But then, rather unceremoniously, the formula changed slightly. Instead, he would wake up, run into the Mailman and race after the Carpool.
This slight tweaking of the familiar formula started in March 9th, 1990, with the addition of two completely new characters in addition to Herb, Claudia and Dwitzell who were named later.
For a new addition, the Carpool element was used rather sporadically, only showing up once in a while. It was more noticeable in the Sunday comics where the larger cast would better play off each other with more panels.
There's not really much more I can say about these strips, so I present the following without commentary.
In case it's not complete clear from the faded comic above, the Queen in the picture now sports a mustache in the last panel.
My favorite Dagwood commuter strips were during the Denis Lebrun years (ca. 1995-2005). By that time the daily strip was only three panels and Lebrun would reserve the middle panel for an outside-the-auto view. I enjoyed his rural landscapes and, at times, the cityscape in the background. Always got a bit of a chuckle seeing the little compact go airborne (Bullitt-like) over the hills.
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