Stripper's Guide

May 28 1910 -- A new city ordinance has been passed which is intended to prohibit outdoor fires anytime except between 6 and 9 AM. Intended, yes, but that's not quite what the ordinance text says. Rigorously interpreted, the badly written new law includes all fires, interior and exterior. Herriman, of course, gleefully delineates some of the creature comforts Angelenos will no longer be able to enjoy.

Labels: Herriman's LA Examiner Cartoons

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

Joseph Farris will long be remembered as a prolific gag cartoonist, whose work appeared in just about every venue that bought cartoons during his long working life. As the proud centerpiece to this career were his many contributions to The New Yorker, even some covers. 

As with many gag cartoonists, the teetering tower of cartoons in his reject pile undoubtedly led to the creation of his first newspaper-syndicated feature, Farriswheel, a gag panel with no continuing characters which had an eight year run in the 1970s. For his second and final foray into the newspaper world, however, he went a different direction by coming up with a character named Phipps. Phipps is an everyman sort of fellow who seems to be on the wrong side of middle-age. I suspect that Phipps was intended to be in his mid-60s, which happens to be the same age Farris was at the time. 

The daily panel/Sunday strip debuted on October 2 1989* through the auspices of NEA, and probably represents Farris looking for a steady paycheck since most of his magazine clients were dead or on life support by this time. The new feature was a pantomime, which Farris probably chose based on the fact that international sales of silent strips are generally stronger. The gags are frankly not overly strong and the Phipps character is generic, offering no hook for readers. I suspect that the thinking was that by simply featuring a senior citizen, matching the dominant readership of newspapers, papers would flock to the feature. This strategy had already proven to be misguided, as shown by strips like Ben Swift. Apparently NEA hadn't gotten the memo. 

Phipps ran until October 2 1992*, cancelled after a three year run that never saw the vast NEA client base embrace the feature.

* Source: All dates from the United Feature internal records.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

In the heyday of newspapes many cities had two papers published by the same publisher, one for the morning and one for the evening; in most cases they would have different comics in the two papers. A good sign that a paper is in trouble is when suddenly both papers start running the same comics in both editions. This is what happened in Spokane Washington with the Chronicle. The Chronicle stopped publishing on July 31, 1992. The Pittsburgh Press, which ended a few days earlier, shut down because of a strike among other factors. So for this year’s  survey we are down to 263 papers. 

This year we have a lot of movement in the Top 30 with the end of Herman. Funky Winkerbean returns to the Top 30. With Calvin And Hobbes gaining 4 papers it is moving closer to the top, rising  from #4 to #3. Blondie takes another hit, dropping to position #4 – just last year the strip dropped from #2 to #3. Far Side moves into the Top 5 with its 12-paper gain. Beetle Bailey falls to 6th. Cathy enters the Top 10 knocking Family Circus to 11. Sally Forth, Fox Trot and Arlo and Janis all move up 3 places.

Since Calvin and Far Side moved up the Universal Section gains more papers in the 3rd and 5th positions.
Top 2 – 198 (Up 1)
Top 3 – 177 (Up 10)
Top 4 – 156 (Up 3)
Top 5 – 134 (Up 9)
Top 6 - 115 (Up 13)
Top 7 – 86 (Up 6)
Top 8 – 66 (Up 3)
Top 9 – 53 (Up 5)
Top 10 – 47 (Up 11)
Top 11 – 35 (Up 5)
Top 12 – 27 (Up 2)
Top 13 – 22 (Up 2)
Top 14 – 7 (Down 11)
Top 15 – 6 (Up 1)
Top 16 – 3 (Same)
Top 17 – 1 (Same)

The Galveston Daily News (TX) again won this year’s most universal comic section newspaper.
Here are the remaining results of the 1993 Survey.

34 – The Lockhorns (+1), Winthorp (0)

33 – Gasoline Alley (-4)
32 – Alley Oop (+1), Eek and Meek (+3)

29 – Tank McNamara (-3)

27 – Grizzwells (-3)

25 – Rose is Rose (-3)

24 – Geech (-5), In The Bleachers (-6)

23 – Crankshaft (+2), Kit N Carlyle (-4), Real Life Adventures (+17)

21 – Farcus (+15), Luann (+3)

20 – Berry’s World (+4), Curtis (+2)

19 – Jump Start (+1), Non Sequitur (R), Snafu (-4)

17 – Nancy (-3)

16 – Amazing Spider-Man (-1), Robotman (-1)

15 – Apartment 3-G (+1), Bizarro (+3)

14 – Ernie (+2), Mark Trail (-1), Phantom (-1), Tiger (+1)

13 – Adam (+1), Fred Bassett (-2), Overboard (+4), Tumbleweeds (-1)

12 – Archie (-1), Dilbert (+6), Dunagin’s People (+1), Walnut Cove (0)

11 – Dick Tracy (-3), Drabble (-1)

10 – Baby Blues (0), Gil Thorp (+1), Herb and Jamaal (+2), Sylvia (+3)

9 – Bound & Gagged (R), Brenda Starr (+1), Buckets (-3), Close To Home (R), Pop Culture (R), Rubes (+1)

8 – Broom Hilda (-2), Kuduz (0), Momma (0), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (-6), They’ll Do It Every Time (0)

7 – Big Nate (+1), Comics For Kids (R), Crock (0), Dave (R), Donald Duck (-1), Grin and Bear It (+2), Middletons (-1), Mr. Boffo (-4), One Big Happy (0), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (0), Willy N’ Ethel (-2)

