A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in
balloons
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...
and
captions
Caption may refer to:
*Caption (text), explanatory text about specific published photos and articles
*An element of comics where words appear in a separate box, see Glossary of comics terminology#Caption
*Caption (comics convention), a small pres ...
. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
s and
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
Sunday papers
"Sunday Papers" is a song written and performed by British new wave musician Joe Jackson. It was released on his debut album, '' Look Sharp!''. Written as a critique of the British press, "Sunday Papers" features mocking lyrics and reggae-inspire ...
offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as
webcomics
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be ...
.
Strips are written and drawn by a comics artist, known as a
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
. As the word "comic" implies, strips are frequently humorous. Examples of these
gag-a-day
A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...
Bringing Up Father
''Bringing Up Father'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 2, 1913, to May 28, 2000.
The strip was later titled ''Jiggs and Maggie'' (or ''M ...
'', ''
Marmaduke
''Marmaduke'' is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson from June 1954 to 2015.
Publication history
The strip was created by Anderson, and sold to the John F. Dill ...
'', and ''
Pearls Before Swine
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
''. In the late 1920s, comic strips expanded from their mirthful origins to feature adventure stories, as seen in ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Captain Easy'', '' Buck Rogers'', ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'', and ''
Terry and the Pirates
''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...
''. In the 1940s,
soap-opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored b ...
-continuity strips such as ''
Judge Parker
''Judge Parker'' is an American soap opera-style comic strip created by Nicholas P. Dallis that first appeared on November 24, 1952. The strip's look and content were influenced by the work of Allen Saunders and Ken Ernst on ''Mary Worth''.
Char ...
'' and ''
Mary Worth
''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and art ...
'' gained popularity. Because "comic" strips are not always funny, cartoonist
Will Eisner
William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...
has suggested that sequential art would be a better
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
-neutral name.
Every day in American newspapers, for most of the 20th century, there were at least 200 different comic strips and cartoon panels, which makes 73,000 per year. Comic strips have appeared inside American magazines such as ''
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
'' and ''
Boys' Life
''Scout Life'' (formerly ''Boys' Life'') is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Its target readers are boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18. The magazine‘s headquarters are in Irving, Texas.
''Scout Life'' is pu ...
'', but also on the front covers, such as the ''Flossy Frills'' series on ''
The American Weekly
''The American Weekly'' was a Sunday magazine, Sunday newspaper supplement published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966.
History
During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' and ...
'' Sunday newspaper supplement. In the UK and the rest of Europe, comic strips are also serialized in ''comic book magazines'', with a strip's story sometimes continuing over three pages.
History
Storytelling
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...
using a sequence of pictures has existed through history. One medieval European example in textile form is the Bayeux Tapestry. Printed examples emerged in 19th-century Germany and in 18th-century England, where some of the first
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
's 18th century English cartoons include both narrative sequences, such as '' A Rake's Progress'', and single panels.
The '' Biblia pauperum'' ("Paupers' Bible"), a tradition of picture
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
s beginning in the later
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, sometimes depicted Biblical events with words spoken by the figures in the miniatures written on scrolls coming out of their mouths—which makes them to some extent ancestors of the modern cartoon strips.
In China, with its traditions of block printing and of the incorporation of text with image, experiments with what became ''
lianhuanhua
''Lianhuanhua'' () is a type of palm-size picture books of sequential drawings popular in China in the 20th century. It influenced modern manhua.Wong, Wendy Siuyi. 002(2001) Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Princeton Architectural Press. N ...
'' date back to 1884.
Newspapers
The first newspaper comic strips appeared in North America in the late 19th century. ''
The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in th ...
'' is usually credited as one of the first newspaper strips. However, the art form combining words and pictures developed gradually and there are many examples which led up to the comic strip.
The Glasgow Looking Glass
''The Glasgow Looking Glass'' was the first mass-produced publication to tell stories using illustrations, and as such is regarded as the earliest comics magazine. The final issue was published on 3 April 1826.
Publishing history
The title was ...
was the first mass-produced publication to tell stories using illustrations and is regarded as the worlds first comic strip. It satirised the political and social life of Scotland in the 1820s. It was conceived and illustrated by William Heath.
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
author and caricature artist
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...
(Geneva, 1799–1846) is considered the father of the modern comic strips. His illustrated stories such as ''
Histoire de M. Vieux Bois
''Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois'' (also known as ''Les amours de Mr. Vieux Bois'', or simply ''Monsieur Vieuxbois''), published in English as ''The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck'' (sometimes referred to simply as ''Oldbuck''), is a 19th-century ...
'' (1827), first published in the US in 1842 as ''The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck'' or ''Histoire de Monsieur Jabot'' (1831), inspired subsequent generations of German and American comic artists. In 1865,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
painter, author, and caricaturist
Wilhelm Busch
Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.
Busch drew on the tropes of f ...
created the strip ''
Max and Moritz
''Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks'' (original: ''Max und Moritz – Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen'') is a German language illustrated story in verse. This highly inventive, blackly humorous tale, told entirely in rhym ...
'', about two trouble-making boys, which had a direct influence on the American comic strip. ''Max and Moritz'' was a series of seven severely moralistic tales in the vein of German children's stories such as ''
Struwwelpeter
''Der Struwwelpeter'' ("shock-headed Peter" or "Shaggy Peter") is an 1845 German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastr ...
'' ("Shockheaded Peter"). In the story's final act, the boys, after perpetrating some mischief, are tossed into a sack of grain, run through a mill, and consumed by a flock of geese (without anybody mourning their demise). ''Max and Moritz'' provided an inspiration for German immigrant
Rudolph Dirks
Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (later known as ''The Captain and the Kids'').
