Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1984 -- Overall Results
In this survey we did not lose any papers over the last year, but out of the remaining 286 papers, the information for January 1984 was not available online for seven papers, making this survey coverage only 279 papers.
Starting with this year we are going to look at the development of what I call the Universal Comic Section. Over the past 80 years when you picked up a paper from another town or city in most cases you would read some of the strips that appeared in your local paper but mostly you would see strips that you have never seen before. By the 1980s, with the slow demise of newspapers beginning and less papers around to compete for features, more papers had the opportunity to buy strips that were not available to them before. This could lead to more variety from one paper to another, but instead, the editors of these papers would do the opposite and just pick the most popular strips. As this way of filling a comics page became more and more prevalent, you would now see many of the same comics in every paper. In future articles, we will keep a watch on this process.
Let’s start this year by examining how many of the most popular strips appear in each paper. In our 1984 survey, out of the 279 papers 162 ran the top 2 strips. 141 ran the top 3 strips. 106 ran the top 4 strips. 63 ran the top 5 strips. 29 ran the top 6 strips. 18 ran the top 7 strips. 10 ran the top 8 strips. 8 ran the top 9 strips. 3 ran the top 10 & 11 strips. One paper, the Austin American Statesman, ran the top 14 strips. The Austin paper ran 27 strips in its paper, so over half were the most popular overall.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the Top 30 for 1984, Blondie joined the 200 paper club, making it the second strip do to this. B.C. and Hi and Lois gained enough papers to enter the 100 paper club. That now makes 10 strips that are in 100 papers or more. The powerhouse Walker family can now boast having two strips that appear in over 100 papers. Marvin, Berry’s World and Heathcliff entered the Top 30 while Amazing Spider-Man, Alley Oop, Dick Tracy and Eek and Meek fell out the top 30. (Last year we had 31 strips in the Top 30 because there was a tie at 30). Bloom County made a big move in the Top 30 going from 26 to 18 while Nancy had the biggest drop, from 22 to 29 – apparently Jerry Scott taking over was a signal to jump ship.
Here are the top 30 features:
|
Title |
Place |
Rank Change |
+/- Papers |
Total Papers |
|
Peanuts |
1 |
Same |
-2 |
208 |
|
Blondie |
2 |
Same |
4 |
200 |
|
Beetle Bailey |
3 |
Same |
7 |
186 |
|
Garfield |
4 |
Up 1 |
30 |
172 |
|
Hagar the Horrible |
5 |
Same |
7 |
137 |
|
Family Circus |
6 |
Up 1 |
19 |
121 |
|
Wizard of Id |
7 |
Down 1 |
0 |
110 |
|
B.C. |
8 |
Same |
2 |
100 |
|
Hi and Lois |
8 |
Up 3 |
6 |
100 |
|
Frank and Ernest |
10 |
Same |
1 |
97 |
|
Shoe |
11 |
Up 2 |
7 |
93 |
|
Andy Capp |
12 |
Down 3 |
-6 |
91 |
|
Born Loser |
13 |
Down 1 |
-3 |
85 |
|
Dennis the Menace |
14 |
Same |
0 |
80 |
|
For Better or For Worse |
15 |
Up 2 |
9 |
75 |
|
Mary Worth |
16 |
Down 1 |
1 |
73 |
|
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith |
17 |
Down 1 |
2 |
70 |
|
Bloom County |
18 |
Up 8 |
22 |
66 |
|
Marmaduke |
19 |
Down 1 |
2 |
58 |
|
Cathy |
20 |
Up 3 |
11 |
57 |
|
Herman |
21 |
Down 1 |
3 |
55 |
|
Rex Morgan |
22 |
Down 3 |
1 |
54 |
|
Ziggy |
23 |
Same |
4 |
50 |
|
Tank McNamara |
