We ended up surprising readers with some new comics in Monday morning’s paper. I’m sorry about the surprise.

We had planned to launch the changes on Dec. 10, with a column in Sunday’s newspaper on Dec. 9. Unfortunately, not everyone got the right date.

Why changes in our comics lineup?

Earlier this year, we did a survey on what comics you liked.

We had hoped to add a couple of new comics, particularly to fill some advertising space on the front of the Sunday comics section. We had not been selling the space regularly.

Before we could make any additions, however, the space was sold, and we didn’t make any changes.

More recently, we had to make a change to accommodate one of our most popular comics, Dilbert. It was in our standalone Business section. Our business content is now in the main news section, where it has a later deadline.

Here’s what you told us in that survey:

The favorites: Pickles, Zits, Baby Blues, Lola, Dilbert, Mother Goose & Grimm, the Wizard of Id, Luann, Garfield and Non Sequitur — in that order.

The ones you liked the least: Rose is Rose (by a sizeable margin), Dennis the Menace, Tiger, Family Circus, Blondie, For Better For Worse, Mallard Fillmore.

So we’re dropping the least favorites and making these changes:

• Adding Luann to Sunday. Luann only runs Monday through Saturday now and it was in our top 10.

• Adding Frazz and Dustin to the daily and Sunday lineup. Both new comics.

• Adding Tundra and Gil to the daily lineup. Tundra is now in Sunday and ranked pretty high in the survey; Gil is a new comic.

• Adding Bizarro and Sherman’s Lagoon to the Sunday comics. Again, both new comics. By splitting up some of the daily and Sunday spots, you will have a chance to experience more new comics.

• Dropping Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury from the opinion page where we believe the space will be better used for unique local content, i.e. more letters to the editor and reader’s views from you. The last day for these comics will be Saturday.

We were able to add a digital package of 84 comics and 14 puzzles to our website in November. If we are dropping one of your favorites, try looking for it online at IdahoStatesman.com/comics.

As always, let me know what you think about the changes. We are monitoring your feedback.

We also will do another survey early next year and adjust as needed.

Vicki S. Gowler is editor of the Idaho Statesman. She can be reached at vgowler@idahostatesman.com or (208) 377-6403.