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Downstown
''Downstown'' was an American syndicated comic strip created by Tim Downs that ran from 1974 to 1986. History Origins During his junior year at Indiana University at Bloomington, Downs created the comic strip ''Downstown'' for the campus newspaper, ''Indiana Daily Student,'' which immediately began to publish the strip as a daily feature''.'' Downs said, "I went to college to be a sculptor and a painter. In my freshman year, I became a Christian and soon my attitude began to change toward a career in the fine arts. The problem was that sculpting and painting were intensely personal, almost like therapy, and I had things I wanted to communicate. That led me to graphic design, then comic strips…." ''Downstown'' was syndicated to other college newspapers across the United States. The second college to publish the strip was the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. Between 1974 and 1979, the strip expanded to 30 college newspapers and one non-student pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Downs
Tim Downs (born 1954) is an American comic artist and author best known for his ''Downstown'' comic strip and the '' Bug Man'' series of Christian mystery novels. Background Downs grew up in a non-religious household near Town and Country, St. Louis County, Missouri, with his parents Charles and Bobbie Downs. While in 7th grade at Parkway Junior High School. Downs came in first place for an oratory contest sponsored by the Des Peres Optimist Club, later coming in third place in the regional contest sponsored by the Optimist Clubs of St. Louis. In high school, Downs began to doodle single-panel comics, influenced by Charles Schultz's ''Peanuts'', often drawing on paper towels at the can factory where he worked as an evening janitor. Downs was unsuccessful selling his work. Downs graduated from Parkway West High School in 1972. He attended the Indiana University at Bloomington, becoming a Phi Beta Kappa and graduating in 1976 with B.A. in fine arts, with an emphasis in gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird. Founded in 1970, it was merged in July 2009 with Uclick (which published its comics on GoComics) to form Universal Uclick (now known as Andrews McMeel Syndication). History Universal Press Syndicate was founded by John McMeel and Jim Andrews in 1970, two graduates of the University of Notre Dame. Their early syndication success came as a result of Andrews reading the ''Yale Daily News''. While clipping a column by a priest, he was distracted by Garry Trudeau's ''Bull Tales'' comic strip on the facing page. When Trudeau's ''Doonesbury'' debuted as a daily strip in two dozen newspapers on October 26, 1970, it was the first strip from Universal Press Syndicate, and a Sunday strip was launched March 21, 1971. Circula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Odd Couple (film)
''The Odd Couple'' is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Gene Saks, produced by Howard W. Koch and written by Neil Simon, based on his 1965 play. It stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as two divorced men, neurotic neat-freak Felix Ungar and fun-loving slob Oscar Madison, who decide to live together. The film was successful with critics and grossed over $44.5 million, making it the third highest-grossing film of 1968 in the United States. The success of the film was the basis for the ABC television sitcom of the same name, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as Felix and Oscar. A sequel, '' The Odd Couple II'', was released in 1998, almost three decades later, in which Lemmon and Matthau reprised their roles. However, it was a critical and commercial failure. Plot Newly separated Felix Ungar wanders New York City in a daze with vague ideas of committing suicide. Divorced sports writer Oscar Madison and his card-playing cronies Murray, Speed, Roy and Vinnie ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panel (comics)
A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book, as well as a graphic novel. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment. When multiple panels are present, they are often, though not always, separated by a short amount of space called a gutter. Newspaper daily strips typically consist of either four panels (''Doonesbury'', '' For Better or For Worse'') or three panels (''Garfield'', ''Dilbert''). These panels may all be of the same size, but many skilled cartoonists, such as Bill Waterson, Danny Vasquetto, Leonard Waldstein, Humphrey Powell, and Ginny Thomas vary the size and number of panels in each daily strip. The horizontal newspaper strip can also employ only a single panel, as sometimes seen in Wiley Miller's '' Non Sequitur''. In Asia, a vertical four-panel arrangement (''yonkoma'') is common in newspapers, such as with ''Azumanga Daioh''. In a comic book or graphic novel, the shapes of pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He has since been featured in films, television shows, novels, video games, and plays. Spider-Man is the alias of Peter Parker, an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City after his parents Richard and Mary Parker died in a plane crash. Lee and Ditko had the character deal with the struggles of adolescence and financial issues and gave him many supporting characters, such as Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, and Harry Osborn; romantic interests Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and the Black Cat; and foes such as Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, and Venom. In his origin story, Spider-Man gets superhuman spider-powers and abilities from a bite from a radioactive spider; these include clinging t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garfield
