Saturday, November 11, 2023
One-Shot Wonders: The Auto Creates a New Record by C.W. Kahles, 1902
Here's a singularly repellant one-shot by Kahles. It certainly was a world with different values and proprieties just a hundred-some years ago. Hard to believe this nauseating 'comic' was okayed for publication by editors all over the country.
Our digitized example is from the Nashville American of May 25 1902, but probably would have run a bit earlier in its syndicate home paper, the Philadelphia North American.
Labels: One-Shot Wonders
This looks like something that likely originated as unadorned text ("A motorist hit a dog and paid the farmer for his loss. The next day, the road was lined by farmers with dogs."). A viable joke if a bit nasty in that undetailed form, it becomes appalling here despite (or because of) the quality of the artwork. What's more, the opening panels clearly state the motorist enjoyed killing the dog, which makes the whole thing uglier. And it muddies the punchline -- is the motorist appalled at these entrepreneurs, despite being a happy customer before? Or is he excited about setting the "new record" promised in the headline?
Friday, November 10, 2023
Selling It: Snake Oil? No, Fish Oil!
Scientific testing has proven that there is no special medical wonder inherent in cod liver oil. It is high in vitamins A and D, and so it is undeniably good for those who have a deficiency. But there was a day when it was considered an indispensible member of the family medicine cabinet, "good fer what ails ye," a cure-all for most any malady.
Preying on such beliefs, the Scott's Emulsion folks made claims that it had some special ability to ward off rickets in children. Which it would since rickets is caused by a vitamin D deficiency. But most kids get plenty of vitamin D from sunshine, and those who don't get any time outdoors in the sun probably have bigger problems that Scott's Emulsion won't fix.
Anyway, I digress. The October 1938 Sunday half-page ad shown above sports art by a wonderful newspaper and magazine cartoonist, an artist who I don't generally associate with advertising strips. Let's leave his name off this post for awhile and see if a Stripper's Guide reader can ID the artist whose work we see above.
UPDATE 11/13/2023: So, not much activity in the ranks. Alright, here's my ID, and I'm 98% sure it is accurate. The Uncle Dan ad is by R.B. Fuller, of Oaky Doaks fame. The unusual take on the woman's eyes is to me the dead giveaway of the ID.
Labels: Advertising Strips
(of course if one clicks on the image
the new tab hedder reads "Uncle Dan by Fuller.")
Now the question is R. B. or Ving?
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
Tuesday, November 07, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1997: Biggest Winners and Losers
For the year 1996 there were not many changes to the landscape of the comic section. Editors seemed like they wanted to keep things calm with their section since the pandemonium of the year before, when they lost two of the biggest strips of all time. Dilbert was still gaining papers with another banner year -- 32 papers added in 1996 making a two-year total of 101 papers. For Better or For Worse still found some more papers adding 6 more to its already huge client list. Here is the list of all strips that gained five or more papers in 1996.
Dilbert - 32
For Better or For Worse – 6
Ghost Story Club - 6
Non Sequitur – 5
Pickles – 5
I Need Help – 5 (new offering)
Only one strip had a big loss and that was Tank McNamara which lost 5 papers.
On the story strip front 1996 saw the end of three long-running features. Two adventure strips ended, Secret Agent Corrigan and Tim Tyler’s Luck. Neither had any papers in our survey and I mentioned last time that no paper currently available online was running them. The third story strip to end was Winnie Winkle which had 2 papers in our survey that ran it to the end. You can read the complete 76 years run online through many different newspapers.
Overall, the adventure strip market penetration stayed at the same number of papers, even though some papers were dropping these features. Ghost Story Club, a newer strip geared to younger readers, gained 6 papers to help offset the losses of others. Here is the breakdown:
Adventure (net change 0)
Alley Oop – 30 (-1)
Amazing Spider-Man – 12 (-1)
Mark Trail – 12 (0)
Phantom – 12 (+1)
Ghost Story Club – 11 (+6)
Dick Tracy – 9 (-1)
Brenda Starr – 7 (-1)
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad – 4 (0)
Terry and The Pirates – 4 (-2)
Little Orphan Annie – 2 (0)
Mickey Mouse – 2 (-1) - Reruns
Rip Kirby – 2 (-1)
Modesty Blaise – 1 (0)
Tarzan – 1 (+1) - reruns
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 1 (0) – reruns
Mandrake the Magician – 0
Popeye – 0 - reruns
Ended
Secret Agent Corrigan
Tim Tyler’s Luck
Soap strips had a drop of 3.4% since last year. Here are the individual strip totals:
Soaps (net change -4)
Mary Worth – 42 (-1)
Rex Morgan – 37 (+1)
Judge Parker – 19 (-1)
Apartment 3-G – 10 (-1)
Gil Thorp – 8 (0)
Heart of Juliet Jones – 0
Ended
Winnie Winkle – 2
Labels: Paper Trends
Monday, November 06, 2023
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 of 1997 -- '96 Rookies
1995-6 was a very tumultuous time for the comics/feature editors, losing two of the top 10 strips to retirement. The new entries for 1996 did not make much of an impact – evidently the general consensus was to replace these spots with proven strips.
The top rookie of 1996, Tommy by Jay Martin, debuted in just 13 papers. Although the strip was quite original it was obviously intended to be a replacement for Calvin & Hobbes in spirit. Tommy would last only 21 months.
The next most successful rookie was Buckles by David Gilbert which debuted in 10 papers. This dog strip had a more successful run lasting until 2021.
Here are the rankings for all the rookies of 1996:
Tommy – 13
Buckles – 10
I Need Help – 8 (debuted in the first week of 1996, now an official rookie)
Against The Grain – 6 – (debuted in the first week of 1996, now an official rookie)
The Norm – 6
Cornered, Frumpy The Clown, Second Chances, Swan Factory – 2
Ben, Bliss, J.D. Comics (local strip), Lumpy Gravy, PC and Pixel – 1
Over the past few years the rookie strips have made medium to low starts. Next year we will see something that has not happened in over 15 years.
Labels: Paper Trends
Sunday, November 05, 2023
Wish You Were Here, from Jimmy Swinnerton
Another from Hearst's Li'l Arsonist series, this Little Jimmy card has the rare feature of offering a real surprise when the secret portion of the picture is revealed. That's because the parrot in the birdcage is a complete non sequitur. In the original gag, which ran in the September 9 1906 episode of Little Jimmy, the grinning kid in the nightshirt is not there, and Jimmy is getting his finger nipped by the parrot. Here the parrot does not seem to be making a lunch of Jimmy's digit, but merely flapping its wings around. Maybe Jimmy is supposed to be ornithophobic?
Labels: Wish You Were Here
: 11/05/2023 5:13 PM 