Welcome, Agnes!

There are many of us--well, perhaps not many--who lament the ending of the Golden Age of Comic Strips. No more Li'l Abner. No more Steve Canyon. Or Moon Mullins, Smokey Stover, the Nutt Brothers, Ches and Wall, or The Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks.

There was a period when we had Doonesbury, Bloom County, Ernie, Calvin and Hobbes, but they, too, have returned to their creators' ink pots.

For the last long time, we have clung to Monty, the way a wanderer stranded in a desert clings to a water hole. But recently, we have been blessed with the arrival of Agnes, a strip of refreshing quirkiness.

Agnes, the work of Tony Cochran, is the most minimalist of cartoons since Krazy Kat. Usually only two characters appear: Agnes and her androgynous friend Trout. Their principal activity is dumpster diving. When not engaged in searching for junk Agnes always proclaims priceless (a glass door knob is "the biggest diamond ever found in the state of Iowa") they lie foot to foot in a backyard kiddies' pool exploring the meaning of life. Agnes is said to live in a trailer court with her grandmother, but the grandmother seldom appears.

We were surprised, after our scholarly research, to find that the comic strip Agnes has been around since 1999. We're glad to report it has finally surfaced in a newspaper near you.

You may also want to know that Amazon has one (1) copy of the cartoonist's autograph. It reads "Be good. Tony Cochran." As Agnes would point out, it is undoubtedly a priceless treasure.