Wednesday, November 08, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1997: Overall Results
In 1996 we lost only one paper, the Muncie Evening Press (IN) which ended on May 18, 1996. It merged with the Star Press which is also on this survey. We also had a paper that was missing information last year come back, so the number of papers stays at 255 for this survey.
Big news this years is that it finally happened -- Garfield has taken over the number #1 spot by adding just one more paper to its total. Not much other movement in the Top 30. Dilbert added 37 papers but only moved up one spot from 11 to enter the Top 10. Andy Capp has fallen out of the Top 30 and Crankshaft and Rex Morgan enter or reenter the Top 30.
|
Title |
Rank |
Rank Change +/- |
Papers +/- |
Total Papers |
|
Garfield |
1 |
Same |
1 |
221 |
|
Peanuts |
2 |
Down 1 |
-1 |
219 |
|
Blondie |
3 |
Same |
1 |
206 |
|
For Better or For Worse |
4 |
Same |
6 |
203 |
|
Beetle Bailey |
5 |
Same |
2 |
179 |
|
Hagar The Horrible |
6 |
Same |
1 |
156 |
|
Cathy |
7 |
Same |
-2 |
152 |
|
Family Circus |
8 |
Same |
3 |
151 |
|
Doonsbury |
9 |
Same |
1 |
145 |
|
Dilbert |
10 |
Up 1 |
32 |
137 |
|
B.C. |
11 |
Same |
0 |
105 |
|
Hi and Lois |
12 |
Up 1 |
3 |
104 |
|
Wizard of Id |
12 |
Down 2 |
-2 |
104 |
|
Frank and Ernest |
14 |
Same |
3 |
101 |
|
Fox Trot |
15 |
Same |
4 |
95 |
|
Born Loser |
16 |
Same |
0 |
88 |
|
Shoe |
17 |
Same |
-4 |
83 |
|
Dennis The Menace |
18 |
Same |
1 |
81 |
|
Marmaduke |
19 |
Same |
-1 |
62 |
|
Sally Forth |
20 |
Up 1 |
4 |
61 |
|
Mother Goose and Grimm |
21 |
Down 1 |
0 |
60 |
|
Ziggy |
22 |
Same |
1 |
55 |
|
Close To Home |
23 |
Down 1 |
-2 |
52 |
|
Non Sequitur |
24 |
Up 1 |
5 |
51 |
|
Mallard Fillmore |
25 |
Down 1 |
-2 |
47 |
|
Mary Worth |
26 |
Same |
-1 |
42 |
|
Baby Blues |
27 |
Same |
2 |
41 |
|
Arlo and Janis |
28 |
Down 1 |
2 |
39 |
|
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith |
29 |
Down 2 |
-1 |
38 |
|
Crankshaft |
30 |
Entering |
2 |
37 |
|
Rex Morgan |
30 |
Entering |
1 |
37 |
E&P Survey vs. Stripper's Guide The 300 Survey
The surveys I did for Editor & Publisher were of the top 100 papers in the US, by circulation. There’s an important difference in the criteria for that poll compared to The 300 – in the E&P survey strips got ranked with Sunday papers included; in other words if a given daily or Sunday paper ran Peanuts, that paper got counted. This allowed Sunday-only strips and strips with more popular Sundays than dailies, to get in the running. The 300 poll covers daily features only.
Continuing our comparison of the Editor & Publisher Top 100 Circulated Papers and the papers in this survey, we have some interesting differences. In my 1997 E&P article, four strips that appear on the Strippers Guide Top 25 do not appear on the E&P Survey. Three of them can be explained because of the papers in different surveys. Born Loser and Frank and Ernest are two strips from the NEA syndicate package. NEA clients are mainly small town papers so more of them are in The 300 survey. Also, the same could be true for Mallard Fillmore; small town papers tend to have a more conservative political outlook compared to big cities and their high-circulation papers. Lastly, Prince Valiant is not on The 300 survey since it is a Sunday only strip.
