The Gazette's Sunday comics

QUESTION: Many of the Sunday comics in another paper have two or three additional panels that are missing from the same comic strip in The Gazette. These additional panels are always at the beginning of the strip. Why does the Gazette print an abbreviated version of the comics?
- R. Johnson, Monument

ANSWER: The Gazette Features Editor Dena Rosenberry says, “The Gazette’s editors decided long ago to run as many color comics as the printers could reasonably fit into the Sunday section. The comic strips and panels are available in different sizes to accommodate different newspaper layouts.

“If you see extra panels in another newspaper, it’s the result of that newspaper ordering a different size comic strip. To accommodate the extra panels in every strip, The Gazette would have to drop many comics from the color lineup, giving readers fewer choices for a Sunday morning chuckle.“We believe ‘less is more’ in this instance — fewer panels mean more comics and more laughs.”