You asked for ’em: ‘Pickles,’ ‘Soup to Nutz’ comics, ‘Jumble’ debut in The Herald

The Herald this week is adding two strips to its comics page Monday-Saturday – and you made the call on which new ones you wanted to see.

“Pickles” was the runaway favorite among the hundreds of votes cast online by Herald readers. The comic strip, which focuses on the life and antics of retired couple Earl and Opal Pickles, is drawn by Brian Crane.

“Soup to Nutz” came in a distant but clear second. This strip, drawn by Rick Stromoski, tells the story of the Nutz family, including three children and all the chaos that ensues.

Readers chose those two favorites from among five finalists, which also included “Big Nate,” drawn by Lincoln Pierce; “The Grizzwells,” drawn by Bill Schorr; and “Heart of the City,” drawn by Mark Tatulli.

We added both “Pickles” and “Soup to Nutz” without having to eliminate any of your old favorites.

Also this week, we’ve added three new puzzles to The Herald’s revamped puzzles/advice page, including “Jumble,” which readers have been begging us to provide for quite some time.

Joining that classic game are “7 Little Words” and “Word Game,” both of which offer as much brain-teasing fun as “Jumble.”

Thanks to some creative design, we’ve managed to add those three puzzles and still keep favorites “Sudoku,” “Celebrity Cipher” and, of course, the daily crossword.

You also can still find your daily dose of advice from “Dear Abby,” as well as daily horoscope and bridge strategy columns.

To make all of this work, our TV grid has been slimmed down, primarily eliminating some upper-tier movie channel listings. And “Ask Dr. K” is now a weekly column, which runs on Sundays. The daily “Almanac” is the only feature we’re losing in this restructuring.

We hope you enjoy our new comics and puzzles.

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "You asked for ’em: ‘Pickles,’ ‘Soup to Nutz’ comics, ‘Jumble’ debut in The Herald."