Dirks was born in Heide, Germany, to Joh ...
, who created the ''
Katzenjammer Kids
''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).
Hugely popular, ''Katzenjammer Kids'' occasioned one of the first comic-strip copyright ownership suits in the history of the medium. When Dirks left
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
for the promise of a better salary under
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...
, it was an unusual move, since cartoonists regularly deserted Pulitzer for Hearst. In a highly unusual court decision, Hearst retained the rights to the name "Katzenjammer Kids", while creator Dirks retained the rights to the characters. Hearst promptly hired
Harold Knerr
Harold Hering Knerr (September 4, 1882 – July 8, 1949) was an American comic strip creator, who signed his work H. H. Knerr. He was the writer-artist of the comic strip ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' for 35 years.
Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, H ...
to draw his own version of the strip. Dirks renamed his version ''Hans and Fritz'' (later, ''The Captain and the Kids''). Thus, two versions distributed by rival syndicates graced the
comics page
The comics page of a daily newspaper is a page largely or entirely devoted to comic strips.
Summary
Some other features that frequently appear on the comics page are crossword puzzles and horoscopes. Other special pages in newspapers include the ...
s for decades. Dirks' version, eventually distributed by
United Feature Syndicate
United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along wit ...
, ran until 1979.
In the United States, the great popularity of
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
The Little Bears
''The Little Bears'' is an American comic strip created by Jimmy Swinnerton, one of the first American comic strips featuring talking animals and one of the first with recurring characters – the titular bears. The feature emerged from a series ...
'' (1893–96) was the first
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
comic strip with recurring characters, while the first color comic supplement was published by the ''Chicago Inter-Ocean'' sometime in the latter half of 1892, followed by the ''
New York Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
''s first color Sunday comic pages in 1897. On January 31, 1912, Hearst introduced the nation's first full daily comic page in his ''
New York Evening Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
''. The history of this newspaper rivalry and the rapid appearance of comic strips in most major American newspapers is discussed by Ian Gordon. Numerous events in newspaper comic strips have reverberated throughout society at large, though few of these events occurred in recent years, owing mainly to the declining use of continuous storylines on newspaper comic strips, which since the 1970s had been waning as an entertainment form. From 1903 to 1905
Gustave Verbeek
Gustave Verbeek (August 29, 1867 – December 5, 1937) was a Dutch-American illustrator and cartoonist, best known for his newspaper cartoons in the early 1900s featuring an inventive use of word play and visual storytelling tricks.
Biography
V ...
, wrote his comic series "The UpsideDowns of Old Man Muffaroo and Little Lady Lovekins". These comics were made in such a way that one could read the 6 panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. He made 64 such comics in total.
The longest-running American comic strips are:
# ''
The Katzenjammer Kids
''The Katzenjammer Kids'' is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 and later drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years (1914 to 1949).Gasoline Alley'' (1918–present)
# ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Blondie'' (1930–present)
# ''
Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
Bringing Up Father
''Bringing Up Father'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 2, 1913, to May 28, 2000.
The strip was later titled ''Jiggs and Maggie'' (or ''M ...
'' (1913–2000; 87 years)
# ''
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 Aug ...
'' (1924–2010; 86 years)
Most newspaper comic strips are syndicated; a
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French language, Frenc ...
hires people to write and draw a strip and then distributes it to many newspapers for a fee. Some newspaper strips begin or remain exclusive to one newspaper. For example, the '' Pogo'' comic strip by
Walt Kelly
Walter Crawford Kelly Jr. (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip ''Pogo (comic strip), Pogo''. He began his animation career in 1936 at The Walt ...
originally appeared only in the '' New York Star'' in 1948 and was not picked up for syndication until the following year.
Newspaper comic strips come in two different types: daily strips and
Sunday strip
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
s. In the United States, a daily strip appears in newspapers on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. Daily strips usually are printed in black and white, and Sunday strips are usually in color. However, a few newspapers have published daily strips in color, and some newspapers have published Sunday strips in black and white.
Popularity
Making his first appearance in the British magazine '' Judy'' by writer and fledgling artist
Charles H. Ross
Charles Henry Ross (1835 – 12 October 1897) was an English writer and cartoonist.
Biography
Ross created the fictional character Ally Sloper for the British magazine ''Judy (satirical magazine), Judy'' in 1867, the popular character was spun of ...
in 1867,
Ally Sloper
Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the British comic strip ''Ally Sloper''. First appearing in 1867, he is considered one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in c ...
is one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in comics. The highly popular character was spun off into his own comic, ''
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'' was a British comics magazine, first published on 3 May 1884. It is regarded to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character. Star Ally Sloper, a blustery, lazy schemer often found "sloping" th ...
'', in 1884.
While in the early 20th century comic strips were a frequent target for detractors of "yellow journalism", by the 1920s the medium became wildly popular. While radio, and later, television surpassed newspapers as a means of entertainment, most comic strip characters were widely recognizable until the 1980s, and the "funny pages" were often arranged in a way they appeared at the front of Sunday editions. In 1931, George Gallup's first poll had the comic section as the most important part of the newspaper, with additional surveys pointing out that the comic strips were the second most popular feature after the picture page. During the 1930s, many comic sections had between 12 and 16 pages, although in some cases, these had up to 24 pages.
The popularity and accessibility of strips meant they were often clipped and saved; authors including
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
and
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...
have written about their childhood collections of clipped strips. Often posted on
bulletin board
A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. B ...
s, clipped strips had an ancillary form of distribution when they were faxed, photocopied or mailed. ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
''s Linda White recalled, "I followed the adventures of ''
Winnie Winkle
''Winnie Winkle'' is an American comic strip published during a 76-year span (1920–1996). Ten film adaptations were also made. Its premise was conceived by Joseph Medill Patterson, but the stories and artwork were by Martin Branner, who wrote t ...
