Birmingham Historical Comic Strips -- Birmingham Post-Herald, The Naughts

And here we run out the string. For the most part the comics page was static through the last few years, with the exception of one brave spurt in 2003 discussed below. The Post-Herald end publication in 2005.

2000:

In the Bleachers was discontinued at the end of 1999. They added a local strip on the opinions page called Goat Hill, which was focused on Alabama-specific topics (Goat Hill is the hill in Montgomery where the state capitol building is located) and ran every Monday. The art was minimal (as far as I can tell, the exact same four panels were copy-and-pasted for multiple weeks with changes to the speech bubbles, and it almost always consisted of two characters facing each other and talking with no background), but the humor was decent as these things go, and it was noteworthy for effectively being an editorial strip rather than a panel. It ran through the end of the paper in 2005.

Goat Hill, Walt Guthrie, none

2001, 2002:

There were no changes in 2001 or 2002.

2003:

2003 was a big year. In some senses, that's sad, given the way history unrolled; it could be seen as a last-gasp attempt at relevance. On the other hand, I think it was a valid attempt to modernize the page and try to pull in readers, and I also think that's a valiant move to be part of the team effort and try to save the paper utilizing the tools you have on hand.

Jim Berry ended production of Berry's World in March, and it was replaced by Moderately Confused, a similar ongoing vaguely editorial panel run on the editorial page. The Boondocks ended at the end of March and was replaced by Frazz. In May, Geech was dropped, to be replaced by one of my favorite short-lived strips of that decade. Housebroken was the story of an ex-millionaire ex-rapper who was an anthromorphic dog; he moved in with a black family in a middle-class mixed-race suburb and became close friends with their son. Finally, in November, Sherman's Lagoon was dropped in favor of Pooch Cafe.

Moderately Confused, none, NEA Services
Frazz, none, United Features Syndicate
Housebroken, none, Tribune Media Services
Pooch Cafe, none, Universal Press Syndicate

2004, 2005:

And that was it. The last change was the addition of Pooch Cafe, and the last issue of the Post-Herald ran on September 23, 2005.

Last Updated: January 8, 2025