Does anyone read the comics anymore? I remember growing up on the farm, when cartoons where only for Saturday mornings, and the comics were my way to laugh at the rediculous and escape reality. When I got home from school the first thing I would do every day is read the "funnies"...if my Dad was done with the crossword. I was almost religious about it. Sundays were a fight between everyone of who got the big Sunday comics first.
Just reminiscing, and it's not like this was that long ago, but with the advent of the internet, and more children's networks than should even be considered available now...it already seems like a relic. So I wonder how many of our younger crowd on here have any idea what I'm talking about...Anyway....
Calvin and Hobbes gets my vote. Gary Patterson is a genius at getting in a boy's head, and making the philosophical views of Hobbes are just...amazing.
Second would have to be Gary Larson's "The Far Side". Standard stocking-stuffer for me growing up was a new Far Side calender.
Lots of third place possibilities, I'll let some others post their favorites to see if any I've forgotten take the cake!