So, wait, hold on. Rewind a few weeks and we find that the newspaper Spider Man has reworked itself similar to the mainstream comics. Both audiences are outraged, but the newspaper one corrects itself. This means that… the newspaper-reading audience that has kept Family Circus alive for decades is, in fact, more powerful than all the world’s comic nerds? Man, that’s gotta hit the comic nerds something rough.
Now I've heard it said that the reason newspaper comics are so overly-cautious and stagnant these days is that the average age of their readers is much higher than it used to be. Lot of seniors, apparently (hey, only seniors--like senior seniors--could actually find Family Circus and Pluggers entertaining). And apparently, a large number of such readers got Stan Lee to reverse course. So here's my idea for reversing OMD/BND in the comic books as well: we get in touch with the American Association of Retired Persons--a quite powerful lobby group I understand--and enlist their support in taking on Quesada. We may have to cut deals with AARP in return, say helping them lobby the newspapers and syndicates to keep Marmaduke and Mary Worth, but that's how the game is played. :-)