Monday, March 06, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1991 -- Rookies of 1990
Last year Creators Syndicate premiered the new version of the comic strip Batman, piggybacking on the successful movie series. That strip debuted in second place in our rookie survey from last year. Well, this year Creators tried again and this time they did even better, giving the syndicate its first rookie win. The strip was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with 26 papers. This is also the first time since 1979 that a story strip was the top rookie strip -- the last was Star Wars.
Syndicates and newspapers think that these sorts of strips will bring in more kids to reading newspapers. With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles they upped the ante by encouraging reader participation; first having the Sundays and later Saturday daily strips displaying reader submitted drawings of their favorite Turtles. This may have helped the strip a little bit, but it only lasted for six years before going into reruns, which lasted at least another 5 years.
Coming in second with 13 papers is When I Was Short, by Michael Fry and Guy Vasilovich and syndicated by King Features. This strip would only last 2 years. Fry would have greater success with the strip Over the Hedge which will start 5 years later.
Creators also takes the third spot with Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman’s Baby Blues, which debuts with 8 papers.
Here are the rest of the rookies from this year:
Suburban Cowgirls – 7
Horrorscope – 6
Overboard – 5
Pickles – 3
The Stanley Family – 3
Airwaves – 2
Alex's – 2
Phoebe’s Place – 2
Queen of the Universe – 2
Warp Factor – 2
Wit of The World – 2
Dad’s-Eye-View, Family Business, Jasper, Normal, Potluck, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Wild Life – 1
Let’s take a look at the top five strips of 1991 that debuted in past decades:
Before 1950:
Blondie (1930) – 217
Mary Worth (1934) – 57
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (1919) - 51
Rex Morgan (1948) – 46
Gasoline Alley (1918) – 39
1950s:
Peanuts (1950) – 218
Beetle Bailey (1950) – 189
B.C. (1958) – 108
Hi and Lois (1954) - 107
Dennis the Menace (1951) – 86
1960s:
Family Circus (1960) – 144
Wizard of Id (1964) – 124
Born Loser (1965) – 95
Winthrop (1966) - 39
Eek and Meek (1965) – 32
1970s:
Garfield (1978) – 211
Far Side (1979) – 176
Hagar the Horrible (1973) – 167
Doonesbury (1970) – 149
For Better or For Worse (1979) - 137
1980s:
Calvin and Hobbes (1985) – 198
Mother Goose and Grimm (1984) - 56
Sally Forth (1982) – 48
Marvin (1982) – 43
Arlo and Janis (1985) - 41
Interesting that over thirty years later, only four of these top 5 features have ended (not counting those in reruns)!
Labels: Paper Trends
