Tony Cochran’s Agnes is a whimsical look at childhood through the eyes of the title character and her best friend, Trout. What sets this strip apart is the focus on that limbo just before little girls discover boys and appropriate social skills.
© Tony Cochran - All Rights Reserved.
Agent Gates by Carmen Subhiyah & Kyle Hilton
Alley Oop by Jack and Carole Bender
Comments (25) (Please sign in to comment)
simpsonfan2 said, 4 months ago
I once did a book report on Blazing Saddles. Back before VCRs you either saw the movie in the theater, TV, or bought a novelization on it.
Bruno Zeigerts said, 4 months ago
I did a book report on Ben Hur. My friend loaned me his 400 page unabridged copy. I didn’t have time to read it … so thought… ’I’ve seen the movie, read the classic comic and a shorter paperback version .. so I decided to wing it.
Got a pretty good mark, as I recall.
SusanSunshine
said, 4 months ago
Agnes is in at most middle school….
and more likely only 4th or 5th grade.
I doubt they’re assigning 400 page books.
On the other hand….
she’ll delay till there’s no time to read a TEN page book….
nor would she have any interest in the likes of Judy Blume or Laura Ingalls Wilder.
What would Agnes read?
Too bad she can’t attend Hogwarts.
SusanSunshine
said, 4 months ago
BTW… I didn’t get back tonight in time to post before the new strips came out….
but how about this…..?
When is a pig not a pig?
At feeding time, when he’s a goblin from the trough.
Bruno Zeigerts said, 4 months ago
@SusanSunshine
Point taken… I was in junior high at the time, and we had to turn in a book report every month. The teacher specified that each student could only turn in two books by the same author … so he wouldn’t be inundated by Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew! I read a great deal,so it wasn’t a problem for me … except when we had to do a report on a religious book .. .which is how I wound up doing Ben Hur.
I just wonder how many of my classmates were thinking, ‘Oh my God … I have to read a book a month … and not Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew!
Does anybody still read those? I couldn’t even manage one Hardy Boys book … just not interested.
SusanSunshine
said, 4 months ago
Bruno…. I LOVED series books…
Read every Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew I could find,
also Tom Swift, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.
Cherry Barton, Sue Ames….
(they were nurses)
and some English series (I wish I could remember the title)
in teeny tiny print, about ballet students in an old abbey.
But I read them like candy…
two or three a week to liven up the other stuff.
I also read the Mary Poppins series, Dr. Doolittle…
and any series in the library about horses….
like the Black Stallion, the Red Stallion… Misty and Flicka…
And I was only about twelve when I was finished with them all.
I doubt would have ever made a book report on any of them.
frugalnotcheap said, 4 months ago
@simpsonfan2
I remember pre-VCR days; and wasn’t that about the time The Simpsons were small unknown greenish people at the bottom of the TV set on the Tracy Ulman Show?
Bruno Zeigerts said, 4 months ago
@SusanSunshine
I was more into science fiction and military stories. Read the John Carter series in Junior high … didn’t do any book reports on those either. There was also the Freddy the Pig books … and a bunch of Adventure series … Underwater adventure, African adventure … etc. I enjoyed those very much, as did most of the boys in the class.
I still read … I’ve actually read all of the Harry Potter books … better than the movies, but I like those too.
rshive said, 4 months ago
I wonder whether there were competing educational philosophies on this. I went to a small parochial school in a rural area through eighth grade. Can’t ever remember a book report. Lots of reading, history, geography, math, and what was called composition (writing paragraphs). Pretty much the same when I got to the public high school in 9th grade. What we did have though in the public school were lots of assigned reading (classics mostly) and regular assigned composition writing on some aspect of them. This was well before Cliff notes and mostly before TV became a major disruptive force. In elementary school anyway, TV meant grainy 13-inch black and white. More than a few of my classmates families didn’t even have a telephone. By the time I had gotten to high school, TV had pretty well blossomed; and color sets arrived. Can remember some kids talking about shows they’d seen before class. In our area you could only get three (UHF) channels.
Dragon0131 said, 4 months ago
There was no assigned reading in grade school, but from the time I could read, I read everything. Mad magazine (Bill Gaines was still alive), comic books, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Dumas, Heller, Dickens and dozens more-all before high school. Still reading now.
magicwalnut said, 4 months ago
How fun it is to guess everyone’s age by the info they’ve provided here! When I was sidelined by pneumonia my junior year in high school, I sent my mom to the bookstore to buy Cherry Ames Army Nurse and The Caine Mutiny. couldn’t decide whether I was a kid or a grown up, I guess.
SUSAN NEWMAN
said, 4 months ago
@simpsonfan2
What did your teacher think of your description of the farting scene?
Robina Fox said, 4 months ago
@SusanSunshine
Hmm. Ballet students in an old abbey. I don’t remember that exactly. There is the Abbey Girls series by Elsie J. Oxenham which has a lot of country dancing in the early books. There is one associated ballet book – Damaris Dances.
Then there is Lorna Hill’s Dancing Peel series, which is (like her Sadlers Wells series) partly set in Northumberland. I seem to remember it has dancing in a ruined castle.
Robina Fox said, 4 months ago
I read voraciously then as now – my favourites were the books with magic and other worlds – E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, Narnia, The Magic Faraway Tree. Thank heavens, though, my school never required book reports – I cannot think of anything more likely to cast a black cloud over reading.
rshive said, 4 months ago
@Robina Fox
Personally, I avoid with a passion anything described as fantasy. That having been said, I’ve read the Lord of the Rings trilogy several times and actually all of the Harry Potter series. I find it them so real that the fantasy part takes a distinct back seat. Mostly prefer history and biography (if they’re not on recent events) ; plus mystery fiction that gives you a look into the psyches of the characters—several authors come to mind. “Action” stuff does little to move me. Reading is a true pleasure.