'', ''
Moon Mullins
''Moon Mullins'' is an American comic strip which had a run as both a daily and Sunday feature from June 19, 1923 to June 2, 1991. Syndicated by the Tribune Media Services, Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate, the strip depicts the lives of d ...
'' and '' Dondi'', and waited each fall to see how
Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luci ...
would manage to trick Charlie Brown into trying to kick that football. (After I left for college, my father would clip out that strip each year and send it to me just to make sure I didn’t miss it.)"
Production and format
The two conventional formats for newspaper comics are strips and single gag panels. The strips are usually displayed horizontally, wider than they are tall. Single panels are square, circular or taller than they are wide. Strips usually, but not always, are broken up into several smaller panels with continuity from panel to panel. A horizontal strip can also be used for a single panel with a single gag, as seen occasionally in Mike Peters' ''
Mother Goose and Grimm
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
''.
Early daily strips were large, often running the entire width of the newspaper, and were sometimes three or more inches high. Initially, a newspaper page included only a single daily strip, usually either at the top or the bottom of the page. By the 1920s, many newspapers had a comics page on which many strips were collected together. During the 1930s, the original art for a daily strip could be drawn as large as 25 inches wide by six inches high. Over decades, the size of daily strips became smaller and smaller, until by 2000, four standard daily strips could fit in an area once occupied by a single daily strip. As strips have become smaller, the number of panels have been reduced.
Proof sheets were the means by which syndicates provided newspapers with black-and-white line art for the reproduction of strips (which they arranged to have colored in the case of Sunday strips). Michigan State University Libraries#Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Comic Art Collection librarian Randy Scott describes these as "large sheets of paper on which newspaper comics have traditionally been distributed to subscribing newspapers. Typically each sheet will have either six daily strips of a given title or one Sunday strip. Thus, a week of '' Beetle Bailey'' would arrive at the ''
Lansing State Journal
The ''Lansing State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Lansing, Michigan, owned by Gannett.
Overview
The ''Lansing State Journal'' is the sole daily newspaper published in Greater Lansing. The newspaper had an average Monday through ...
'' in two sheets, printed much larger than the final version and ready to be cut apart and fitted into the local comics page." Comic strip historian Allan Holtz described how strips were provided as mats (the plastic or cardboard trays in which molten metal is poured to make plates) or even plates ready to be put directly on the printing press. He also notes that with electronic means of distribution becoming more prevalent printed sheets "are definitely on their way out."
NEA Syndicate experimented briefly with a two-tier daily strip, ''
Star Hawks
''Star Hawks'' was a comic strip created by Ron Goulart and Gil Kane, first published on October 3, 1977, that ran through May 2, 1981. It was written through April 1979 by Goulart, followed by Archie Goodwin (1979-1980), Roger McKenzie (1980-19 ...
'', but after a few years, ''Star Hawks'' dropped down to a single tier.
In
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
, the two-tier strip is the standard publication style of most daily strips like ''
Spike and Suzy
''Spike and Suzy'' (British title), ''Willy and Wanda'' (American title) or ''Luke and Lucy'' (in a 2009 film and video game) (Dutch: ''Suske en Wiske'', french: link=no, Bob et Bobette) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author Wil ...
'' and ''
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
''. They appear Monday through Saturday; until 2003 there were no Sunday papers in Flanders. In the last decades, they have switched from black and white to color.
Cartoon panels
Single panels usually, but not always, are not broken up and lack continuity. The daily ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
Out Our Way
''Out Our Way'' was an American single-panel comic strip series by Canadian-American comic strip artist J. R. Williams. Distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the cartoon series was noted for its depiction of American rural life and ...
Jimmy Hatlo
James Cecil Hatlo (September 1, 1897 – December 1, 1963), better known as Jimmy Hatlo, was an American cartoonist who in 1929 created the long-running comic strip and gag panel ''They'll Do It Every Time'', which he wrote and drew until his d ...
's ''
They'll Do It Every Time
''They'll Do It Every Time'' is a single-panel newspaper comic strip, created by Jimmy Hatlo, which had a long run over eight decades, first appearing on February 5, 1929, and continuing until February 3, 2008. The title of the strip became a popu ...
'' was often displayed in a two-panel format with the first panel showing some deceptive, pretentious, unwitting or scheming human behavior and the second panel revealing the truth of the situation.
Sunday comics
Sunday newspapers traditionally included a special color section. Early Sunday strips (known colloquially as "the funny papers", shortened to "the funnies"), such as ''
Thimble Theatre
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.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 Aug ...
'', filled an entire newspaper page, a format known to collectors as
full page
Full may refer to:
* People with the surname Full, including:
** Mr. Full (given name unknown), acting Governor of German Cameroon, 1913 to 1914
* A property in the mathematical field of topology; see Full set
* A property of functors in the mathe ...
. Sunday pages during the 1930s and into the 1940s often carried a secondary strip by the same artist as the main strip. No matter whether it appeared above or below a main strip, the extra strip was known as the topper, such as ''The Squirrel Cage'' which ran along with ''
Room and Board
Room and board is a phrase describing a situation in which, in exchange for money, Manual labour, labor or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis. It commonly occurs as a fee at h ...
'', both drawn by Gene Ahern.
During the 1930s, the original art for a Sunday strip was usually drawn quite large. For example, in 1930,
Russ Westover
Russell Channing Westover (March 8, 1886 – May 3, 1966) was a cartoonist best known for his long-run comic strip ''Tillie the Toiler''.
