Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 For 1995 -- Rookies

 As we enter 1995 and 1996 we are going to have lots of empty slots for rookies to fill ... if they’re lucky. Two hugely popular features will end in 1995, Far Side on January 1 1995 and Calvin & Hobbes on December 31 1995. The syndicates will already have a new replacement for the dates January 3, 1995, and January 2, 1996. And since I look at the first week of the current year the immediate replacements will appear on this list. Of course, many papers will replace these features with proven strips, and those we can gauge on “Winners and Losers”,  tomorrow.

The biggest rookie of the year is a strip that was the long-awaited conservative answer to Doonesbury, Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley. Many papers would add the new strip to the editorial page, where it ran as a counterpoint to the liberal Doonesbury. The strip debuts on this survey with a whopping 24 papers, a big debut. Coming in second with 20 papers is Jack Ohman’s Mixed Media. The biggest panel debut came in third at 17 papers, the short-lived Chaos. Coming fourth with 8 papers is a strip that would eventually be seen as a modern classic, Mutts. Here is the complete breakdown:

Mallard Fillmore – 24
Mixed Media – 20
Chaos – 17
Mutts – 8
Committed – 6
Thatch – 6
Speed Bump – 6    
Crabby Road – 5 – Debut in the first week of 1995
Ralph – 5 – Debut in the first week of 1995    
Tight Corner – 2
Max’s World – 1 (local feature)
Moose Lake – 1
Smart Alex – 1
Tribune Toon – 1 (local feature)
Two Toes – 1