Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1978 -- The Rankings
After going through 300 daily papers we have our finger on the pulse of the daily comic strip back in January 1978. First, of the many papers most only had one page of comics plus a few running on the op-ed pages (most popularly, Doonesbury, Dunagin's People, Small Society and Berry’s World). Quite a few papers also ran a few features in the their classified sections (most popular being panels like They’ll Do It Every Time).
There were a total of 220 different strips and panels that ran in the 300 papers. The popularity of these features ranged from 35 that ran in only a single paper (a few were locally produced) to three strips that ran in over 150 papers.
First let’s give the crown to the most popular single panel feature running in 1978. It came down to three contenders. Coming in third was Berry’s World with 60 papers, second was Family Circus with 63 papers and the winner was Dennis the Menace with 80 papers.
Three fairly new strips (debuting in the 1970s) did very well. Hagar the Horrible (1973) had at this time 76 papers putting it in 16th place overall. Frank and Ernest (1972) had 86 papers putting it in 7th place and Doonesbury (1970) had 91 papers putting it in 5th place. Other strips debuting in the 1970’s had a slower start but grew greatly in popularity later. For example, Cathy (1976) only had 19 papers at this time.
A second notable race is for the most popular story strip running in 1978. Before I get to the result one thing has to made clear: if we counted Sunday sections, Prince Valiant would have been either number one or two on this list. The top 6 daily story strips at this time are as follows: coming in at number 6 is a new entry, The Amazing Spider-Man which had 50 papers putting it in 27th place. That’s a pretty phenomenal start. In fifth place is Dick Tracy with 55 papers; this was Chester Gould’s last year on the strip before passing it over to Max Collins and Rick Fletcher placing this strip in 23rd place. It will be interesting when we look back at the 40’s and 50’s to see how much higher this strip will rank. Third and fourth place is a tie between Steve Canyon, the highest rated adventure strip, and Rex Morgan MD, both with 62 papers. Edging out those two with 63 papers is the adventure/comedy strip Alley Oop, which is also the third highest circulation for the NEA syndicate. Number one with 80 papers is the soap opera strip Mary Worth.
Another crown to bestow is for most successful syndicate. This can be determined by counting up the total number of papers that run their combined feature output; in other words, how many 'slots' did their features take up in total for the 300 papers. Here are the top ten, which accounts for all the major syndicates. The second number shows the average papers per feature for the syndicate. You can look at it as a gauge of the syndicate's sales ability, the quality of their features or perhaps as an indication of how many papers had to take a feature for the syndicate to continue offering it :
The Washington Star Syndicate, the least successful of the major syndicates, would disappear very soon, selling off their last remaining assets to Universal in early 1979. Also, although King Features shows an apparently commanding lead in slots, if we consider that United Feature and NEA are both run through the same parent company by this time, the combination of the two actually hold the crown with 1208 points. Also, NEA's average for slots is a huge outlier because they offered their features under a blanket service (one price gets you everything offered by the syndicate) -- at smaller papers, if they have all those features available the tendency is to run most if not all of them.
The top three strips overall are interesting in that they all came very close to being cancelled by their syndicates early on for having low sales. Coming in at number 3 with 169 papers is a strip that only became successful after the creator had his star inducted into the army, Beetle Bailey. Coming in at number 2 with 191 papers is a strip that had to change from a flapper strip to a family sitcom to become successful, Blondie. The number one strip started as a kind of filler strip but grew in popularity over the years to become the most successful comic strip of all time, Peanuts at this time had 194 papers. That’s almost 2/3 of the newspapers surveyed!
Here is the complete list, ranking the features from most to least papers. If you would like the giant whopper version of this in which each feature is listed with the specific papers in which I found it, send an email to Allan (strippersguide@gmail.com) with subject line "1978 Paper Trends List" and he'll send you a PDF:
There were a total of 220 different strips and panels that ran in the 300 papers. The popularity of these features ranged from 35 that ran in only a single paper (a few were locally produced) to three strips that ran in over 150 papers.