Early life
Westover was born in Los Angeles, California. He recalled, "When the time came... to make a livi ...
drew his ''
Tillie the Toiler
''Tillie the Toiler'' is a newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russ Westover who initially worked on his concept of a flapper character in a strip he titled ''Rose of the Office''. With a title change, it sold to King Features Syndicate ...
'' Sunday page at a size of 17" × 37". In 1937, the cartoonist
Dudley Fisher
Dudley Tyng Fisher Jr. (April 27, 1890 – July 10, 1951) was a syndicated newspaper cartoonist, best known for his character Myrtle who was introduced in his Sunday page, '' Right Around Home'', distributed by King Features Syndicate under vari ...
launched the innovative ''
Right Around Home
''Right Around Home'' was a comic strip by Dudley Fisher that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from January 16, 1938 to May 2, 1965.
Fisher drew a suburban setting with a focus on one family in that neighborhood, but what made his S ...
'', drawn as a huge single panel filling an entire Sunday page.
Full-page strips were eventually replaced by strips half that size. Strips such as ''
The Phantom
''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...
'' and ''
Terry and the Pirates
''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...
'' began appearing in a format of two strips to a page in full-size newspapers, such as the ''
New Orleans Times Picayune
''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...
'', or with one strip on a tabloid page, as in the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
''. When Sunday strips began to appear in more than one format, it became necessary for the cartoonist to allow for rearranged, cropped or dropped panels. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, because of paper shortages, the size of Sunday strips began to shrink. After the war, strips continued to get smaller and smaller because of increased paper and printing costs. The last full-page comic strip was the ''
Prince Valiant
''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
'' strip for 11 April 1971.
Comic strips have also been published in Sunday newspaper magazines.
Russell Patterson
Russell Patterson (December 26, 1893 – March 17, 1977) was an American cartoonist, illustrator and scenic designer. Patterson's art deco magazine illustrations helped develop and promote the idea of the 1920s and 1930s fashion style known as t ...
and Carolyn Wells' ''New Adventures of Flossy Frills'' was a continuing strip series seen on Sunday magazine covers. Beginning January 26, 1941, it ran on the front covers of Hearst's ''
American Weekly
''The American Weekly'' was a Sunday newspaper supplement published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966.
History
During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' and William Randolp ...
'' newspaper magazine supplement, continuing until March 30 of that year. Between 1939 and 1943, four different stories featuring Flossy appeared on ''American Weekly'' covers.
Sunday comics sections employed offset color printing with multiple print runs imitating a wide range of colors. Printing plates were created with four or more colors—traditionally, the CMYK color model: cyan, magenta, yellow and "K" for black. With a screen of tiny dots on each printing plate, the dots allowed an image to be printed in a
halftone
Halftone is the reprographic
Reprography (a portmanteau of ''reproduction'' and ''photography'') is the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as photography or xerography. Reprography is commonly used in catal ...
that appears to the eye in different gradations. The semi-opaque property of
ink
Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...
allows halftone dots of different colors to create an optical effect of full-color imagery.Campbell, Alastair. ''The Designer's Lexicon''. Chronicle, San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000.
Underground comic strips
The decade of the 1960s saw the rise of
underground newspaper
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group.
In specific rec ...
s, which often carried comic strips, such as ''
Fritz the Cat
''Fritz the Cat'' is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a "supercity" of anthropomorphic animals, it focused on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades. Crumb began d ...
'' and ''The
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' is an Underground comix, underground comic about a fictional trio of Cannabis culture, stoner characters, created by the American artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in ''The Rag'', an u ...
''. ''
Zippy the Pinhead
Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of ''Zippy'', an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' and became a ...
'' initially appeared in underground publications in the 1970s before being syndicated. ''
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, wh ...
'' and ''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States
The president ...
'' began as strips in college newspapers under different titles, and later moved to national syndication. Underground comic strips covered subjects that are usually taboo in newspaper strips, such as sex and drugs. Many underground artists, notably
Vaughn Bode
Vaughn may refer to:
Places in the United States
*Vaughn, California, former name of Bodfish, California
*Vaughn, Montana
* Vaughn, New Mexico
* Vaughn, Oregon
* Vaughn, Pennsylvania
* Vaughn, Virginia
* Vaughn, Washington
Name
*Vaughn (surname) ...
,
Dan O'Neill
Dan O'Neill (born April 21, 1942) is an American underground cartoonist, creator of the syndicated comic strip ''Odd Bodkins'' and founder of the underground comics collective the Air Pirates.
Education
O'Neill attended the University of Sa ...
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
Jay Lynch
Jay Patrick Lynch (January 7, 1945 – March 5, 2017) was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his ''Bijou Funnies'' and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip ''Nard n' Pat'' and the r ...
graduated from undergrounds to alternative weekly newspapers to '' Mad'' and children's books.
Webcomics
''Webcomics'', also known as ''online comics'' and ''internet comics'', are
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
that are available to read on the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Many are exclusively published online, but the majority of traditional newspaper comic strips have some Internet presence.
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
and other syndicates often provide archives of recent strips on their websites. Some, such as
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated ''Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained nation ...
, creator of '' Dilbert'', include an email address in each strip.
Conventions and genres
Most comic strip characters do not age throughout the strip's life, but in some strips, like
Lynn Johnston
Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist and author, best known for her newspaper comic strip '' For Better or For Worse''. She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.
Ea ...
's award-winning '' For Better or For Worse'', the characters age as the years pass. The first strip to feature aging characters was '' Gasoline Alley''.
