Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Jeffrey Lindenblatt's Paper Trends: The 300 for 1988 -- Overall Results
For the 1988 survey we had two papers that printed their last editions (Springfield Leader and Press (MO) and News (Paterson, NJ)) also we had 5 papers missing their information for this month so for this survey we had 273 papers.
In the Top 30 strips this year we had 31 because the 30th position was a tie. Two strips enter the Top 30, one new and one returning after dropping out. Calvin & Hobbes is our new entry and Berry’s World is the returning strip. The strip that fell out of the Top 30 was Funky Winkerbean.
The biggest movement was the Far Side which gained 5 places, going from 13 to 8. Andy Capp makes the biggest drop, losing three spots and going from 16 to 19.
Garfield gained 4 papers and now is one strip away from knocking Blondie out of the 2nd spot. No new strips entered the 100-paper club keeping its membership at 15, but a few strips are getting closer to that magic number. Cathy and Born Loser continue their small gain and if Calvin & Hobbes continues its big gain, it should join the 100-club next year.
Here are the Top 30 strips:
| Title | Place | Rank | Papers +/- | Total Papers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | 1 | Same | 4 | 216 |
| Blondie | 2 | Same | 0 | 207 |
| Garfield | 3 | Same | 4 | 206 |
| Beetle Bailey | 4 | Same | -2 | 192 |
| Hagar the Horrible | 5 | Same | 2 | 155 |
| Doonesbury | 6 | Same | 2 | 146 |
| Family Circus | 7 | Same | 8 | 139 |
| Far Side | 8 | Up 5 | 27 | 133 |
| Bloom County | 9 | Down 1 | 9 | 127 |
| Wizard of Id | 10 | Down 1 | 8 | 124 |
| Shoe | 11 | Down 1 | 4 | 117 |
| B.C. | 12 | Down 1 | 1 | 111 |
| Frank and Ernest | 13 | Up 1 | 7 | 110 |
| Hi and Lois | 14 | Down 2 | -1 | 106 |
| For Better or For Worse | 15 | Same | 3 | 104 |
| Born Loser | 16 | Up 1 | 6 | 94 |
| Cathy | 17 | Up 2 | 4 | 88 |
| Dennis the Menace | 18 | Same | 1 | 87 |
| Andy Capp | 19 | Down 3 | -3 | 86 |
| Calvin and Hobbes | 20 | Entering | 48 | 82 |
| Marmaduke | 21 | Same | 2 | 66 |
| Mary Worth | 22 | Down 2 | -3 | 63 |
| Barney Google and Snuffy Smith | 23 | Down 1 | -2 | 59 |
| Herman | 24 | Down 1 | -3 | 54 |
| Ziggy | 25 | Down 1 | -2 | 53 |
| Rex Morgan | 26 | Down 1 | 0 | 50 |
| Marvin | 27 | Same | 2 | 48 |
| Gasoline Alley | 28 | Down 2 | -2 | 45 |
| Winthorp | 29 | Down 1 | -3 | 42 |
| Berry's World | 30 | Entering | 7 | 41 |
| Tank McNamara | 30 | Down 1 | -3 | 41 |
The popularity of the universal comic section continues to grow. Here is the breakdown:
Top 2 – 178 (Up 3)
Top 3 – 156 (Up 6)
Top 4 - 131 (Up 7)
Top 5 – 85 (Up 2)
Top 6 – 57 (0)
Top 7 – 37 (0)
Top 8 – 33 (Up 4)
Top 9 – 27 (Up 6)
Top 10 – 18 (Up 4)
Top 11 – 13 (Up 2)
Top 12 – 10 (Up 2)
Top 13 – 2 (Down 3)
Top 14 – 1 (Up 1)
Top 15 – 1 (Up 1)
The Tampa Tribune takes back its crown of the most universal comic section with every one of the top 15 strips.
Here are the remaining strips that appeared in the Top 300 papers, ranked by newspaper count and increase/decrease:
40 – Funky Winkerbean (0), Mother Goose and Grimm (+2)
36 – Alley Oop (-3), Heathcliff (-1), Sally Forth (+3)
34 – Eek and Meek (-5)
33 – Lockhorns (0)
32 – Judge Parker (+1)
31 – Arlo and Janis (+1)
29 – Bugs Bunny (-5), Nancy (-2)
27 – Amazing Spider-Man (-5)
24 – Apartment 3-G (+2), Tiger (-4)
23 – Dick Tracy (-7), Geech (-1), Phantom (-2)
22 – Grizzwells (R), Kit N Carlyle (0)
21 – Tumbleweeds (-3)
18 – Broom Hilda (-1), Mark Trail (0)
17 – Captain Easy (0), Luann (0), Snafu (+1)
16 – Archie (-4), U.S. Acres (-16)
14 – Buz Sawyer (-2), Rose is Rose (+4), Steve Canyon (-6), What A Guy (R)
13 – Fred Basset (0), In The Bleachers (+6), Kudzu (+1), Steve Roper and Mike Nomad (-1)
11 – Brenda Starr (+2), Crock (-5), Drabble (+1), Dunagin’s People (-3), Gil Thorp (-1), Mr. Boffo (+2), On The Fastrack (-3), Redeye (-3), Small Society (+2), They’ll Do It Every Time (-1)
10 – Adam (0), Donald Duck (0), Gummi Bears (-11), Hazel (-3), Little Orphan Annie (0), Middletons (+4), Momma (-1), Mr. Tweedy (0), That’s Jake (-3), Zippy (+4)
9 – Willy N’ Ethel (0)
8 – Animal Crackers (0), Francie (-3), Grin and Bear It (0), Motley’s Crew (-1), Mr. Men and Little Miss (0)
7 – Bizarro (+2), Neighborhood (-5), Our Fascinating Earth (+4), Robotman (0), Ryatts (-1)
6 – Crankshaft (R), Gamin & Patches (R), Graffiti (-1), Heart of Juliet Jones (-2), Pavlov (0), Pop’s Place (-3)
5 – Better Half (-1), Elwood (-1), Hocus Focus (0), Love Is (-3), Outcasts (+1), Sylvia (+2)
4 – Belvedere, Caldwell, Flash Gordon, Flintstones, Girls, Hartland, Henry, Laff-A-Day, Love Handles, Miss Peach, Moose Miller, Out of Bounds, Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus, Rip Kirby, Sherman on the Mount, Tales of Hans Christian Anderson, Trudy
3 – Agatha Crumm, Amy, Arnold, Boomers’ Song, Briefcase, Catfish, Charlie, Ferd’Nand, John Darling, Professor Doodles, Quigmans, Scamp, Single Slices, Smith Family, Sniglets, Winnie Winkle, Wright Angles
2 – A Little Leary, Ben Wicks, Boner’s Ark, Bringing Up Father, Captain Vincible, Dollars and Nonsense, Duffy, Inside Out, Mickey Mouse, Off The Leash, Popeye, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Winnie the Pooh
1 – Better Tennis with Stan Smith, Betty Boop and Felix, Brother Juniper, Ching Chow, Eyebeam, Furtree High, Good News Bad News, Guindon, Guinness Factflle, Gumdrop, Iota, Kaleb, Laffbreak, Modesty Blaise, Mr. Abernathy, Ponytail, Rivets, Sadle, Sam and Silo, Salt Chuck, Strahle’s Bailiwick, Wild Life, Wordplay, Yecch Is
As always, you can get a complete list of features and the specific newspapers in which they appeared, just shoot an email request to strippersguide@gmail.com.
Labels: Paper Trends
