Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1988 -- Overall Results

 For the 1988 survey we had two papers that printed their last editions (Springfield Leader and Press (MO) and News (Paterson, NJ)) also we had 5 papers missing their information for this month so for this survey we had 273 papers.

In the Top 30 strips this year we had 31 because the 30th position was a tie. Two strips enter the Top 30, one new and one returning after dropping out. Calvin & Hobbes is our new entry and Berry’s World is the returning strip. The strip that fell out of the Top 30 was Funky Winkerbean.

The biggest movement was the Far Side which gained 5 places, going from 13 to 8. Andy Capp makes the biggest drop, losing three spots and going from 16 to 19.

Garfield gained 4 papers and now is one strip away from knocking Blondie out of the 2nd spot. No new strips entered the 100-paper club keeping its membership at 15, but a few strips are getting closer to that magic number. Cathy and Born Loser continue their small gain and if Calvin & Hobbes continues its big gain, it should join the 100-club next year.

Here are the Top 30 strips:

Title	Place	Rank	Papers +/-	Total Papers
Peanuts	1	Same	4	216
Blondie	2	Same	0	207
Garfield	3	Same	4	206
Beetle Bailey	4	Same	-2	192
Hagar the Horrible	5	Same	2	155
Doonesbury	6	Same	2	146
Family Circus	7	Same	8	139
Far Side	8	Up 5	27	133
Bloom County	9	Down 1	9	127
Wizard of Id	10	Down 1	8	124
Shoe	11	Down 1	4	117
B.C.	12	Down 1	1	111
Frank and Ernest	13	Up 1	7	110
Hi and Lois	14	Down 2	-1	106
For Better or For Worse	15	Same	3	104
Born Loser	16	Up 1	6	94
Cathy	17	Up 2	4	88
Dennis the Menace	18	Same	1	87
Andy Capp	19	Down 3	-3	86
Calvin and Hobbes	20	Entering	48	82
Marmaduke	21	Same	2	66
Mary Worth	22	Down 2	-3	63
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith	23	Down 1	-2	59
Herman	24	Down 1	-3	54
Ziggy	25	Down 1	-2	53
Rex Morgan	26	Down 1	0	50
Marvin	27	Same	2	48
Gasoline Alley	28	Down 2	-2	45
Winthorp	29	Down 1	-3	42
Berry's World	30	Entering	7	41
Tank McNamara	30	Down 1	-3	41

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

Top 2 – 178 (Up 3)
Top 3 – 156 (Up 6)    
Top 4 -     131 (Up 7)
Top 5 – 85 (Up 2)    
Top 6 – 57 (0)    
Top 7 – 37 (0)    
Top 8 – 33 (Up 4)
Top 9 – 27 (Up 6)    
Top 10 – 18 (Up 4)
Top 11 – 13 (Up 2)
Top 12 – 10 (Up 2)
Top 13 – 2 (Down 3)
Top 14 – 1 (Up 1)
Top 15 – 1 (Up 1)

The Tampa Tribune takes back its crown of the most universal comic section with every one of the top 15 strips.

Here are the remaining strips that appeared in the Top 300 papers, ranked by newspaper count and increase/decrease:

40 – Funky Winkerbean (0), Mother Goose and Grimm (+2)

36 – Alley Oop (-3), Heathcliff (-1), Sally Forth (+3)

34 – Eek and Meek (-5)

33 – Lockhorns (0)

32 – Judge Parker (+1)

31 – Arlo and Janis (+1)

29 – Bugs Bunny (-5), Nancy (-2)

27 – Amazing Spider-Man (-5)

24 – Apartment 3-G (+2), Tiger (-4)

23 – Dick Tracy (-7), Geech (-1), Phantom (-2)

22 – Grizzwells (R), Kit N Carlyle (0)

21 – Tumbleweeds (-3)

18 – Broom Hilda (-1), Mark Trail (0)

17 – Captain Easy (0), Luann (0), Snafu (+1)

16 – Archie (-4), U.S. Acres (-16)

14 – Buz Sawyer (-2), Rose is Rose (+4), Steve Canyon (-6), What A Guy (R)

13 – Fred Basset (0), In The Bleachers (+6), Kudzu (+1), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-1)

11 – Brenda Starr (+2), Crock (-5), Drabble (+1), Dunagin’s People (-3), Gil Thorp (-1), Mr. Boffo (+2), On The Fastrack (-3), Redeye (-3), Small Society (+2), They’ll Do It Every Time (-1)

10 – Adam (0), Donald Duck (0), Gummi Bears (-11), Hazel (-3), Little Orphan Annie (0), Middletons (+4), Momma (-1), Mr. Tweedy (0), That’s Jake (-3), Zippy (+4)

9 – Willy N’ Ethel (0)

8 – Animal Crackers (0), Francie (-3), Grin and Bear It (0), Motley’s Crew (-1), Mr. Men and Little Miss (0)

7 – Bizarro (+2), Neighborhood (-5), Our Fascinating Earth (+4), Robotman (0), Ryatts (-1)

6 – Crankshaft (R), Gamin & Patches (R), Graffiti (-1), Heart of Juliet Jones (-2), Pavlov (0), Pop’s Place (-3)

5 – Better Half (-1), Elwood (-1), Hocus Focus (0), Love Is (-3), Outcasts (+1), Sylvia (+2)

4 – Belvedere, Caldwell, Flash Gordon, Flintstones, Girls, Hartland, Henry, Laff-A-Day, Love Handles, Miss Peach, Moose Miller, Out of Bounds, Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Rip Kirby, Sherman on the Mount, Tales of Hans Christian Anderson, Trudy

3 – Agatha Crumm, Amy, Arnold, Boomers’ Song, Briefcase, Catfish, Charlie, Ferd’Nand, John Darling, Professor Doodles, Quigmans, Scamp, Single Slices, Smith Family, Sniglets, Winnie Winkle, Wright Angles

2 – A Little Leary, Ben Wicks, Boner’s Ark, Bringing Up Father, Captain Vincible, Dollars and Nonsense, Duffy, Inside Out, Mickey Mouse, Off The Leash, Popeye, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Winnie the Pooh

1 – Better Tennis with Stan Smith, Betty Boop and Felix, Brother Juniper, Ching Chow, Eyebeam, Furtree High, Good News Bad News, Guindon, Guinness Factflle, Gumdrop, Iota, Kaleb, Laffbreak, Modesty Blaise, Mr. Abernathy, Ponytail, Rivets, Sadle, Sam and Silo, Salt Chuck, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Wild Life, Wordplay, Yecch Is

As always, you can get a complete list of features and the specific newspapers in which they appeared, just shoot an email request to strippersguide@gmail.com.