If you're like me, you grew up reading the funny pages and haven't weaned yourself of that habit, even though 90% of the mainstream comics these days are garbage. How many times can Dagwood run into the mailman anyway? How many already terrible premises can the ham-fisted author of the Born Loser mangle? Is the Wizard of Id guy even trying anymore? And so on.
That's where the internet comes in. Not only can you find thousands of webcomics, but you can find mainstream stuff that has been photoshopped into something that won't melt your eyes out of your head.
For instance, what if Garfield's thought bubbles were removed? What's left is an intimate and sad portrait of a lonely loser named Jon.
Because your only friend is a cat that hates you, Jon.
Like any manic depressive, Jon goes through ups and downs. Mostly downs. But he has his silly moments:
Sometimes you get a man playing with his cat:
But dig deeper, you find the madman who has suffered from 50 years of having nobody to talk to other than his cat:
Living that way will not only make you stone cold insane, but you'll probably be pretty bored along the way:
Is Garfield just a mirror for Jon and his psychosis? Is Jon bouncing his thoughts off of his cat to sort through them?
The realization must hit him after his "internal" dialogue makes him aware of how pathetic he is. Naturally, he takes it out on his cat.
The best ones though are the surreal, random creations. Say what you want about them, they aren't boring:
Garfield + dark humor is a winner in my book. Poor Jon.