Stripper's Guide

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.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

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.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 2 comments

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

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

 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.

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

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:

• Amazing Spider-Man – 51 (-5)
• Alley Oop – 45 (-2)
• Dick Tracy – 43 (-4)
• Steve Canyon – 33 (-14)
• Buz Sawyer – 32 (-3)
• Captain Easy – 30 (-1)
• Phantom – 25 (-1)
• Mark Trail – 22 (-2)
• Steve Roper and Mike Nomad – 22 (-1)
• Latigo – 19 (-2)
• Kerry Drake – 14 (-4)
• Rip Kirby – 14 (0)
• Star Wars – 13 (-16)
• Little Orphan Annie – 12 (+1)
• Joe Palooka – 10 (0)
• Brenda Starr – 9 (-1)
• Flash Gordon – 6 (0)
• Lone Ranger – 5 (+5) – New Strip
• Star Trek – 5 (-4)
• World's Greatest Superheroes – 5 (-8)
• Incredible Hulk – 4 (-5)
• Buck Rogers – 3 (-2)
• Mandrake the Magician – 2 (0)
• Popeye – 2 (0)
• Brick Bradford – 1 (0)
• Modesty Blaise – 1 (-1)
• Secret Agent Corrigan – 1 (0)
• Conan the Barbarian cancelled, had 6 papers
• Rick O’ Shay cancelled, had 4 papers
• Star Hawks cancelled, had 1 paper

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

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 1 comments

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
   

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 7:00 AM 0 comments