Pickles (comic strip)

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

Publication

As of 2016, ''Pickles'' was syndicated in close to 1,000 newspapers worldwide.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).

Story and characters

Inspired by Crane's in-laws, the strip describes their efforts to enjoy retirement, which instead proves quite imperfect for both. 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." 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." 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, Nelson Wolfe; Nelson's parentstheir daughter, Sylvia, and her husband, Dan, a wildlife photographer; Clyde, Earl's friend; and Pearl, Opal's sister, who dated Earl many years ago. 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."

Awards and honors

*In 2001, ''Pickles'' was named best newspaper comic strip of the year by the National Cartoonists Society.
*In 2013, Brian Crane shared the Reuben Award with Rick Kirkman.

Bibliography

The strips have been collected in book form in ''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), and ''Oh Sure! Blame it on the Dog!'' (2013). A 25th anniversary retrospective, ''25 Years of Pickles'', was released by Baobab Press in 2015.

References

External links

''Pickles''
comic strip at GoComics.com
''Pickles''
comic strip at Arcamax.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickles
American comic strips
1990 comics debuts
Comics about married people
Fictional families
Gag-a-day comics
Works about old age