Comic strips are a little like politicians: Each one has a constituency, very few are universally revered, incumbency means power and real change happens slowly.

Complete the survey here. No phone calls or e-mails will be accepted as votes. The survey begins today and runs through Nov. 5. We'll publish the results on Nov. 12.

The funny pages, that is.

But we digress. It's been almost seven years since the Post-Gazette last conducted a comics survey. And that means it's been a long time since readers have had an opportunity to express themselves at the ballot box.

That's about to change.

Beginning today, we're inviting you to cast a vote on each of the 35 strips (Sunday and daily) that make up the PG's comics stable. All you have to do is visit www.post-gazette.com/comicsurvey, where you'll find an electronic survey allowing you to cast a vote on the various panels in one of three ways: love it, hate it, don't care.

We're also asking for a bit of demographic information, just to help us determine a particular comic's core audience.

What will we do with your votes? While we're not promising a total overhaul, your participation will help us make decisions, with some changes to follow.

For example: Aaron McGruder, creator of "The Boondocks," went on hiatus several months ago. It's clear now that he's unlikely to resume drawing his strip. In the interim, we've been sampling seven other comics, first by the month and now -- as a refresher -- by the week. The survey gives you a chance to vote on those sample strips, as well as the regulars.

The funny pages are serious business, gauging from previous survey results. More than 11,000 of you participated last time. That means you care, which comes as no surprise to Lucy Shelton Caswell, a professor at Ohio State University and curator of the school's Cartoon Research Library.

As Caswell told the Post-Gazette last spring, readers make friends with the various characters in comic strips.

"That is key," she said, "to why people care and why they get so angry when a strip is dropped from a paper. ... [People] know comics are a reliable break from their day. Again, it has to do with friendship, but it's also a visit of the familiar that people really enjoy."

But that doesn't mean Mary Worth, friend to some, isn't Mary Worthless to others. There's an undeniable subjectivity to comic strips. Depending on one's perspective, "Doonesbury" can be politically astute or politically asinine -- perhaps even just plain worn out.

Humor and message is often in the eye of the beholder.