Here Comes the Judge: Reader Protests Bring Back Comic Strip

When the Washington Post killed its Sunday Book Review section, some readers complained.

When the Post folded the Business section into the A section, there were a few murmurs.

When the daily decapitated the Judge Parker comic strip, readers revolted.

“We received hundreds of passionate e-mails,” a top Post editor told The Washingtonian. “The readership may not be that high, but what we underestimated was the intensity.”

Judge Parker is different from most other comic strips because it is serialized and has a strong story line. Readers addicted to the stories got through to Publisher Katharine Weymouth.

Judge Parker will return to the Post on Monday.

Lesson for readers who want to protect a favorite piece of the Post that might get lopped off in the current era of shrinking newspapers: protest, protest, protest. And try to get through to the publisher.

Harry Jaffe