The 2008 N&O comics Poll
For a bit, forget McCain and Obama, Dole and Hagan. It's time for
Published: Tue, Sep. 23, 2008 12:00AM
Modified Tue, Sep. 23, 2008 05:57AM
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closeIt's election time, when you'll be asked to make important decisions about the future you want to see.
Will "Scary Gary" be part of it? What about "Cathy" and "Sylvia"? Will things be "Bizarro" or "Deflocked"? "For Better or For Worse"?
As regular comics readers know, we've been testing guest comics for more than a year. Now it's time to get your thoughts and firm up our official daily lineup for the year ahead.
The ground rules
1. We really, really want you to vote online. It will be easier for you (and you'll save a stamp). It also will be easier for us to tabulate the results. Just go to this link starting today: http://share.triangle.com/comicsvote. You also can find the link from our Web site: www.newsobserver.com.
2. Please vote just once per person. Because we know some families share computers, we'll allow up to five votes per computer. After that, votes will be discarded.
3. You may vote for up to four of the 12 guest comics and up to 12 of the 41 permanent comics. If you vote for more than that, your votes will be discarded. We've also asked two questions -- one about where politically themed strips should run, the other about whether we should keep the two strips ("Peanuts" and "For Better or For Worse") that are offering repeat material.
4. If you absolutely, positively can't get access to a computer to vote, you may send in this ballot. It must be this ballot from the paper. No photocopies. Mail it to Comics Vote, The News & Observer, 215 S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC 27601.
5. The online voting will stop at 11:59 p.m. next Monday, Sept. 29. Only those print ballots received by Monday will be counted.
6. Absolutely no phone votes or individual e-mail votes will be accepted.
7. We'll use your feedback as an important factor -- though not the only factor -- in making our final decisions.
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We know from experience that the comics are a favorite part of The N&O for many of you. (Last year's poll got thousands and thousands of votes.) With your help, we want to make sure that we have a lively mix of old favorites and newcomers, kid-friendly strips and those that are more grown-up and topical.
We're doing things a little differently this time. We're putting the 12 most popular guest comics before you, along with all 41 of our current comics. We only want to know what your favorites are -- the comics (guest or permanent) that you cannot live without.
We don't need to know which strips you don't like. Every comic we've ever run has its detractors. Most also have passionate fans. Through this voting method, we aim to measure the fan support that each has. Obviously, those with minimal support could be vulnerable.
There are no plans to reduce our current comics acreage -- two full pages and 44 strips. There's room for at least three former guests to get permanent spots. Additional guests could sneak in, depending on support for the existing strips.
One last note: For now, we won't be changing our Sunday comics lineup.
Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.
The Features Staff
The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