''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his human owner Jon Arbuckle, and Odie the dog. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals, and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Though its setting is rarely mentioned in print, ''Garfield'' takes place in Jim Davis' hometown of Muncie, Indiana, according to the television special ''Happy Birthday, Garfield''. Common themes in the strip include Garfield's laziness, obsessive eating, love of coffee and lasagna, disdain of Mondays, and diets. Garfield is also shown to manipulate people to get whatever he wants. The strip's focus is mostly on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie, but other recurring characters appear as well. Originally created with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Orphan Annie
''Little Orphan Annie'' is a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on August 5, 1924, in the New York '' Daily News''. The plot follows the wide-ranging adventures of Annie, her dog Sandy and her benefactor Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks. Secondary characters include Punjab, the Asp and Mr. Am. The strip attracted adult readers with political commentary that targeted (among other things) organized labor, the New Deal and communism. Following Gray's death in 1968, several artists drew the strip and, for a time, "classic" strips were reruns. ''Little Orphan Annie'' inspired a radio show in 1930, film adaptations by RKO in 1932 and Paramount in 1938 and a Broadway musical ''Annie'' in 1977 (which was adapted on screen four times, one in 1982, one on TV in 1999, one in 2014 and another a live TV production in 2021). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathy
''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life—food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes fun at the lives and foibles of modern women. The strip debuted on November 22, 1976, and appeared in over 1,400 newspapers at its peak. The strips have been compiled into more than 20 books. Three television specials were also created. Guisewite received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award in 1992 for the strip. History Initially, the strip was based largely on Guisewite's own life as a single woman. "The syndicate felt it would make the strip more relatable if the character's name and my name were the same," Guisewite said in an interview. "They felt it would make it a more personal strip, and would help people know it was a real woman who was going through these things. I hated the idea of calling it 'Cathy'. Guisewite had Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American archetypes and a popular and widely recognized cartoon character. Charlie Brown is characterized as a person who frequently suffers, and as a result, is usually nervous and lacks self-confidence. He shows both pessimistic and optimistic attitudes: on some days, he is apprehensive to even go outside because his day might just be spoiled, but on others, he hopes for the best and tries as much as he can to accomplish things. He is easily recognized by his trademark zigzag patterned shirt. The character's creator, Charles M. Schulz, said that Charlie Brown "must be the one who suffers because he is a caricature of the average person. Most of us are much more acquainted with losing than winning." Despite this, Charlie Brown does not always suffer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the 18th-largest city in California. San Bernardino is the economic, cultural, and political hub of the San Bernardino Valley and the Inland Empire. The governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have established the metropolitan area’s only consulates in the downtown area of the city. Additionally, San Bernardino serves as an anchor city to the 3rd largest metropolitan area in California (after Los Angeles and San Francisco) and the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States; the San Bernardino-Riverside MSA. Furthermore, the city’s University District serves as a college town, as home to California State University, San Bernardino. San Bernardino was named in 1810, when Spanish priest Francisco Du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Los Angeles Times
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Far Side
''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, (often twisted) references to proverbs, or the search for meaning in life. Larson's frequent use of animals and nature in the comic is popularly attributed to his background in biology. ''The Far Side'' was ultimately carried by more than 1,900 daily newspapers, translated into 17 languages, and collected into calendars, greeting cards, and 23 compilation books, and reruns are still carried in many newspapers. After a 25-year hiatus, in July 2020 Larson began drawing new ''Far Side'' strips offered through the comic's official website. Larson was recognized for his work on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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