First let’s give the crown to the most popular single panel feature running in 1978. It came down to three contenders. Coming in third was Berry’s World with 60 papers, second was Family Circus with 63 papers and the winner was Dennis the Menace with 80 papers.
Three fairly new strips (debuting in the 1970s) did very well. Hagar the Horrible (1973) had at this time 76 papers putting it in 16th place overall. Frank and Ernest (1972) had 86 papers putting it in 7th place and Doonesbury (1970) had 91 papers putting it in 5th place. Other strips debuting in the 1970’s had a slower start but grew greatly in popularity later. For example, Cathy (1976) only had 19 papers at this time.
A second notable race is for the most popular story strip running in 1978. Before I get to the result one thing has to made clear: if we counted Sunday sections, Prince Valiant would have been either number one or two on this list. The top 6 daily story strips at this time are as follows: coming in at number 6 is a new entry, The Amazing Spider-Man which had 50 papers putting it in 27th place. That’s a pretty phenomenal start. In fifth place is Dick Tracy with 55 papers; this was Chester Gould’s last year on the strip before passing it over to Max Collins and Rick Fletcher placing this strip in 23rd place. It will be interesting when we look back at the 40’s and 50’s to see how much higher this strip will rank. Third and fourth place is a tie between Steve Canyon, the highest rated adventure strip, and Rex Morgan MD, both with 62 papers. Edging out those two with 63 papers is the adventure/comedy strip Alley Oop, which is also the third highest circulation for the NEA syndicate. Number one with 80 papers is the soap opera strip Mary Worth.
Another crown to bestow is for most successful syndicate. This can be determined by counting up the total number of papers that run their combined feature output; in other words, how many 'slots' did their features take up in total for the 300 papers. Here are the top ten, which accounts for all the major syndicates. The second number shows the average papers per feature for the syndicate. You can look at it as a gauge of the syndicate's sales ability, the quality of their features or perhaps as an indication of how many papers had to take a feature for the syndicate to continue offering it :
| Syndicate | Total ‘Slots’ | Avg Slots per Feature |
| King Features | 1154 | 22.1 |
| Field Enterprises | 947 | 27.8 |
| NEA | 766 | 45.0 |
| United Feature | 442 | 19.2 |
| Chicago Tribune | 325 | 14.1 |
| Universal Press | 257 | 17.1 |
| Register & Tribune | 160 | 17.7 |
| McNaught | 114 | 14.2 |
| Los Angeles Times | 67 | 5.1 |
| Washington Star | 35 | 17.5 |
The Washington Star Syndicate, the least successful of the major syndicates, would disappear very soon, selling off their last remaining assets to Universal in early 1979. Also, although King Features shows an apparently commanding lead in slots, if we consider that United Feature and NEA are both run through the same parent company by this time, the combination of the two actually hold the crown with 1208 points. Also, NEA's average for slots is a huge outlier because they offered their features under a blanket service (one price gets you everything offered by the syndicate) -- at smaller papers, if they have all those features available the tendency is to run most if not all of them.
The top three strips overall are interesting in that they all came very close to being cancelled by their syndicates early on for having low sales. Coming in at number 3 with 169 papers is a strip that only became successful after the creator had his star inducted into the army, Beetle Bailey. Coming in at number 2 with 191 papers is a strip that had to change from a flapper strip to a family sitcom to become successful, Blondie. The number one strip started as a kind of filler strip but grew in popularity over the years to become the most successful comic strip of all time, Peanuts at this time had 194 papers. That’s almost 2/3 of the newspapers surveyed!