The history of comic strips also includes series that are not humorous, but tell an ongoing
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
tic story. Examples include ''
The Phantom
''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...
'', ''
Prince Valiant
''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
'', ''
Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
'', ''
Mary Worth
''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and art ...
'', ''
Modesty Blaise
''Modesty Blaise'' is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talent ...
'', ''
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 Aug ...
'', ''
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...
'', and ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
''. Sometimes these are spin-offs from
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s, for example ''
Superman
Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
'', ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
'', and ''
The Amazing Spider-Man
''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bim ...
''.
A number of strips have featured animals as main characters. Some are non-verbal (''
Marmaduke
''Marmaduke'' is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson from June 1954 to 2015.
Publication history
The strip was created by Anderson, and sold to the John F. Dill ...
'', ''
The Angriest Dog in the World
''The Angriest Dog in the World'' is a comic strip created by film director David Lynch.
Background
The strip was conceived by Lynch in 1973 during a period when he was experiencing feelings of great anger. First published in the ''LA Reader'', ...
''), some have verbal thoughts but are not understood by humans, ('' Garfield'',
Snoopy
Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...
in ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, wh ...
Buckles
The buckle or clasp is a device used for fastening two loose ends, with one end attached to it and the other held by a catch in a secure but adjustable manner. Often taken for granted, the invention of the buckle was indispensable in securing tw ...
Pearls Before Swine
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
'', and ''
Pooch Cafe
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
''). Other strips are centered entirely on animals, as in ''Pogo'' and ''
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
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 surrealist ...
'' was unusual, as there were no central characters. Instead ''The Far Side'' used a wide variety of characters including humans, monsters,
aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
, chickens, cows,
worm
Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always).
Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...
s, amoebas, and more. John McPherson's '' Close to Home'' also uses this theme, though the characters are mostly restricted to humans and real-life situations.
Wiley Miller
David Wiley Miller (born April 15, 1951, Burbank, California) is an American cartoonist whose work is characterized by wry wit and trenchant social satire, is best known for his comic strip '' Non Sequitur'', which he signs Wiley. ''Non Sequitur' ...
not only mixes human, animal, and fantasy characters, but also does several different comic strip continuities under one umbrella title, '' Non Sequitur''. Bob Thaves's '' Frank & Ernest'' began in 1972 and paved the way for some of these strips, as its human characters were manifest in diverse forms—as animals, vegetables, and minerals.
Social and political influence
The comics have long held a distorted mirror to contemporary society, and almost from the beginning have been used for political or social commentary. This ranged from the conservative slant of Harold Gray's ''
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 Aug ...
'' to the unabashed
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
of Garry Trudeau's ''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States
The president ...
''. Al Capp's ''
Li'l Abner
''Li'l Abner'' is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Written and drawn ...
'' espoused liberal opinions for most of its run, but by the late 1960s, it became a mouthpiece for Capp's repudiation of the counterculture.
''Pogo'' used animals to particularly devastating effect, caricaturing many prominent politicians of the day as animal denizens of Pogo's Okeefenokee Swamp. In a fearless move, Pogo's creator Walt Kelly took on
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
in the 1950s, caricaturing him as a bobcat named Simple J. Malarkey, a megalomaniac who was bent on taking over the characters' birdwatching club and rooting out all undesirables. Kelly also defended the medium against possible government regulation in the
McCarthy era
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
. At a time when comic books were coming under fire for supposed sexual, violent, and subversive content, Kelly feared the same would happen to comic strips. Going before the Congressional subcommittee, he proceeded to charm the members with his drawings and the force of his personality. The comic strip was safe for satire.
During the early 20th century, comic strips were widely associated with publisher
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
, whose papers had the largest circulation of strips in the United States. Hearst was notorious for his practice of
yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include e ...
, and he was frowned on by readers of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and other newspapers which featured few or no comic strips. Hearst's critics often assumed that all the strips in his papers were fronts for his own political and social views. Hearst did occasionally work with or pitch ideas to cartoonists, most notably his continued support of
George Herriman
George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip ''Krazy Kat'' (1913–1944). More influential than popular, ''Krazy Kat'' had an appreciative audience ...
's ''
Krazy Kat
''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-American, New Yor ...
''. An inspiration for
Bill Watterson
William Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip ''Calvin and Hobbes'', which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing ''Calvin and Hobbes'' at the end of 1995, ...
and other cartoonists, ''Krazy Kat'' gained a considerable following among intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s.
Some comic strips, such as ''Doonesbury'' and ''
Mallard Fillmore
''Mallard Fillmore'' is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bruce Tinsley until 2019 and Loren Fishman since 2020. It has been syndicated by King Features Syndicate since June 6, 1994. The strip follows the exploits of its title charact ...
'', may be printed on the
editorial
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...
or
op-ed page
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...
rather than the comics page because of their regular political commentary. For example, the August 12, 1974 ''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States
The president ...
'' strip was awarded a
1975 Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes for 1975, the 59th annual prizes, were ratified by the Pulitzer Prize advisory board on April 11, 1975, and by the trustees of Columbia University on May 5.Peter Kihss"Pulitzer Prizes Awarded 2 Biographers and Albee" ''The New Y ...
for its depiction of the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
. '' Dilbert'' is sometimes found in the business section of a newspaper instead of the comics page because of the strip's commentary about
office politics Workplace politics is the process and behavior that in human interactions involves power and authority. It is also a tool to assess the operational capacity and to balance diverse views of interested parties. It is also known as office politics and ...
, and ''
Tank McNamara
''Tank McNamara'' is a daily syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Hinds. The strip debuted on August 5, 1974, with Jeff Millar as writer and Hinds as illustrator. Hinds took over writing after the death of Millar in late Novemb ...
