Saturday, February 27, 2021

 

Herriman Saturday

 

January 9 1910 -- Boxer Jim Jeffries is touring the country, putting on theatrical shows of fisticuffs for the throngs of fight fans who want to get a glimpse of him before he goes up against Jack Johnson in July. Herriman speaks for his fellow Angelinos who pine for the return of their local hero.

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Friday, February 26, 2021

 

Obscurity of the Day: Gimpey

 


Here's one of those kid strips from the 1900s that number in the hundreds. This kid is named Gimpey, and if he's not careful he's going to lose his star status to this Judge Sobersides joker who is horning in on the fun. 

Gimpey ran as an occasional feature of the Boston Globe Sunday comics sections from March 5 1905 to February 4 1906*. The strips are signed Williams, and I have long believed that they are by O.P. Williams; the art style is right, and he was in Boston, where he would later cartoon for the Herald and the Traveler. Oddly, though, Alex Jay didn't seem to find any mentions of his being at the Globe for his Ink-Slinger Profile. I'm sticking with the ID, though, until proven wrong.


* Boston Globe index by Dave Strickler.

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Hello Allan-
I've very seldom come across Boston Globe material syndicated to other papers. When I have, it's just about always Billy the boy Artist. A sure way of identifying early syndicates is the type font, which almost always used by the client as offered by the syndicate. The font used here is rather distinctive, so I'm guessing that would be a sure indicator of a Globe strip if there have been other instances.
If Williams set out to do a knockoff of "Jimmy the Messenger Boy", He improved on it.
 
Hi Mark --
Just to be clear, there's no question about it being a Boston Globe feature. That is definite. What I was questioning is my ID of "Williams" as O.P. Williams, who is not definitely known to have worked at the Globe.

--Allan
 
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Wednesday, February 24, 2021

 

Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1982 -- Rankings

Between 1981 and 1982 we lost information on 3 papers, but 3 papers returned which makes us even. The total is still 286 papers. All the 3 papers lost did not have online information for January 1982 or even the last day of 1981. They were Battle Creek Enquirer (MI), Daily News (Huntingdon, PA) and Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA). All these three papers will be back for the 1983 results. The three papers that have returned are the Courier (Waterloo, IA), Del Rio News Herald (TX) and Globe-Gazette (Mason City, IA).

Four strips entered (or re-entered) the top 30 this year: one new strip (The Muppets), For Better or For Worse, Herman and Gasoline Alley, which squeaked in despite not gaining any papers. Three strips dropped out; Berry’s World, Bugs Bunny and Steve Canyon. Garfield made the biggest movement, up 11 spots to crack the Top 10. The top 14 strips all gained papers. The Top 8 stayed in the same spots but next year there will be lots of movement,  because Doonesbury starts its 22-month sabbatical, which will make for quite a shake-up.

TOP 30

Title

Place

Rank Movement

+/- Papers

Total Papers

Peanuts

1

Same

+1

202

Blondie

2

Same

+1

192

Beetle Bailey

3

Same

+3

177

Doonesbury

4

Same

+4

123

Hagar the Horrible

5

Same

+7

119

Wizard of Id

6

Same

+5

104

Andy Capp

7

Same

+4

101

B.C.

8

Same

+3

97

Family Circus

9

Up 1

+6

91

Frank & Ernest

10

Down 1

+2

90

Garfield

10

Up 11

+41

90

Hi & Lois

12

Same

+3

83

Born Loser

13

Down 2

+1

82

Dennis the Menace

14

Down 1

+2

81

Mary Worth

15

Down 1

-3

75

Shoe

16

Same

+5

73

Muppets

17

Debut

 

70

Barney Google and Sn

18

Down 3

-1

69

Rex Morgan

19

Down 1

-2

55

Nancy

20

Down 3

-7

52

Amazing Spider-Man

21

Down 2

-5

51

For Better or For Worse

21

Entering

+8

51

Marmaduke

21

Down 1

-2

51

Herman

24

Entering

+10

50

Winthrop

25

Down 2

+2

49

Eek and Meek

26

Down 5

-3

46

Alley Oop

27

Down 4

-2

45

Archie

28

Down 5

-4

43

Dick Tracy

28

Down 5

-4

43

Gasoline Alley

28

Entering top 30

0

43

Priscilla’s Pop

28

Up 2

-2

43

 

 Here are the rest of the features, ranked by number of papers.