Here is the complete list, ranking the features from most to least papers. If you would like the giant whopper version of this in which each feature is listed with the specific papers in which I found it, send an email to Allan (strippersguide@gmail.com) with subject line "1978 Paper Trends List" and he'll send you a PDF:
Title | Number of Papers | Syndicate | Debut Year |
Peanuts | 194 | United | 1950 |
Blondie | 191 | King | 1930 |
Beetle Bailey | 169 | King | 1950 |
Andy Capp | 95 | Field | 1963 |
Doonesbury | 91 | Universal | 1970 |
Born Loser | 90 | NEA | 1965 |
Frank and Ernest | 86 | NEA | 1972 |
Wizard of Id | 85 | Field | 1964 |
B.C. | 85 | Field | 1958 |
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith | 81 | King | 1919 |
Dennis the Menace | 80 | Field | 1951 |
Mary Worth | 80 | Field | 1934 |
Hi and Lois | 79 | King | 1954 |
Hagar the Horrible | 76 | King | 1973 |
Nancy | 72 | United | 1938 |
Alley Oop | 63 | NEA | 1933 |
Family Circus | 63 | Register & Tribune | 1960 |
Rex Morgan MD | 62 | Field | 1948 |
Steve Canyon | 62 | Field | 1947 |
Archie | 61 | King | 1946 |
Berry's World | 60 | NEA | 1963 |
Bugs Bunny | 59 | NEA | 1943 |
Dick Tracy | 55 | Tribune | 1931 |
Priscilla's Pop | 55 | NEA | 1946 |
Short Ribs | 55 | NEA | 1958 |
Winthrop | 55 | NEA | 1956 |
Amazing Spider-Man | 50 | Register & Tribune | 1977 |
Eek and Meek | 49 | NEA | 1965 |
Shoe | 47 | Tribune | 1977 |
Our Boarding House | 45 | NEA | 1921 |
Tiger | 44 | King | 1965 |
Buz Sawyer | 42 | King | 1943 |
Captain Easy | 42 | NEA | 1924 |
Gasoline Alley | 41 | Tribune | 1918 |
Marmaduke | 41 | United | 1954 |
Funky Winkerbean | 38 | Field | 1972 |
Funny Business | 38 | NEA | 1966 |
Judge Parker | 38 | Field | 1952 |
Best Seller Showcase | 37 | Universal | 1977 |
Side Glances | 37 | NEA | 1928 |
They'll Do It Every Time | 37 | King | 1929 |
Heathcliff | 36 | McNaught | 1973 |
Tumbleweeds | 36 | United | 1965 |
Tank McNamara | 35 | Universal | 1974 |
Redeye | 33 | King | 1967 |
Apartment 3-G | 28 | Field | 1961 |
Small Society | 28 | Washington Star/King | 1966 |
Broom Hilda | 27 | Tribune | 1970 |
Donald Duck | 27 | King | 1938 |
Grin and Bear It | 26 | Field | 1932 |
Herman | 26 | Universal | 1974 |
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad | 25 | Field | 1936 |
Asterix & Obelix | 24 | Field | 1977 |
Dunagin's People | 24 | Field | 1969 |
Mark Trail | 24 | Field | 1946 |
Heart of Juliet Jones | 23 | King | 1953 |
Phantom | 23 | King | 1936 |
Better Half | 21 | Register & Tribune | 1956 |
Kerry Drake | 21 | Field | 1943 |
Crock | 20 | Field | 1975 |
Hazel | 20 | King | 1969 |
Cathy | 19 | Universal | 1976 |
Lockhorns | 19 | King | 1968 |
Miss Peach | 19 | Field | 1957 |
Graffiti | 18 | McNaught | |
Jackson Twins | 18 | McNaught | 1950 |
Ripley's Believe It or Not | 17 | King | 1918 |
Jeff Hawke | 16 | United | 1977 |
Love Is | 16 | Los Angeles | 1970 |
Zoonies | 16 | NEA | 1977 |
Dondi | 15 | Tribune | 1955 |
Fred Basset | 15 | Field | 1965 |
Laff-A-Day | 15 | King | 1936 |
Momma | 15 | Field | 1970 |