'' often appears on the sports page because of its subject matter.
Lynn Johnston
Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist and author, best known for her newspaper comic strip '' For Better or For Worse''. She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.
Ea ...
's '' For Better or For Worse'' created an uproar when Lawrence, one of the strip's supporting characters, came out of the closet.
Publicity and recognition
The world's longest comic strip is long and on display at
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...
as part of the London Comedy Festival. The London Cartoon Strip was created by 15 of Britain's best known cartoonists and depicts the history of London.
The
Reuben
Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob.
Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugue ...
, named for cartoonist
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadge ...
, is the most prestigious award for U.S. comic strip artists. Reuben awards are presented annually by the
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
(NCS).
In 1995, the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
issued a series of commemorative stamps,
Comic Strip Classics
The Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps was issued by the US Postal Service on October 1, 1995, to honor the centennial of the newspaper comic strip. Walker, Mort. ''Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook : celebrating a life of l ...
, marking the comic-strip centennial.
Today's strip artists, with the help of the NCS, enthusiastically promote the medium, which since the 1970s (and particularly the 1990s) has been considered to be in decline due to numerous factors such as changing tastes in humor and entertainment, the waning relevance of newspapers in general and the loss of most foreign markets outside English-speaking countries. One particularly humorous example of such promotional efforts is the Great Comic Strip Switcheroonie, held in 1997 on April Fool's Day, an event in which dozens of prominent artists took over each other's strips. ''Garfield''’s Jim Davis, for example, switched with '' Blondie''’s Stan Drake, while Scott Adams (''Dilbert'') traded strips with Bil Keane (''
The Family Circus
''The Family Circus'' (originally ''The Family Circle'', also ''Family-Go-Round'') is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Bil's death in 2011, is currently written, inked, and rendered (colored) by his son, Jef ...
'').
While the 1997 Switcheroonie was a one-time publicity stunt, an artist taking over a feature from its originator is an old tradition in newspaper cartooning (as it is in the comic book industry). In fact, the practice has made possible the longevity of the genre's more popular strips. Examples include ''Little Orphan Annie'' (drawn and plotted by Harold Gray from 1924 to 1944 and thereafter by a succession of artists including
Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr (October 28, 1925 – June 30, 2015) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist, and advertising artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strip '' On Stage'' and reviving ''Little Orphan Annie''.
Early life
Born Octob ...
and
Andrew Pepoy
Andrew Pepoy (born 1969) is an American comic book writer and artist.
Career
Pepoy began working as a professional artist while still in college at Loyola University Chicago.
He has worked on a large variety of comics, including ''Superman'', ''S ...
), and ''Terry and the Pirates'', started by Milton Caniff in 1934 and picked up by
George Wunder
George S. Wunder (April 24, 1912 – December 13, 1987) was a cartoonist best known for his 26 years illustrating the ''Terry and the Pirates (comic strip), Terry and the Pirates'' comic strip.
Born in Manhattan, Wunder grew up in Kingston, New Y ...
.
A business-driven variation has sometimes led to the same feature continuing under a different name. In one case, in the early 1940s,
Don Flowers
Don Flowers (1908–1968) was an American cartoonist best known for his syndicated panel ''Glamor Girls''. Flowers was noted for his fluid ink work, prompting Coulton Waugh to write that Flowers displayed "about the finest line ever bequeathed ...
' ''Modest Maidens'' was so admired by William Randolph Hearst that he lured Flowers away from the Associated Press and to King Features Syndicate by doubling the cartoonist's salary, and renamed the feature ''Glamor Girls'' to avoid legal action by the AP. The latter continued to publish ''Modest Maidens'', drawn by Jay Allen in Flowers' style.
The Florida Times-Union
''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...
'', wrote, "Comics are sort of the '
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...
' of the newspaper."
Size
In the early decades of the 20th century, all Sunday comics received a full page, and daily strips were generally the width of the page. The competition between papers for having more cartoons than the rest from the mid-1920s, the growth of large-scale newspaper advertising during most of the thirties, paper
rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the decline on news readership (as television newscasts began to be more common) and
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
(which has caused higher printing costs) beginning during the fifties and sixties led to Sunday strips being published on smaller and more diverse formats. As newspapers have reduced the page count of Sunday comic sections since the late 1990s (by the 2010s, most sections have only four pages, with the back page not always being destined for comics) has also led to further downsizes.
Daily strips have suffered as well. Before the mid-1910s, there wasn't a "standard" size", with strips running the entire width of a page or having more than one tier. By the 1920s, strips often covered six of the eight columns occupied by a traditional broadsheet paper. During the 1940s, strips were reduced to four columns wide (with a "transition" width of five columns). As newspapers became narrower beginning in the 1970s, strips have gotten even smaller, often being just three columns wide, a similar width to the one most daily panels occupied before the 1940s.
In an issue related to size limitations, Sunday comics are often bound to rigid formats that allow their panels to be rearranged in several different ways while remaining readable. Such formats usually include throwaway panels at the beginning, which some newspapers will omit for space. As a result, cartoonists have less incentive to put great efforts into these panels. '' Garfield'' and '' Mutts'' were known during the mid-to-late 80s and 1990s respectively for their throwaways on their Sunday strips, however both strips now run "generic" title panels.
