Pickles (comic strip)


Pickles is a daily and Sunday comic strip by Brian Crane focusing on a retired couple in their seventies, Earl and Opal Pickles. Pickles has been published since April 2, 1990.

Publication

As of 2016, Pickles was syndicated in close to 1,000 newspapers worldwide.

Story and characters

Inspired by Crane's in-laws, the strip describes their efforts to enjoy retirement, which instead proves quite imperfect for both. Earl Pickles is bald and has a bushy white mustache, and wears glasses and suspenders. Opal Pickles is bespectacled and is often seen wearing purple polka-dotted dresses and white sneakers. When sitting, she is usually seen with her pet cat, Muffin, in her lap. Both characters were drawn with their eye pupils visible through their glasses during the strip's early years, but their glasses were later whitened so that they are opaque to readers.
The cast includes their dog, Roscoe, and their cat, Muffin; their grandson, Nelson Wolfe, and his parentstheir daughter, Sylvia, and her husband, Dan, a wildlife photographer; Clyde, Earl's friend; and Pearl, Opal's sister who dated Earl many years ago.

Awards and honors