Rip Kirby | 15 | King | 1946 |
Ryatts | 14 | Field | 1954 |
Sam and Silo | 14 | King | 1977 |
Henry | 14 | King | 1934 |
Mr. Tweedy | 14 | Los Angeles | 1954 |
Ziggy | 14 | Universal | 1971 |
Inside of Woody Allen | 14 | King | 1976 |
Flintstones | 13 | McNaught | 1961 |
Rick O'Shay | 13 | Tribune | 1958 |
Agatha Crumm | 12 | King | 1977 |
Brenda Starr | 12 | Tribune | 1940 |
Charmers | 12 | Field | 1975 |
Ferd'nand | 12 | United | 1947 |
Gil Thorp | 12 | Tribune | 1958 |
Girls | 12 | Field | 1952 |
Joe Palooka | 12 | McNaught | 1930 |
Modesty Blaise | 12 | Los Angeles | 1976 |
Moose Miller | 12 | King | 1965 |
Winnie Winkle | 11 | Tribune | 1920 |
Mutt and Jeff | 11 | McNaught | 1907 |
Sporting Life | 11 | Tribune | 1977 |
Animal Crackers | 10 | Tribune | 1968 |
Catfish | 10 | Tribune | 1973 |
Motley's Crew | 10 | Tribune | 1976 |
Nubbin | 10 | King | 1958 |
Ponytail | 10 | King | 1960 |
Trudy | 10 | King | 1963 |
Casey | 9 | Tribune | 1977 |
Little Orphan Annie | 9 | Tribune | 1924 |
There Outta Be A Law | 9 | United | 1944 |
Gordo | 8 | United | 1941 |
Moon Mullins | 8 | Tribune | 1923 |
Quincy | 8 | King | 1970 |
Stanley | 7 | Universal | 1977 |
Mickey Mouse | 7 | King | 1930 |
Rooftop O' Toole | 7 | United | 1976 |
Scamp | 7 | King | 1955 |
Smith Family | 7 | Washington Star | 1950 |
Wee Pals | 7 | King/United | 1965 |
Wright Angles | 7 | NEA | 1976 |
Wordsmith | 6 | Universal | 1975 |
Captain's Gig | 6 | Field | 1977 |
Don Q | 6 | New York Times | 1975 |
Eb and Flo | 6 | United | 1967 |
Emmy Lou | 6 | United | 1944 |
Howard the Duck | 6 | Register & Tribune | 1977 |
Lolly | 6 | Tribune | 1955 |
Off the Record | 6 | Register & Tribune | 1934 |
On Stage | 6 | Tribune | 1957 |
Star Hawks | 6 | NEA | 1977 |
According to Guinness | 5 | Universal | 1975 |
A Little Leary | 5 | LA Times | |
Amy | 5 | Register & Tribune | 1961 |
Bringing Up Father | 5 | King | 1913 |
Citizen Smith | 5 | Register & Tribune | 1967 |
Doodley's World | 5 | King | 1972 |
Flash Gordon | 5 | King | 1951 |
Flop Family | 5 | King | 1943 |
Hubert | 5 | King | 1945 |
Men and Woman | 5 | Field | 1976 |
Mr. Abernathy | 5 | King | 1957 |
Outcasts | 5 | Toronto Star | |
Rivets | 5 | Field | 1953 |
Belvedere | 4 | Field | 1962 |
Boner's Ark | 4 | King | 1968 |
Brother Juniper | 4 | Field | 1957 |
Carmichael | 4 | Los Angeles | 1958 |
Dr. Kildare | 4 | King | 1962 |
Dropouts | 4 | United | 1968 |
Friends and Romans | 4 | United | 1975 |
Frontiers of Science | 4 | Los Angeles | 1962 |
Gumdrops | 4 | United | 1977 |
Henny Youngman | 4 | Field | 1977 |
Kelly | 4 | Universal | 1972 |
Laugh Time | 4 | King | 1968 |
Pixies | 4 | United | 1966 |
Strictly Business | 4 | Field | 1941 |
This Funny World | 4 | McNaught | 1945 |
Time Out | 4 | Field | 1936 |
Treadwells (aka The Neighbors) | 4 | Chicago Tribune | 1939 |
Woody's World | 4 | United | 1963 |
Ms. Augusta | 3 | Universal | 1975 |
Basil | 3 | Universal | 1974 |
Ben Wicks | 3 | LA Times | |
Big George | 3 | Field | 1960 |
Boomer | 4 | United | 1972 |
Channel Chuckles | 3 | Register and Tribune | 1954 |