Some cartoonists have complained about this, with Walt Kelly, creator of '' Pogo,'' openly voicing his discontent about being forced to draw his Sunday strips in such rigid formats from the beginning. Kelly's heirs opted to end the strip in 1975 as a form of protest against the practice. Since then, '' Calvin and Hobbes'' creator
Bill Watterson
William Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip ''Calvin and Hobbes'', which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing ''Calvin and Hobbes'' at the end of 1995, ...
has written extensively on the issue, arguing that size reduction and dropped panels reduce both the potential and freedom of a cartoonist. After a lengthy battle with his syndicate, Watterson won the privilege of making half page-sized Sunday strips where he could arrange the panels any way he liked. Many newspaper publishers and a few cartoonists objected to this, and some papers continued to print ''Calvin and Hobbes'' at small sizes. ''Opus'' won that same privilege years after ''Calvin and Hobbes'' ended, while
Wiley Miller
David Wiley Miller (born April 15, 1951, Burbank, California) is an American cartoonist whose work is characterized by wry wit and trenchant social satire, is best known for his comic strip '' Non Sequitur'', which he signs Wiley. ''Non Sequitur' ...
circumvented further downsizes by making his '' Non Sequitur'' Sunday strip available only in a vertical arrangement. Actually, most strips created since 1990 are drawn in the unbroken "third-page" format. Few newspapers still run half-page strips, as with ''
Prince Valiant
''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
Reading Eagle
The ''Reading Eagle'' is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania. A family-owned newspaper until the spring of 2019, its reported circulation is 37,000 (daily) and 50,000 (Sundays). It serves the Reading and Berks County region of Pe ...
'' Sunday comics section until the mid-2010s.
Format
With the success of ''
The Gumps
''The Gumps'' is a comic strip about a middle-class family. It was created by Sidney Smith in 1917, launching a 42-year run in newspapers from February 12, 1917, until October 17, 1959.
According to a 1937 issue of ''Life'', ''The Gumps'' was i ...
'' during the 1920s, it became commonplace for strips (comedy- and adventure-laden alike) to have lengthy stories spanning weeks or months. The "Monarch of Medioka" story in Floyd Gottfredson's ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip ran from September 8, 1937 to May 2, 1938. Between the 1960s and the late 1980s, as
television news
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...
relegated newspaper reading to an occasional basis rather than daily, syndicators were abandoning long stories and urging cartoonists to switch to simple daily gags, or week-long "storylines" (with six consecutive (mostly unrelated) strips following a same subject), with longer storylines being used mainly on adventure-based and dramatic strips. Strips begun during the mid-1980s or after (such as '' Get Fuzzy'', ''
Over the Hedge
''Over the Hedge'' is an American syndicated comic strip, written by Michael Fry, and drawn by T. Lewis. It tells the story of a raccoon, a turtle, a squirrel, and their friends, who come to terms with their woodlands being taken over, by subu ...
'', ''
Monty
Monty is a masculine given name, often a short form of Montgomery, Montague and other similar names. It is also a surname.
Notable people with the name or nickname include:
First name Nickname
* Bernard Montgomery (1887–1976), British Secon ...
'', and others) are known for their heavy use of storylines, lasting between one and three weeks in most cases.
The writing style of comic strips changed as well after World War II. With an increase in the number of college-educated readers, there was a shift away from slapstick comedy and towards more cerebral humor. Slapstick and visual gags became more confined to Sunday strips, because as ''Garfield'' creator Jim Davis put it, "Children are more likely to read Sunday strips than dailies."
Second author
Many older strips are no longer drawn by the original cartoonist, who has either died or retired. Such strips are known as "
zombie strip
In the comic-strip field, a zombie strip (also known as a "legacy strip") is one whose creator has died or retired, but which continues to exist with new editions in publication.Michael CavnaIs It Time to Bottle 'Blondie'? Now's Your Chance to De ...
s". A cartoonist, paid by the syndicate or sometimes a relative of the original cartoonist, continues writing the strip, a tradition that became commonplace in the early half of the 20th century. '' Hägar the Horrible'' and '' Frank and Ernest'' are both drawn by the sons of the creators. Some strips which are still in affiliation with the original creator are produced by small teams or entire companies, such as Jim Davis' ''Garfield'', however there is some debate if these strips fall in this category.
This act is commonly criticized by modern cartoonists including Watterson and ''Pearls Before Swines
Stephan Pastis
Stephan Thomas Pastis (; born January 16, 1968) is an American cartoonist and former lawyer who is the creator of the comic strip ''Pearls Before Swine''. He also writes children's chapter books, commencing with the release of ''Timmy Failure: ...
. The issue was addressed in six consecutive ''Pearls'' strips in 2005. Charles Schulz, of ''
Peanuts
''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...
'' fame, requested that his strip not be continued by another cartoonist after his death. He also rejected the idea of hiring an inker or letterer, comparing it to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts. Schulz's family has honored his wishes and refused numerous proposals by syndicators to continue ''Peanuts'' with a new author.
Assistants
Since the consolidation of newspaper comics by the first quarter of the 20th century, most cartoonists have used a group of assistants (with usually one of them credited). However, quite a few cartoonists (e.g.:
George Herriman
George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip ''Krazy Kat'' (1913–1944). More influential than popular, ''Krazy Kat'' had an appreciative audience ...
and Charles Schulz, among others) have done their strips almost completely by themselves; often criticizing the use of assistants for the same reasons most have about their editors hiring anyone else to continue their work after their retirement.
Rights to the strips
Historically, syndicates owned the creators' work, enabling them to continue publishing the strip after the original creator retired, left the strip, or died. This practice led to the term "legacy strips", or more pejoratively "
zombie strip
In the comic-strip field, a zombie strip (also known as a "legacy strip") is one whose creator has died or retired, but which continues to exist with new editions in publication.Michael CavnaIs It Time to Bottle 'Blondie'? Now's Your Chance to De ...
s". Most syndicates signed creators to 10- or even 20-year contracts. (There have been exceptions, however, such as Bud Fisher's ''
Mutt and Jeff
''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newsp ...