# of Papers

Feature (paper gain or loss)

42

Heathcliff (+2)

41

Tank McNamara (-3)

40

Funky Winkerbean (-3)

39

Berry’s World (-7)

38

Bugs Bunny (-8)

36

Judge Parker (-6)

35

Tumbleweeds (-5), Ziggy (+7)

34

Tiger (-6)

33

Cathy (+4), Short Ribs (-6), Steve Canyon (-14)

32

Buz Sawyer (-3)

30

Captain Easy (-1)

27

Our Boarding House (-4)

25

Phantom (-1)

24

Apartment 3-G (-4)

23

Crock (+1)

22

Broom Hilda (-2), Kit ‘N’ Carlyle (-2), Lockhorns (-1), Mark Trail (-2), Redeye (-5), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-1)

21

Goosemyer (-5), They’ll Do It Every Time (-7)

19

Latigo (-2)

18

Levy’s Law (+1)

17

Kudzu (R)

16

Donald Duck (-6), Dunagin’s People (-2), Fred Basset (0), Hazel (0)

15

Bloom County (+9), Momma (-2), Ryatts (0)

14

Grin and Bear It (-6), Kerry Drake (-4), Rip Kirby (0), Small Society (-11)

13

Heart of Juliet Jones (-5), Mr. Tweedy (0), Star Wars (-16), Winnie the Pooh (-9)

12

Better Half (+1), Duffy (R), Gil Thorp (+1), Little Orphan Annie (+1)

11

Dallas (R), Far Side (+6), John Darling (-6), Motley’s Crew (0)

10

Fletcher’s Landing (0), Joe Palooka (0), Miss Peach (-4)

9

Agatha Crumm (-5), Brenda Starr (-1), Dondi (0), Graffiti (-1), Henry (-3), Le Grand Chef (R)

8

Catfish (-1), Love Is (-2), Pavlov (+1)

7

Animal Crackers (-1), Drabble (0), Ferd’nand (-2), Laff-A-Day (0), Moose Miller (-1), Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (0), Sam and Silo (-3), There Oughta Be A Law (0), Willy ‘N’ Ethal (R), Winnie Winkle (-2)

 6

Barbara Cartland’s Romance (0), Ben Swift, Retired (R), Ben Wicks (+2), Charmers (-2), Flash Gordon (0), Flintstones (-5), Gordo (-1), Guindon (+3), Hocus-Focus (+1), Lolly (+1), Nubbin (0), Trim’s Arena (+2), Wee Pals (-1)

5

A Little Leary (+1), Boner’s Ark (0), Citizen Smith (0), Girls (-3), Lone Ranger (R), Rafferty (+4), Scamp (0), Smithereens (+3), Smith Family (0), Star Trek (-4), Superheroes (-8), Wingtips (R)

4

Amy, Belvedere, Big George, Eb & Flo, Incredible Hulk, It’s Just A Game, Moon Mullins, Mr. Abernathy, Mutt and Jeff, Neighborhood, Our Fascinating Earth, Outcasts, Ponytail, Quincy, Scoops, Trudy

3

According to Guinness, Benji, Bringing Up Father, Buck Rogers, Carmichael, Charlie, Downstown, Eggheads, Graves Inc, Health Capsules, Johnny Wonder, Mickey Mouse, Playing Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Rivets, Sporting Life, Strictly Business, Travels With Farley, Word-A-Day, Wright Angles

2

Brother Juniper, Dr. Smock, Father’s Day, Flop Family, Gumdrop, Hang in There!, Hubert, Inside Woody Allen, Laugh Time, Mandrake the Magician, No Comment, Popeye, Pot Shots, Selling Short, Simpkins, Time Out

1

Adam’s Apple, As You Were, Benchwarmer Sports Trivia, Bernie, Brick Bradford, Ching Chow, Country Parson, Dr. Kildare, Figments, Funny Business, Hello Carol, Idea Chaser, Laffbreak, Little Woman, Lookin’ Fine, Luther, Mark Trail’s Outdoor Tips, Men and Women, Miles to Go, Modesty Blaise, Murphy’s Law, My Grandma, Norbert, Prime Time, Salt Chuck, Secret Agent Corrigan, Sonny Pew, Stan Smith’s Tennis Class, This Funny World, Vidiots, Word Play

 As always, if you would like the complete listings for the year (showing each title and which papers ran it) in a Word file, just send Allan an email with your request.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021

 

Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1982 - Biggest Winners and Losers

As with the previous year, Garfield continues its rise to becoming one of the most successful strips of all time. From January 1980 to January 1981 Garfield gained 28 papers to reach a total 49 papers, which is the highest gain which we have seen so far. Now from January 1981 to January 1982 Garfield shattered its own record with an additional 41 papers!