Dr. Smock | 3 | United | 1974 |
Freedy | 3 | Field | 1955 |
Health Capsules | 3 | United | 1961 |
Kisses | 3 | Self-syndicated | 1974 |
Lansky's Look | 3 | Universal | 1974 |
Little Woman | 3 | King | 1953 |
P.T. Bimbo | 3 | NEA | 1975 |
Simpkins | 3 | Tribune | 1971 |
Soft Focus | 3 | King | 1976 |
Trim's Arena | 3 | Universal | 1973 |
Wordplay | 3 | King | 1973 |
Alex in Wonderland | 3 | Copley | 1976 |
Big Ben Bolt | 2 | King | 1950 |
Bi-Focals | 2 | McNaught | 1977 |
Ching Chow | 2 | Tribune | 1927 |
Clyde & Homer/Homer's Groaners (activity strip) | 2 | LA Times | |
Luther | 2 | Los Angeles | 1969 |
Mandrake the Magician | 2 | King | 1934 |
Norbert | 2 | United | 1964 |
Pot Shots | 2 | Tribune | 1975 |
Queenie | 2 | King | 1966 |
Secret Agent Corrigan | 2 | King | 1934 |
Smart Chart | 2 | Los Angeles | 1970 |
Stan Smith's Tennis Class | 2 | King | |
As You Were | 1 | Pioneer | 1971 |
Aw, Heck | 1 | Tampa Times | 1976 |
Beautiful | 1 | Allied | 1977 |
Benchwarmer's Sports Trivia | 1 | Copley | |
Brick Bradford | 1 | King | 1933 |
Broadsides | 1 | LA Times | 1975 |
Collector's Corner | 1 | United | |
Dewey's Den | 1 | Elwood Call-Leader | 1977 |
Foster Fenwick | 1 | Chronicle | 1968 |
Figments | 1 | Manson | 1971 |
Hocus-Focus (activity panel) | 1 | ||
Idea Chaser | 1 | Allied | 1948 |
Lars and June | 1 | Self-syndicated | 1977 |
Laughs From Europe | 1 | Register and Tribune | 1958 |
Mark Trail's Outdoor Tips | 1 | Field | |
Missing Links | 1 | Canada-Wide | |
Now Society | 1 | Chronicle | 1973 |
Pet Set | 1 | Self-syndicated | 1973 |
Playing Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus | 1 | King | |
Pookas | 1 | LA Times | 1977 |
Popeye | 1 | King | 1919 |
Rocket Shots (sports instruction) | 1 | United | |
Rudy | 1 | Copley | 1977 |
Selling Short | 1 | Universal | |
Strike Three | 1 | Chapel Hill Tarheel | |
Tarzan | 1 | United | 1929 |
Teaching Pro (sports instruction) | 1 | LA Times | |
The Byrds | 1 | Toronto Star | |
Thoughts of Man | 1 | Tribune | 1972 |
Today's World | 1 | King | 1971 |
Toppix | 1 | Tribune` | 1975 |
Travels With Farley | 1 | Chronicle | 1975 |
Winnie Witch & The Giant Potato | 1 | Canada-Wide | |
You're Getting Closer | 1 | King | 1976 |
Labels: Paper Trends
Comments:
Without researching all newspapers (an impossible and thankless task) its clear the lower numbers are skewed. Popeye, who would have his own movie in 1980, shows only one newspaper! Flash Gordon is outranked three fold by the British Jeff Hawke! I can tell you I was reading two newspapers in the Boston area back then that carried Brick Bradford (because one didn't publish on holidays). Other than that, this was an enormous task and I suspect accurately reflects the exposure of the top strips.
I just want to say that this project is a great idea. Rarely do we see statistics like this about the relative number of newspapers that comic strips run in. So thank you to Jeffrey.
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# posted by 
: 12/22/2019 12:54 PM
: 12/22/2019 12:54 PM 