Our View: And the winner is ...

Drumroll, please.

The top vote-getter in the online contest to select a new comic strip for the Appeal-Democrat's daily comics page is ...

Of the 345 votes cast in the contest to select one strip from a choice of 10, "Pickles" garnered 35 percent of the ballots cast, with 122 votes. "Rose is Rose" (97 votes) and "Drabble" (52 votes) came in second and third, respectively.

"Pickles" is built around the lives of Earl Pickles and his wife, Opal, seniors who are unimpressed with retirement. They celebrated their 50th anniversary a few years ago and are in their 70s. Their daughter Sylvia, her husband Dan, and her son, Nelson, live with them, as do family dog Roscoe and cat Muffin.

"Pickles" debuted in 1990. In 1995 and 2001, "Pickles" was nominated for best comic strip of the year by the National Cartoonists Society, winning in 2001. The comic strip appears in more than 500 newspapers across the country.

Comics pages need to be kept fresh, a fact of newspaper life which prompted the A-D online contest featuring 10 choices. The strip will replace "For Better or For Worse," which is moving to the "classic comics" section on the daily Features page. As I've detailed several times in this space, "FBorFW" cartoonist Lynn Johnston is now revisiting old story lines, so there was some consideration to dropping the strip. But I heard from enough A-D readers who requested it remain, so the compromise was struck. "Andy Capp" will be dropped from the "classics" lineup, which I'm sure will generate some complaints.

Speaking of complaints: the contest drew nearly two dozen e-mails from readers with questions, comments and complaints about the daily comics page. Yes, people take their comics that seriously. And no, I was not flooded with requests to drop "F Minus," although one reader accused me of being too busy "finding new ways to spew your lib-dem views" to follow the will of the people and drop the strip. Ouch.

Humor is very subjective, of course; no one reader is going to like every one of our 23 strips. Our goal is to have something for everyone. There are plenty of old favorites as well as some newer strips which may develop faithful followings.

Comics fans also have humor options on the Appeal-Democrat Web site. In addition to duplicating several comic strips that appear in the print edition, four other strips are exclusive online offerings: "Beserkers," "Knight Life," "The Other Coast" and "Speed Bump." Check them out at www.appeal-democrat.com/sections /comics/ for some laughs.

"Pickles" will be added to the print and online products in early November. Comics fans also will be delighted by this development: I'm working on a way to squeeze some more comic strips into the daily section. More news on this effort at a later date.

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Another reminder: the deadline for the newspaper to receive political letters to the editor is 5 p.m. Tuesday, one week before Election Day.

As I wrote Wednesday, we are striving to print all political letters we receive, but publication is not guaranteed. In order to get as many local voices on the Opinion pages, regular syndicated opinion columns from national columnists are sometimes appearing online only; that's the case with today's Linda Tucker's column. You'll also find exclusive online political columns on the site.

Have a question for Appeal-Democrat Editor Len La Barth? Contact him at llabarth@appealdemocrat.com or join the discussion at the "Ask the Editor" forum. Find it online in "Your Mid-Valley" at our Forums page.