pickles is bald and has a bushy white mustache; he also wears glasses and suspenders. He is described as "a couch potato, curmudgeon and all-around geezer-in-residence."[8] Opal Pickles also wears glasses and is often seen wearing purple polka-dotted dresses and white sneakers. She is "a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, Red Hat Lady and cat servant."[8] When sitting, she is usually seen with her pet cat, Muffin, in her lap (on some occasions, Muffin tends to lie on Earl's lap to his disdain). Both characters were drawn with their eye pupils visible through their glasses during the strip's early years, but their glasses were later whitened so that they are opaque to readers.

The cast includes their dog, Roscoe; their cat, Muffin; their 6-year-old grandson,[9] Nelson Wolfe; Nelson's parents—their daughter, Sylvia, and her husband, Dan, a wildlife photographer;[2] Clyde, Earl's friend; and Pearl, Opal's sister, who dated Earl many years ago. Opal's friend Emily also occasionally appears.[10] Roscoe and Muffin are depicted with thought balloons (like Snoopy or Garfield) to express their personal views whenever they observe the daily routines of their humans or other incidents.

In the foreword to one of Crane's Pickles books, Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic, stated, "I think it would be very comforting to have Earl and Opal for neighbors."[11]

Awards and honors

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Bibliography

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The strips have been collected in book form in:[2]

  • Pickles (1998)
  • Pickles, Too: The Older I Get, The Better I Was (1999)
  • Still Pickled After All These Years (2002)
  • Let's Get Pickled! (2006)
  • How Come I Always Get Blamed for the Things I Do? (2010)
  • Oh Sure! Blame it on the Dog! (2013)

A 25th anniversary retrospective, 25 Years of Pickles, was released by Baobab Press in 2015.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Wadley, Carma (February 20, 2011). "A cartoon family: Popular 'Pickles' captures humanity of humans". Deseret News. Salt Lake City, UT. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Pickles". The Washington Post Writers Group. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  3. ^ Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 313. ISBN 9780472117567.
  4. ^ Dwyer, Ed. "CULTURE: The Funny Papers: Newspapers may be in trouble, but the comic strip is alive and well — and flourishing online," Saturday Evening Post (November 7, 2016).
  5. ^ Degg, D. D. (July 29, 2022). "Mike Lester Moves Mike du Jour to Andrews McMeel". The Daily Cartoonist. ...joins Loose Parts and Pickles as stablemates since those two had moved from Washington Post Writers Group to Andrews McMeel earlier this year (June 1 and July 1 respectively).
  6. ^ "The Art of Making Pickles". BYU Magazine. Summer 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Kitchen, Rebecca (October 23, 2015). "Creating 25 Years of Laughs: 'Pickles' Comic Turns 25". Reno, NV: KOLO-TV. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Meet the Pickles Family". picklescomic.com. December 28, 2022.
  9. ^ The age of Nelson; URL accessed February 11, 2021.
  10. ^ https://www.gocomics.com/pickles/2024/03/02?ct=v&cti=76520 [bare URL]
  11. ^ Renberg Winters, Charlene (2011). "The Art of Making Pickles". BYU Magazine. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  12. ^ "Division Awards: Newspaper Strips". National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  13. ^ Parkin, JK (May 26, 2013). "National Cartoonist Society announces Reuben, divisional awards". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
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