|
Title |
Top 300 Ranking |
Top 300 # Papers |
E&P Ranking |
E&P # Papers |
|
Garfield |
1 |
221 |
1 |
92 |
|
Peanuts |
2 |
219 |
3 |
88 |
|
Blondie |
3 |
206 |
5 |
87 |
|
For Better or For Worse |
4 |
203 |
2 |
90 |
|
Beetle Bailey |
5 |
179 |
10 |
75 |
|
Hagar The Horrible |
6 |
156 |
9 |
83 |
|
Cathy |
7 |
152 |
6 |
86 |
|
Family Circus |
8 |
151 |
8 |
84 |
|
Doonesbury |
9 |
145 |
7 |
85 |
|
Dilbert |
10 |
137 |
4 |
88 |
|
B.C. |
11 |
105 |
13 |
69 |
|
Hi and Lois |
12 |
104 |
19 |
56 |
|
Wizard of Id |
12 |
104 |
12 |
73 |
|
Frank and Ernest |
14 |
101 |
Not in Top 25 |
|
|
Fox Trot |
15 |
95 |
18 |
58 |
|
Born Loser |
16 |
88 |
Not in Top 25 |
|
|
Shoe |
17 |
83 |
14 |
66 |
|
Dennis The Menace |
18 |
81 |
11 |
75 |
|
Marmaduke |
19 |
62 |
15 |
66 |
|
Sally Forth |
20 |
61 |
16 |
61 |
|
Mother Goose and Grimm |
21 |
60 |
17 |
59 |
|
Ziggy |
22 |
55 |
20 |
55 |
|
Close To Home |
23 |
52 |
Not in Top 25 |
|
|
Non Sequitur |
24 |
51 |
21 |
51 |
|
Mallard Fillmore |
25 |
47 |
Not in Top 25 |
|
|
Baby Blues |
29 |
41 |
22 |
49 |
|
Prince Valiant |
No Daily Version |
No Daily Version |
23 |
48 |
|
Jump Start |
37 |
31 |
24 |
43 |
|
Mary Worth |
28 |
42 |
25 |
42 |
Other strips mentioned in the E&P article:
|
I Need Help |
94 Tie |
8 |
99 |
9 |
|
Tommy |
63 Tie |
13 |
64 |
16 |
|
Buckles |
84 Tie |
10 |
97 |
9 |
|
Curtis |
41 |
26 |
26 |
41 |
|
Andy Capp |
33 |
34 |
28 |
37 |
|
Over The Hedge |
63 Tie |
13 |
53 |
20 |
|
Us and Them |
94 Tie |
8 |
92 |
9 |
Universal Comics Page
Over the past 80 years when you picked up a paper from another town or city in most cases you would read some of the strips that appeared in your local paper but mostly you would see strips that you have never seen before. By the 1980s, with the slow demise of newspapers beginning and fewer papers around to compete for features, more papers had the opportunity to buy strips that were not available to them before. This could lead to more variety from one paper to another, but instead, the editors of these papers would do the opposite and just pick the most popular strips. As this way of filling a comics page became more and more prevalent, you would now see many of the same comics in every paper.The Universal Comic Section is a measure of how many papers run the most popular strips.
Very little change in the Universal comic section this year and the Colorado Spring Gazette still has the most universal comic section running the Top 26 strips in their newspaper.
Top 2 – 204 (Same)
Top 3 – 176 (Up 2)
Top 4 – 152 (Up 3)
Top 5 – 124 (Up 2)
Top 6 – 91 (Down 1)
Top 7 – 75 (Down 1)
Top 8 – 59 (Up 1)
Top 9 – 47 (Up 1)
Top 10 – 36 (Up 6)
Top 11 – 22 (Down 1)
Top 12 – 15 (Up 3)
Top 13 – 9 – (Down 1)
Top 14 – 3 (Up 1)
Top 15 – 3 (Up 2)
Top 16 – 2 (Up 1)
Top 17 – 2 (Up 1)
Top 18 – 1 (Same)
Top 19 – 1 (Same)
Top 20 – 1 (Same
Top 21 – 1 (Same)
Top 22 – 1 (Same)
Top 23 – 1 (Same)
Top 24 – 1 (Same)
Top 25 – 1 (Same
Top 26 – 1 (Same)
The average number of comics per paper moves up just a bit to 17.59 from 17.33.
