For a bulky part of a century, I have been an avid follower of comic strips - all comic strips; this is a statement made with approximately the same amount amount of pride with which on would say, "I've been shooting cocaine into my arm for the past twenty-five years." I flatly do not know why I do as I do. For I do not enjoy the strips. I read them solemnly and sourly, and there is no delight in me because of them. That is, I had no delight and no enjoyment and no love until Barnaby came. I think, and I am trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions American arts and letters in Lord knows how many years.
- Dorothy Parker (excerpted from "A mash note to Crockett Johnson" 1943)