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