The DAILY LEADER’s Sunday Comics will have a new look thisweekend and will hopefully draw in a new generation of readers.

Fresher, popular comics such as Curtis, Baby Blues, Zits, TheLockhorns, Marvin, Sally Forth, Slylock Fox and Mutts will joinsome older classics such as Dennis the Menace, Barney Google andSnuffy Smith, Prince Valiant, Hi & Lois, and Funky Winkerbeanin the Sunday lineup.

“We think our readers will be excited about these new comics,”said John Lowman, general manager of the newspaper. “Readership ofthese comics is up throughout the nation, and we wanted to bringthe most popular comics we could to our DAILY LEADER readers.”

The new lineup will also keep such favorites as Classic Peanuts,Dilbert, Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, BC, Beetle Bailey, Garfield,Family Circus, and For Better or For Worse.

“Unfortunately, the change means we will lose a few comic stripsthat some readers enjoy,” said Bill Jacobs, editor and publisher ofThe DAILY LEADER. “Our Sunday comics come to us as a package and,thus, we had to make some hard decisions.”

The change in the Sunday Comics foreshadows major changes in thenewspaper in the near future, Jacobs said. It is one of the firstvisible changes readers can expect within the next six months asthe newspaper evolves into a more reader-friendly product, bothelectronically as well as the traditional printed paper.

“We’re in the process of redesigning the look of the newspaper,reevaluating our editorial content to increase our local coverageand updating some of our editorial features,” Jacobs said.

“In the meantime,” he said, “We hope readers will enjoy theirnew Sunday Comics.”