No other feature would come near that; the next highest was Herman with a gain of 10 papers. Newer strips like Bloom County, For Better or For Worse, Bloom County, Shoe and Far Side all had nice increases. Here is the rundown:

The Biggest Gainers

  1. Garfield – 41
  2. Herman – 10
  3. Bloom County – 9
  4. For Better or For Worse – 8
  5. Hagar the Horrible, Ziggy – 7
  6. Family Circus, Far Side – 6
  7. Wizard of Id, Shoe – 5

The biggest losers are story strips, long-running strips and recent strips continuing their downward trend from last year. The biggest drop was again Star Wars which lost 21 papers in the previous survey. This year the strip lost 16 more papers making a 37 paper drop in the last two years. Steve Canyon who had been averaging a loss of 6 papers per year lost a new high of 14 papers during the past year.

The Biggest Losers

  1. Star Wars – 16
  2. Steve Canyon – 14
  3. Small Society – 11
  4. Winnie the Pooh – 9
  5. Bugs Bunny, Superheroes – 8
  6. Nancy, Berry’s World, They’ll Do It Every Time – 7
  7. Judge Parker, Tiger, Short Ribs, Donald Duck, Grin and Bear It, John Darling – 6
  8. Amazing Spider-Man, Tumbleweeds, Redeye, Goosemyer, Heart of Juliet Jones, Agatha Crumm, Flintstones, Incredible Hulk – 5

 Among the story strips, only Annie managed to buck the downward trend, gaining a single paper. The only other ‘gainer’ was Lone Ranger, which was a new strip. Here is the breakdown:

 

The total spots now given to story strips is 429, down from 510 which is a 16 percent drop from last year.

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Note: The section on story strip listing is about adventure strips only. Since we are in the return of adventure strip years (1977-1985). Soap style strips are not listed. There downward trend happen years later.
 
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Monday, February 22, 2021

 

Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The Three Hundred for 1982 - Rookie Features

This is now the fifth year we have covered and again we have lots of new features debuting;  the highest we have ever had since we started this journey. Our big rookie is The Muppets, which ended the year with 70 papers. As with the previous rookie winners this strip would only last a short time. In this case it would be five years. You can see why newspaper editors would have thought that this strip would bring in all types of readers from the young to the old. The Muppets had a successful TV series and a recent successful movie but could not hold the readers in a gag a day strip format.  

The remaining rookies for 1982 had some success and of course some that would disappear in the blink of the eye. Coming in second was a strip that could still be running today if the cartoonist Doug Marlette did not die in an automobile accident;  that would be Kudzu which debuted in 17 papers. Others that had good starts were Duffy with 12 and Dallas with 11. Willy ‘n Ethel is the only debut that is still running today, though it is now self-syndicated.

 Here are the top rookie strips:

  1. The Muppets (King Features) – 70
  2. Kudzu (Chicago Tribune – New York News Syndicate) – 17
  3. Duffy (Universal Press Syndicate) – 12
  4. Dallas (Los Angeles Times Syndicate) – 11
  5. Le Grand Chef (Chicago Tribune – New York News Syndicate) – 9
  6. Willy ‘N Ethel (Field Enterprise) – 7
  7. Ben Swift (United Feature Syndicate) – 6
  8. Lone Ranger (New York Times Special Features) – 5
  9. Wingtips (Universal Press Syndicate) – 5

 Other new strips that debuted in less than 5 papers – It’s Just a Game, Benji, Eggheads, Father’s Day, Adam’s Apple*, Miles to Go, Sonny Pew and Vidiots.

 Here is how the debuts since 1977 stand as of 1982:

  1. Garfield (United Features Syndicate) (1978) – 90
  2. Shoe (Chicago Tribune – New York News Syndicate) (1977) – 73
  3. The Muppets (King Features) (1981) – 70
  4. Amazing Spider-Man (Register and Tribune Syndicate) (1977) – 51
  5. For Better or For Worse (Universal Press Syndicate) (1979) – 51
  6. Kit ‘N’ Carlyle (NEA) (1980) - 22
* Adam's Apple debuted in 1980, but didn't make it onto the 300 until now

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