Readers indicate Garfield is their favorite

What's orange, eats lasagna and loves to sleep?

Garfield was the No. 1 choice out of 730 responses to the Commerce and Industry Show question, "What's your favorite comic?"

Responses were gathered at The Dispatch's booth Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Brainerd Area Civic Center.

The trials and tribulations of a married couple and their family came in second to that surly orange cat and the Peanuts gang came in a sentimental third. The comic strip about a blonde housewife turned caterer and her always-late-for-work-husband beat a Viking with a dimwitted sidekick. There was a tie between "Foxtrot" and "Beetle Bailey." A vertically-challenged wizard in a tower came in ahead of the continuing adventures of two guys named Frank and Ernest.

Actual voting numbers were:

-- Garfield, 165.

-- For Better or Worse, 146.

-- Peanuts, 133.

-- Blondie, 72.

-- Hagar the Horrible, 68.

-- Foxtrot, 44.

-- Beetle Bailey, 44.

-- The Wizard of Id, 22.

-- Frank and Ernest, 18.

The Lockhorns and Family Circus both received write-in votes of seven and two respectively. Both are carried in The Dispatch but were not counted on the ballot because they are not strip comics, but single cartoons.

In the write-in category for new comics, the office life of a cube dweller named Dilbert came in at the top of the new comic corporate ladder. Baby Blues received two votes and Marmaduke and the retired Calvin and Hobbs each received one vote.