Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1987 -- Overall Results

 For the year 1987 we lost one paper, the Dayton Journal Herald, that printed its last edition in 1986. 10 other papers have missing information, so for this survey we are covering 274 papers. 

In the Top 30 we have one new strip; Funky Winkerbean knocked out Berry’s World, mainly because the latter lost a whopping eleven papers. The biggest movers in the Top 30 were Far Side which moved up 6 spots from 19 to 13, passing Dennis the Menace to become the 2nd most popular panel feature. Bloom County moved up 5 spots to enter the Top 10 in 8th place. The 100 Paper Club added three new members: Bloom County, Far Side and For Better or For Worse; that makes the total now 15. Also, with Garfield adding 5 more papers this year it has become the 3rd strip to have 200 or more papers. 

Here is the Top 30:
 

Title	Place	Movement in Top 30	Up/Down # Papers	Total Papers
Peanuts	1	Same	-2	212
Blondie	2	Same	4	207
Garfield	3	Same	5	202
Beetle Bailey	4	Same	5	194
Hagar The Horrible	5	Same	4	153
Doonesbury	6	Same	-2	144
Family Circus	7	Same	2	131
Bloom County	8	Up 5	20	118
Wizard of Id	9	Down 1	-1	116
Shoe	10	Down 1	5	113
B.C.	11	Down 2	2	110
Hi and Lois	12	Down 1	2	107
Far Side	13	Up 6	30	106
Frank and Ernest	14	Down 2	-1	103
For Better or For Worse	15	Same	13	101
Andy Capp	16	Down 2	-3	89
Born Loser	17	Down 1	1	88
Dennis the Menace	18	Down 1	0	86
Cathy	19	Down 1	7	84
Mary Worth	20	Same	-2	66
Marmaduke	21	Up 1	6	64
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith	22	Down 1	-5	61
Herman	23	Same	3	57
Ziggy	24	Up 1	4	55
Rex Morgan	25	Down 1	-3	50
Gasoline Alley	26	Up 2	1	47
Marvin	27	Down 1	-4	46
Winthrop	28	Up 1	0	45
Tank McNamara	29	Down 2	-3	44
Funky Winkerbean	30	Entering	1	40

 

The popularity of the universal comic section continues to grow. Here is the breakdown:

Top 2 Strips – 175 (Up 4)
Top 3 Strips – 150 (Up 7)
Top 4 Strips – 124 (Up 3)
Top 5 Strips – 83 (Up 5)
Top 6 Strips – 57 (Up 6)
Top 7 Strips – 37 (Up 6)
Top 8 Strips – 29 (Up 9)
Top 9 Strips – 21 (Up 10)
Top 10 Strips – 14 (Up 5)
Top 11 Strips – 11 (Up 5)
Top 12 Strips – 8 (Up 7)
Top 13 Strips – 5 (Up 4)
Top 14 Strips – 0 (Same)

The five papers that had the Top 13 strips were the Dayton Daily News (OH), Hartford Courant (CT), Press and Sun Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), St. Louis Post Dispatch (MO) and Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN). All these papers did not run the 14th strip, Frank and Ernest. Tie breaker time for determining the closest to a universal comics page:  

* The Hartford Courant did not have the #15 strip, For Better or For Worse, but did have #16
* All remaining papers had strip 16 but none had strip 17 which was another NEA strip The Born Loser
* The Press and Sun Bulletin (Binghamton, NY) did not have strip 18 Dennis the Menace
* The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) did not have strip 20 Mary Worth
* The St. Louis Post Dispatch (MO) did not have strip 22 Barney Google and Snuffy Smith

The winner of the Universal comic section for 1986 is the Dayton Daily News if we add the remaining 7 strips they used from the Top 30. The paper had 26 out of the Top 30 strips out of a total of 40 daily strips that ran on their comics page.

Here are the rankings of remaining strips that appeared in the Top 300 papers, in order by number of papers in which they appeared:

39 – Alley Oop (-1), Eek and Meek (-1)

38 – Mother Goose and Grimm (+1)

37 – Heathcliff (-4)

34 – Berry’s World (-11), Bugs Bunny (0), Calvin and Hobbes (+20)

33 – Lockhorns (+1)

32 – Amazing Spider-Man (0), U.S. Acres (R)

31 – Judge Parker (+1), Nancy (-3)

30 – Arlo and Janis (+2), Dick Tracy (-2)

28 – Tiger (0)

25 – Phantom (+1)

24 – Geech (+1), Tumbleweeds (-3)

22 – Apartment 3-G (0), Kit N Carlyle (+1)

21 – Gummi Bears (R)

20 – Archie (-2), Steve Canyon (-1)

19 – Broom Hilda (-1)

18 – Mark Trail (-2)

17 – Captain Easy (-1), Luann (+2), Snake Tales (-7),

16 – Buz Sawyer (-6), Crock (-1), Snafu (R)

14 – On The Fastrack (-6), Redeye (-2), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (0)

13 – Fred Basset (0), Hazel (-1), That’s Jake (-1)

12 – Gil Thorp (0), Kuduz (+1), Neighborhood (+5), They’ll Do It Every Time (-5)

11 – Francie (R), Momma (0)

10 – Adam (0), Donald Duck (-2), Drabble (0), Little Orphan Annie (+1), Mr. Tweedy (+1), Rose is Rose (+3)

9 – Brenda Starr (-1), Motley’s Crew (-2), Mr. Boffo (R), Pop’s Place (R), Small Society (-3), Willy N Ethel (+2)

8 – Animal Crackers (0), Grin and Bear It (-1), Hartland (-3), Heart of Juliet Jones (+2), Love Is (-1), Mr. Men and Little Miss (-1), Out of Bounds (R), Ryatts (-1), Sherman on the Mount (R)

7 – Graffiti (+4), In The Bleachers (+6), Robotman (-4)

6 – Better Half (-1), Elwood (0), John Darling (-2), Middletons (R), Pavlov (+1), Perky & Beanz (0), Zippy (+4)

5 – Agatha Crumm (-2), Bizarro (+1), Boomers Song (R), Catfish (-1), Flintstones (0), Henry (-1), Hocus-Focus (0), Laff-A-Day (+1), Moose Miller (+1), Rip Kirby (-4)

4 – Arnold, Boner’s Ark, Charlie, Duffy, Flash Gordon, Girls, Miss Peach, Outcasts, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Smith Family, Trudy, Winnie Winkle

3 – A Little Leary, Amy, Belvedere, Ben Wicks, Caldwell, Cobwebs, Inside Out, Our Fascinating Earth, Ponytail, Quigmans, Scamp, Sniglets, Sylvia

2 – Bringing Up Father, Captain Vincible, Dollars and Nonsense, Eb & Flo, Ferd’nand, Goblin, Lug Nuts, Mickey Mouse, Moon Mullins, Off the Leash, Orbit, Popeye, Sam & Silo, Winnie the Pooh

1 – Betty Boop and Felix, Brick Bradford, Brother Juniper, Cheeverwood, Ching Chow, Clout Street, Ellie, Eyebeam, Furtree High, Good News Bad News, Gumdrop, Guindon, Health Capsules, Kaleb, King Tot, Laffbreak, Local Item, Mark Trail’s Outdoor Tips, Modesty Blaise, Mr. Abernathy, Nubbin, Playing Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Pot-Shots, Rivets, Salt Chuck, Sidelines, Stan Smith’s Tennis Class, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Vidiots, Word-A-Day