Wednesday, November 10, 2021

 

Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1986 -- Overall Results

One of our papers, the Pensacola News, published its last edition in May of 1985, and we did not have information on 7 of our papers in the first month of 1986. So this survey has only 278 papers surveyed.

We have two strips entering the Top 30. The Far Side with its gain of 35 papers enters at position 19 and Berry’s World, which gained 5 papers, enters at 29. The two strips they knocked out of the Top 30 are Eek and Meek and Heathcliff.

The biggest movers in the Top 30 are Bloom County, moving up 4 spots to #13 and Shoe, which moves up 3 spots to crack the top ten at #9. Shoe also gained 10 papers to join the 100-paper strip club; that exclusive club now has 12 features. Bloom County just missed joining by 2 papers, but the way the strip is gaining popularity it will surely join the 100-club next year. Garfield with its 10-paper gain is about to crack the 200 strip-club which currently has only has 2 members, Peanuts and Blondie.

Here is the Top 30:

Title

Place

Top 30 Movement

Plus/Minus Papers

Total Papers

Peanuts

1

Same

1

214

Blondie

2

Same

-2

203

Garfield

3

Same

10

197

Beetle Bailey

4

Same

3

189

Hagar the Horrible

5

Same

7

149

Doonesbury

6

Same

6

146

Family Circus

7

Same

5

129

Wizard of Id

8

Same

4

117

B.C.

9

Up 1

5

108

Shoe

9

Up 3

10

108

Hi and Lois

11

Same

4

105

Frank and Ernest

12

Down 2

0

104

Bloom County

13

Up 4

21

98

Andy Capp

14

Down 1

-5

92

For Better or For Worse

15

Up 1

9

88

Born Loser

16

Down 2

0

87

Dennis the Menace

17

Down 2

0

86

Cathy

18

Up 2

11

77

Far Side

19

Entering

35

76

Mary Worth

20

Down 1

-4

68

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith

21

Down 2

-3

66

Marmaduke

22

Down 1

-3

58

Herman

23

Down 1

-4

54

Rex Morgan

24

Down 1

-2

53

Ziggy

25

Down 1

-3

51

Marvin

26

Down 1

-3

50

Tank McNamara

27

Down 1

-4

47

Gasoline Alley

28

Down 1

1

46

Berry's World

29

Entering

5

45

Winthrop

29

Down 1

0

45

 

Let’s look at the growing popularity of the universal comic section this year. More papers this year are become more like other papers with the Top 2 to 11 strips appearing in more papers then last year.

Top 2 strips – 171 (Up 1)

Top 3 strips – 143 (Up 5)

Top 4 strips – 121 (Up 5)

Top 5 strips – 78 (Up 6)

Top 6 strips – 51 (Up 4)

Top 7 strips – 31 (Up 5)

Top 8 strips – 20 (Up 5)

Top 9 strips – 11 (Up 5)

Top 10 strips – 9 (Up 7)

Top 11 strips – 6 (Up 4)

Top 12 strips – 1 (Down 1)

Top 13 strips – 1 (Same)

Top 14 strips – 0 (Down 1)

The Tampa Tribune now has the Top 13 strips in its section, making it the most universal comic section for 1986. The paper also has 9 other strips that are in the Top 30 – For Better or For Worse (15), Cathy (18), Mary Worth (20), Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (21), Herman (23), Ziggy (25), Marvin (26), Tank McNamara (27), Gasoline Alley (28). That makes 22 out of the top 30 strips appearing in The Tampa Tribune at the beginning of 1986. What else did they run? Duffy, Arlo and Janis, Amazing Spider-Man, Rose is Rose, Nancy, John Darling, Crock, Funky Winkerbean. Those are also all popular strips, so they essentially run nothing unusual at all.

 Here are the remaining strips in the 300:

# of Papers

Features (increase of decrease of papers since last year)

41

 Heathcliff (-2)

40

 Alley Oop (-1), Eek and Meek (-2)

39

 Funky Winkerbean (-1)

37

 Mother Goose and Grimm (+8)

34

 Bugs Bunny (-3), Nancy (-7)

32

 Amazing Spider-Man (-3), Dick Tracy (-4), Lockhorns (0)

30

 Judge Parker (-2)

28

 Arlo and Janis (R), Sally Forth (+1), Tiger (-6)

27

 Tumbleweeds (-2)

24

 Phantom (+1), Snake Tales (-2)

23

 Geech (+2)

22

 Apartment 3-G (-1), Archie (-6), Buz Sawyer (-4)

21

 Kit N Carlyle (-4), Steve Canyon (-1)

20

 Broom Hilda (-2), Mark Trail (0), On The Fastrack (+2)

18

 Captain Easy (-1), Great John L/Babyman (0)

17

 Crock (0), They’ll Do It Every Time (-1)

16

 Redeye (-2)

15

 Luann (R)

14

 Calvin & Hobbes (R), Hazel (-2), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-1), That’s Jake (+13)

13

 Dunagin’s People (-5), Fred Basset (-2)

12

 Donald Duck (0), Gil Thorp (+1), Small Society (-1)

11

 Hartland (R), Kuduz (0), Momma (-2), Motley’s Crew (-1), Robotman (R)

10

 Adam (-3), Brenda Starr (0), Drabble (0), Orbit (R)

9

 Benchley (-1), Duffy (-2), Grin and Bear It (0), Little Orphan Annie (-2), Love Is (+3), Mr. Men and Little Miss (-3), Mr. Tweedy (-3), Rip Kirby (-2), Ryatts (-1)

8

 Animal Crackers (-1), John Darling (-2)

7

 Agatha Crumm (-1), Better Half (0), Girls (-1), Neighborhood (-1), Rose is Rose (+1), Willy N’ Ethel (-1)

6

 Catfish (-1), Cooper (R), Elwood (-1), Heart of Juliet Jones (-2), Henry (0), Perky & Beanz (R), Sydney (R)

5

 Dondi (-3), Flintstones (-1), Hocus Focus (0), Miss Peach (-3), Muppets (-2), Pavlov (0), Ripley’s Believe It or Not (-1), Wright Angels (+1)

4

 Arnold, Belvedere, Bizarro, Boner’s Ark, Caldwell, Captain Vincible, Conrad, Ferd’nand, Laff-A-Day, Moose Miller, Off the Leash, Our Fascinating Earth, Ponytail, Quigmans, Scamp, Smith Family, Winnie Winkle

3

 Amy, Betty Boop & Felix, Charlie, Downstown, Flash Gordon, Graffiti, Inside Out, A Little Leary, Outcasts, Trudy, Winnie the Pooh

2

 Ben Wicks, Bringing Up Father, Cheeverwood, Eb & Flo, Good News Bad News, McGonigle of the Chronicle, Mickey Mouse, Middle Ages, Moon Mullins, Nubbin, Peter Principle, Popeye, Rivets, Sam and Silo, Tyler Two

1

 According To Guinness, Brick Bradford, Brother Juniper, Ching Chow, Clout Street, Executive Suite, Eyebeam, Furtree High, Gumdrop, In The Bleachers, Laffbreak, Laugh Time. Luther, Modesty Blaise, Mr, Abernathy, Play Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus, Pot-Shots, Quincy, Salt Chuck, Secret Agent Corrigan, Sidelines, Stan Smith Tennis Class, Sylvia, Trim’s Arena, Tundra, Vidlots, Winston, Word A Day

 

Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]