Here are the remaining results of the 1997 survey:
35 – Rose is Rose (+3)
34 – Andy Capp (-4)
33 – Funky Winkerbean (-1)
31 – Jump Start (+4)
30 – Alley Oop (-1), Lockhorns (-1)
28 – Rubes (0)
27 – In The Bleachers (+2), Marvin (-1)
26 – Curtis (-1), Luann (-1)
25 – Grizzwells (0)
23 – Mutts (+2), Real Life Adventures (-2)
22 – Gasoline Alley (-3), Kit N Carlyle (-1)
20 – Bizarro (0), Eek and Meek (0), Geech (-2)
19 – Judge Parker (-1), Pickles (+5)
18 – Berry World (-1), One Big Happy (0)
17 – Heathcliff (-1), Overboard (-1), Tank McNamara (-5)
16 – Beattie Blvd (-1), Farcus (-1), Robotman (0)
15 – Fred Basset (0)
14 – Adam (+1)
13 – Drabble (0), Ernie (-3), Mixed Media (-2), Nancy (-2), Over The Hedge (-3), Pluggers (-1), Sylvia (-2), Tommy (R)
12 – Amazing Spider-Man (-1), Mark Trail (0), Phantom (+1), Rhymes With Orange (+2), Stone Soup (+4), Tiger (-1)
11 – Betty (0), Big Nate (0), Dave (0), Ghost Story Club (+6), Mr. Boffo (0)
10 – Apartment 3-G (-1), Bound & Gagged (-1), Buckles (R), Speed Bump (+1)
9 – Crabby Road (0), Dick Tracy (-1), Herb and Jamaal (0), Middletons (0), Sherman’s Lagoon (+1), Zippy (0)
8 – Archie (+1), Buckets (0), Dunagin’s People (-1), Duplex (+1), Gil Thorp (0), Hocus-Focus (0), I Need Help (R), Kuduz (0), Us & Them (-3)
7 – Brenda Starr (-1), Fusco Brothers (0), Ralph (0), Thatch (0), They’ll Do It Every Time (0)
6 – Against The Grain (R), Chaos (-2), Grin and Bear It (0), Momma (0), Norm (R), Off The Mark (+3)
5 – Committed (0), Motley’s Crew (0), Safe Havens (-1), That’s Jake (0), Tumbleweeds (-1)
4 – Ballard Street, Bottom Liners, Broom Hilda, Citizen Dog, Comic For Kids, Crock, Donald Duck, Horrorscope, 9 Chickweed Lane, Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Terry and The Pirates, Willy N Ethel
3 – Bent Offering, Better Half, On The Fastrack, Quigmans, Reality Check, Ripley’s Believe It or Not
2 – Animal Crackers, At The Zu, Between Friends, Chubb & Chauncey, Cornered, Culture Shock, Frumpy The Clown, Little Orphan Annie, Mickey Mouse, New Breed, Our Fascinating Earth, Redeye, Rip Kirby, Second Chances, Swan Factory, Tundra, Two Toes, Walnut Cove
1 – Belvedere, Ben, Bent Halos, Best Years, Bliss, Family Business, Flintstones, Good Life, Hazel, Health Capsules, Ick, J.D. Comics, Laffbreak, Love Is, Lumpy Gravy, Meet Mr. Lucky, Modesty Blaise, Moose Miller, Out of Bounds, PC and Pixel, Penmen, Quality Time, Rural Rootz, Small Society, Suburban Cowgirls, Tarzan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tight Corner, Trudy, Twins, Wild Life, Wit of The World, Word for Word
Labels: Paper Trends