24 |
Up 2 |
5 |
49 |
|
Marvin |
25 |
Entering |
9 |
48 |
|
Berry's World |
26 |
Entering |
7 |
47 |
|
Heathcliff |
27 |
Entering |
3 |
45 |
|
Winthrop |
27 |
Down 6 |
-5 |
45 |
|
Gasoline Alley |
29 |
Up 1 |
1 |
44 |
|
Nancy |
29 |
Down 7 |
-4 |
44 |
And here are the rest of the rankings:
|
# Papers |
Title (+/- Papers) |
|
43 |
Alley Oop (-1) |
|
41 |
Amazing Spider-Man (-4), Eek and Meek (-2) |
|
39 |
Funky Winkerbean (-2) |
|
38 |
Bugs Bunny (0) |
|
37 |
Dick Tracy (-7) |
|
36 |
Tiger (-1) |
|
32 |
Judge Parker (0), Tumbleweeds (+1) |
|
30 |
Archie (-6) |
|
29 |
Far Side (+8) |
|
28 |
Buz Sawyer (-1) |
|
26 |
Lockhorns (+2), Sally Forth (+5), Snake Tales (0), Steve Canyon (-4) |
|
24 |
Broom Hilda (-1) |
|
23 |
Apartment 3-G (-1), Kit N Carlyle (0) |
|
22 |
Captain Easy (-6), Mark Trail (0), Our Boarding House (-1), Phantom (-5) |
|
20 |
Geech (+6) |
|
19 |
Crock (-2), Dunagin’s People (+1), Levy’s Law (+2), Redeye (-3) |
|
18 |
Great John L (-1), Mr. Men and Little Miss (R), Small Society (+1) |
|
17 |
Conard (+1), They’ll Do It Every Time (0) |
|
16 |
Hazel (-3), Momma (+2), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-3) |
|
15 |
Duffy (+3), Fred Basset (0) |
|
14 |
Goosemyer (-1), Grin and Bear It (+2) |
|
13 |
Donald Duck (-3), Little Orphan Annie (0) |
|
12 |
Fenton (R), Motley’s Crew (0) |
|
11 |
Brenda Starr (-1), Gil Thorp (0), Kuduz (-3), Mr. Tweedy (-1), Muppets (-13) |
|
10 |
Captain Vincible (R), John Darling (0), Rip Kirby (-2), Ryatts (-3) |
|
9 |
Agatha Crumm (-1), Better Half (0), Dondi (+1), Drabble (+2), Guindon (+4), Heart of Juliet Jones (-5), Miss Peach (-1) |
|
8 |
Animal Crackers (-1), Elwood (R), Girls (+1), Joe Palooka (0), Neighborhood (+5) |
|
7 |
Catfish (0), Graffiti (+2), Henry (0), Love Is (-2), Ripley’s Believe It or Not (-2), Star Wars (+1), Willie N Ethel (0), Winnie the Pooh (-1) |
|
6 |
Clout Street (R), Laff-A-Day (+2), Moose Miller (-1), Pavlov (-2) |
|
5 |
A Little Leary (+1), Arnold (+1), Ben Swift (+1), Citizen Smith (0), Ferd’Nand (-1), Flintstones (-2), Hocus Focus (-2), Lolly (0), McGonigle of the Chronicle (R), Ponytail (-1), There Oughta Be A Law (-2), Winnie Winkle (-1) |
|
4 |
Ben Wicks, Boner’s Ark, Bringing Up Father, Charlie, Dallas, Downstown, Flash Gordon, Gordo, Johnny Wonder, Nubbin, Sam and Silo, Scamp, Smith Family, Wee Pals, Wright Angels |
|
3 |
Bears in Love, Belvedere, Big George, Eb and Flo, Good News Bad News, Lone Ranger, Outcasts, Rafferty, Scoops, Sidelines, Travels with Farley, Trudy |
|
2 |
According to Guinness, Amy, Carmichael, Dr. Smock, Evermores, Gumdrop, Mandrake the Magician, Mickey Mouse, Moon Mullins, Mr. Abernathy, Our Fascinating Earth, Outtakes, Popeye, Rivets, Stan Smith’s Tennis Class, Vidiots, Word-A-Day |
|
1 |
Balderdash, Brick Bradford, Brother Juniper, Byrds, Ching Chow, Dr. Kildare, Ernie’s World, Goodnight Peaches, Gramps, Health Capsules, Hermie, It’s Just A Game, Kaleb, Laugh Time, Mark Trail’s Outdoor Tips, Modesty Blaise, Pig Newton, Pixies, Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Quincy, Ribbons, Rudy, Sadie, Secret Agent Corrigan, Selling Short, Silent Partners, Speed Walker, Sporting Life, Tennie, Time Out, Today’s World, Tom and Jerry, Toppix, Wilbur, Wordplay |
As always, if you would like the long form of The 300, a list of each paper that used each strip, send Allan Holtz an email with your request. He will send you a Word document with the data.
Labels: Paper Trends
