Monday, January 01, 2024
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1998 -- Top Rookies of 1997
For the year 1997 we have one crazy popular debut, and that strip is Zits, which has accomplished an amazing feat which has not happened in over 15 years -- it debuts with over 50 papers in our survey. The highest we’ve encountered in The 300 was in 1981 when The Muppets debuted with 70 papers. Zits did not quite reach that total, coming in at 60 papers. But this is sort of a Babe Ruth – Roger Maris situation, because in our 1981 survey we had at least 40 more papers. I imagine that if there was a level playing field Zits would have beat The Muppets.
Looking at the previous rookies that started out big in The 300, we can see that a big initial splash does not guarantee long-term success. Here is a list of all the rookies that started with 30 or more papers.
The Muppets (1981) – 70
Amazing Spider-Man (1977) – 50
Star Wars (1979) – 50
Shoe (1977) – 47
Winnie The Pooh (1978) – 46
Marvin (1982) – 39
For Better or For Worse (1979) – 38
Best Seller Showcase (1977) – 37
World Greatest Superheroes (1978) – 34
U.S Acres (1986) – 32
Pogo (1989) – 32
As of 1998, only Shoe and For Better or For Worse have more papers than they started with. Spider-Man and Marvin have less, and seven out of eleven of them have been cancelled. Evidently, a big debut is more of a curse than a blessing.
The only other big debut of 1997 was not really a rookie, it was a returning strip. The comic panel Herman was last seen in the survey 5 years ago. In 1992 when Unger retired it, the feature had 52 papers in our survey. In a return that was billed as a mix of old and new material, it will only get 27 papers.
The remaining rookies did not make much of an impact in 1997. Here is the complete list:
Zits – 60
Herman – 27
Dr. Katz – 5
Liberty Meadows, Warped – 3
Fair Game, Feet of Clay, Meg, Stitches, Too Much Coffee*, Tuttle – 2
Homespin, Meatloaf Night with Brewster, Pellets, Scrimmages, Sneed – 1
* about to be retitled Strange Brew.
Labels: Paper Trends