6 – Betty (+2), Fusco Brothers (0), Hazel (-1), Horrorscope (0), Mickey Mouse (-1), Pogo (-8), That’s Jake (0), Zippy (-1)
5 – Francie (+2), Hocus-Focus (-2), Motley’s Crew (0), Word For World (0)

4 – Animal Crackers, On The Fastrack, Redeye, Sherman’s Lagoon, Trudy

3 – Agatha Crumm, Better Half, Chubb & Chauncey, Ducking Out, Guy Stuff, Heart of Juliet Jones, Little Orphan Annie, New Breed, Off The Leash, Pickles, Rip Kirby, Single Slices, Small Society, Sports Hall of Shame, Winnie Winkle

2 – Bent Offering, Catfish, Curious Avenue, Ferd’Nand, Flintstones, Laff-A-Day, Leescapes, Love Is, Moose Miller, Our Fascinating Earth, Potluck, Quality Time, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Ryatts, Silbling Revelry, Smith Family, Suburban Cowgirls

1 – Ballard Street, Belvedere, Ben Wicks, Bringing Up Father, Duffy, Family Business, Flash Gordon, Graffiti, Just Add Water, Kaleb, Laffbreak, Meet Mr. Luckey, Miss Peach, Modesty Blaise, Out of Bounds, Outcasts, Pete & Clete, Pitts, Play Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus, Popeye, Pop’s Place, Quigmans, Stan Smith Tennis, Tom and Jerry, What A Guy, Wild Life, Wit of the World, Zero

As always, if you would like a Word document with the complete list, which includes every paper that runs every feature, just send a request to strippersguide@gmail.com (let me know which year(s) you would like).

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

 The daily panel Herman ended on July 26, 1992, freeing up 52 slots in our papers for other features. This is a preview of what will happen in an even bigger way in the comics landscape in January 1995 when Far Side ends. Not surprisingly, the top three gainers are all daily panel strips. Real Life Adventures gained 17 papers, Farcus gained 15 and Far Side gained 12. Also, like last year, girl power is still strong with For Better or For Worse gaining 11 papers and Cathy gaining 7. Here is the breakdown of the big gainers this year:

Real Life Adventures – 17
Farcus - 15
Far Side – 12
For Better or For Worse – 11
Cathy – 7
Sally Forth – 6
Fox Trot – 6
Dilbert - 6
Arlo and Janis - 5

The strips that are losing papers this year are a mix of new strips and veterans. In the new strip category Pogo loses 8 papers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles loses 6 papers. On the veteran side the biggest losers were Wizard of Id with 8, Family Circus and Shoe with 7. Here is the breakdown:

Wizard of Id – 8
Pogo - 8
Family Circus – 7
Shoe – 7
Hi and Lois - 6
Marvin – 6
Heathcliff – 6
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 6
Andy Capp – 5
Geech – 5

Adventure strips of course continue their downfall this year with a drop of 9.3%. Of course, the big loser was Turtles losing 6 papers. The Popeye daily in 1992 went into reruns. 

Alley Oop – 32 (1)
Amazing Spider-Man – 16 (-1)
Mark Trail – 14 (-1)
Phantom – 14 (-1)
Dick Tracy – 11 (-3)
Brenda Starr – 9 (1)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 8 (-6)
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad – 7 (0)
Mickey Mouse – 6 (-1)
Little Orphan Annie – 3 (-2)
Rip Kirby – 3 (0)
Flash Gordon – 1 (0)
Modesty Blaise – 1 (0)
Popeye – 1 (0)

Again, the Soap Strips continue their slow decline, but with this year showing little movement, down just 1.2%. 

Mary Worth – 54 (-1)
Rex Morgan – 43 (-2)
Judge Parker – 24 (-1)
Apartment 3-G – 15 (1)
Gil Thorp – 10 (1)
Heart of Juliet Jones – 3 (0)
Winnie Winkle – 3 (0)

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

 The top 3 rookies for 1992 are still being syndicated today. The hottest rookie debut is Non Sequitur with 19 papers. When we get to 1995 Non Sequitur would be available formatted as either a panel or a strip. The panel version was offered to gain papers because of the end of Far Side that year. We will be keeping an eye to see which version papers will carry.

The next three big debuts all start off in our survey with 9 papers. Two of them are still being published today; Bound & Gagged and Close To Home. The third, Pop Culture, started with 9 papers but would last only for a few years as a daily (a similar Sunday feature was revived later, as Biographic). The next two both started with 7 papers. One is the comic strip Dave. The other is not really a true rookie;  Comics For Kids started as a Sunday-only feature in 1989, but added a daily in 1992 to get into our focus.

Here is the complete breakdown for the Rookies of 1992:

Non Sequitur – 19
Bound & Gagged – 9
Close To Home – 9
Pop Culture – 9
Comics For Kids – 7
Dave – 7
Ducking Out – 3
Guy Stuff – 3
Curious Avenue – 2
Leescapes – 2
Quality Time - 2
Just Add Walter – 1
Pete & Clete – 1
Pitts – 1
Zero – 1

Labels: Paper Trends

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

Here's a Rose O'Neill Kewpies card from the Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati. Sorry, I'm just a little late for Easter. The Gibson Art cards are undated, but this one was postally used in 1922.

Labels: Wish You Were Here

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM 0 comments