It's no secret that newspapers in print aren't doing so hot these days, a fact that has put the hundred year tradition of comic strips (plus Sudoku and the Junior Jumble) in danger. For some strips, the cold embrace of oblivion would likely be a welcome relief from the horrors of life, but as you might expect, a few others are a little more wary of their impending extinction. Take, for instance, this installment of Doonesbury from Feburary 2, in which the characters answer a Twitter question about the medium "going away" with an assertion that a life without printed newspaper comic strips would be empty.

As you might expect, this prompted a quick response from the world of webcomics, which did what the world of webcomics does best: Making fun of something they think is stupid.As I am under the age of 90, I'm not familiar enough with Doonesbury to know whether or not Garry Trudeau was being serious with his assertion that you can only get comics if you "stick with print," but I suspect that it was probably based a little more in good-natured hyperbole (and the desire to only draw two panels instead of four so that he could knock off early that day). So far, the response has been equally over the top.

Things kicked off when Dave Willis decided to fill that empty void with a strip from Aaron Diaz's Dresden Codak to show what you might charitably call a contrast in styles:

 

Willis also included a panel from his own strip, Dumbing of Age, with the caption "gary you are fighting a losing battle against girl smooches."

 

And ComicsAlliance favorite Anthony Clark decided to address a real tragedy facing America today:

 

There are more, too, many of which we can't show you here at ComicsAlliance because one of the benefits of webcomics are that there aren't a lot of Gasoline Alley fans writing in to tell you not to have hardcore demon sex right there in panel two. But just in case you'd like one more, here's one that I cobbled together:

 

I would trade every single newspaper strip that has ever existed for more Achewood, and that is a fact, jack.

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