Starting today, the Comics Carousel competition, which previously ran Sundays only, joins the daily funny pages. The competitors are the current two-time winner, “Broom-Hilda,” and its new challenger, “F Minus,” which debuted yesterday.
How is this possible?
“Broom-Hilda” and the previous challenger, “Diamond Lil,” both had regular spots in the daily comics pages of the A+E section. “F Minus,” an offbeat strip by Tony Carrillo, now fills the weekday vacancy of “Diamond Lil,” which lost the most recent Carousel vote.
A little background: Comics Carousel was conceived last year as a way to freshen our cartoon offerings on Sundays, by rotating in strips that had never run before in the Tribune. It also allowed readers a chance to vote on which strip would remain on our Sunday comics pages and which would be replaced by a new challenger.
In time, the Carousel’s mission shifted a little. We decided to test the staying power of some of our less popular strips. That’s how we wound up with “Broom-Hilda” facing off against “Diamond Lil” in the most recent competition.
“F Minus” has never before run in the Tribune, so we’re giving it a shot at Mondays through Saturdays as well as the Carousel’s normal Sunday run. To accommodate the addition of the Carousel, “Dick Tracy” moves to the left-hand comics page of the A+E section.
Please enjoy both strips for several weeks until the next Carousel vote.
— Geoff Brown, Associate Managing Editor / Entertainment