'' being an early—if not the earliest—case in which the creator retained ownership of his work.) Both these practices began to change with the 1970 debut of
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 Eb ...
, as the company gave cartoonists a 50-percent ownership share of their work. Creators Syndicate, founded in 1987, granted artists full rights to the strips, something that Universal Press did in 1990, followed by
King Features
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial c ...
in 1995. By 1999 both
Tribune Media Services
Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Se ...
and
United Feature
United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along wit ...
had begun granting ownership rights to creators (limited to new and/or hugely popular strips).
Censorship
Starting in the late 1940s, the national syndicates which distributed newspaper comic strips subjected them to very strict censorship. ''
Li'l Abner
''Li'l Abner'' is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe. It featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Written and drawn ...
'' was censored in September 1947 and was pulled from the
Pittsburgh Press
''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', centered on Capp's portrayal of the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
. Said Edward Leech of Scripps, "We don't think it is good editing or sound citizenship to picture the Senate as an assemblage of freaks and crooks... boobs and undesirables."
As comics are easier for children to access compared to other types of media, they have a significantly more rigid censorship code than other media. Stephan Pastis has lamented that the "unwritten" censorship code is still "stuck somewhere in the 1950s". Generally, comics are not allowed to include such words as "damn", "sucks", "screwed", and "hell", although there have been exceptions such as the September 22, 2010 ''
Mother Goose and Grimm
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
'' in which an elderly man says, "This nursing home food sucks," and a pair of ''Pearls Before Swine'' comics from January 11, 2011 with a character named Ned using the word "crappy". Naked backsides and shooting guns cannot be shown, according to '' Dilbert'' cartoonist
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated ''Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained nation ...
. Such comic strip taboos were detailed in Dave Breger's book ''But That's Unprintable'' (Bantam, 1955).
Many issues such as
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
,
narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
, and
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
cannot or can very rarely be openly discussed in strips, although there are exceptions, usually for
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
, as in ''Bloom County''. This led some cartoonists to resort to
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
or dialogue children do not understand, as in Greg Evans' '' Luann''. Another example of wordplay to get around censorship is a July 27, 2016
Pearls Before Swine
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
strip that features Pig talking to his sister, and says the phrase "I SIS!" repeatedly after correcting his sister's grammar. The strip then cuts to a scene of a NSA wiretap agent, following a scene of Pig being arrested by the FBI saying "Never correct your sister's grammar", implying that the CIA mistook the phrase "I SIS" with "
ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
". Younger cartoonists have claimed commonplace words, images, and issues should be allowed in the comics, considering that the pressure on "clean" humor has been a chief factor for the declining popularity of comic strips since the 1990s (Aaron McGruder, creator of ''
The Boondocks
Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas.
Boondocks may also refer to:
* The Boondocks (band), an Estonian rock band
* ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder
** ''The Boondocks'' (2005 TV series), the television ser ...
'', decided to end his strip partly because of censorship issues, while the ''
Comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
History of American comics
The history of American comics began in the 19th century in mass print media, in the era of sensationalist journalism, where newspaper comics served as further entertainment for mass readership.Williams, Paul and James Lyons (eds.), ''The Rise ...
*
List of British comic strips
The following is a list of United Kingdom, British comic strip, Comic Strips. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captio ...
*
List of cartoonists
This is a list of cartoonists, visual artists who specialize in drawing cartoons. This list includes only notable cartoonists and is not meant to be exhaustive.
Notable cartoonists
* Scott Adams, ''Dilbert''
* Charles Addams (1938-1988), macabre ...
*
List of newspaper comic strips
The following is a list of comic strips. Dates after names indicate the time frames when the strips appeared. There is usually a fair degree of accuracy about a start date, but because of rights being transferred or the very gradual loss of appea ...
*Blackbeard, Bill, ed. ''The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics''. (1977)
Smithsonian Institution Press
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
/Harry N. Abrams
*Castelli, Alfredo. ''Here We Are Again''
*Gordon, Ian. ''Comic Strips and Consumer Culture'' (1998)
Smithsonian Institution Press
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
*Goulart, Ron. ''Encyclopedia of American Comics''
*Goulart, Ron. ''The Funnies''
*Goulart, Ron. ''The Adventurous Decade''
*Holtz, Allan. ''American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide''. (2012)
University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...
.
* Horn, Maurice. ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics''. (1976)
Chelsea House
Infobase Publishing is an American publisher of reference book titles and textbooks geared towards the North American library, secondary school, and university-level curriculum markets. Infobase operates a number of prominent imprints, including ...
, (1982) Avon.
* Horn, Maurice. ''The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons'' (Chelsea House, 1979) – 6 volumes
* Horn, Maurice. ''100 Years of American Newspaper Comics'' ( Gramercy Books, 1996)
*Koenigsberg, Moses. ''King News'', Moses Koenigsberg
*Mott, Frank Luther. ''American Journalism''
*Robbins, Trina. ''A Century of Women Cartoonists''
*Robbins, Trina and Yronwode, Cat. ''Women and the Comics''
*Robinson, Jerry. ''The Comics''
*Sheridan, Martin. ''Comics And Their Creators''
*Stein, Daniel and Jan-Noel Thon, eds. ''From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels. Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Narrative''. Berlin/Boston 2015.
*Tebbell. ''The Compact History of the American Newspaper''
*Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists''
*
*
* Watson, Elmo Scott. ''A History of Newspaper Syndicates in the United States'', Elmo Scott Watson
*Waugh, Coulton. ''The Comics''
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...