''Rugrats'' was a daily comic strip based on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

Rugrats ''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on a group of toddlers; most prominently— Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil, a ...

''. Like the program, the comic strip was written to be humorous to both children and adults. The strip ran from April 5, 1998 to May 3, 2003. Writers for the series were Scott Gray, Gordon Kent, Lee Nordling, Chuck Kim, Scott Roberts, J. Torres, Mark Bilgrey, John Zakour, and Rob Moran. The original artist was Steve Crespo, pencils and inks. Crespo left early on, and Will Blyberg took over inking, while other pencilers included: Gary Fields, Kyle Baker, (who did his own inking) a South American known only as "Rodrigues", Tim Harkins, Vince Giarrano, and Scott Roberts (the only contributor to both write and draw the strip.) By the end, Roberts was the sole penciler, and Blyberg inked till the final strip. Sundays were colored by Stu Chaifitz. Tim Harkins and Gary Fields lettered even after they stopped penciling. Early strips had no continuity, but later years featured short storylines. Public reaction to the series was muted, compared to the television series. ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'' readers of all age brackets, for example, voted ''Rugrats'' as its worst comic strip. Many newspapers quickly demoted the title to Sunday-only. In all, 130 newspapers carried the comic strip at some point during its run, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Australia,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Newspapers in Orlando (home of Nickelodeon Studios) never picked up the title, while ''Rugrats'' was dropped early from New York and Los Angeles papers, home of the Viacom and

Klasky-Csupo Klasky-Csupo, Inc. (stylized as KLaSKY CSUPO INC., doing business as Klasky Csupo, ) is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó (hence ...

headquarters, respectively. Scott Gray and Tim Harkins created two special strips for

Mott's Mott's is an American company involved primarily in producing apple-based products, particularly juices and sauces. The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott of Bouckville, New York, who made apple cider and vinegar. In 1914, the ...

Flavored Applesauce, single-serving.

Relation to the animation

Occasional comic strips conflict with the continuity of the television series, reintroducing characters in different scenarios, but some take plotlines from episodes. For the weeks of November 26 to December 9, 2000, the strips were themed to the feature film '' Rugrats in Paris: The Movie''. The assumption is that the readers have seen the feature film, not fully dealing with the major plot points of the movie. In the November 30 strip, Kimi first appears in the comic strip, without any introduction to the character. The first week after the series is about Chuckie being excited that he has a new sister.

References

{{Creators Syndicate Comics American comic strips 1998 comics debuts 2003 comics endings Comic strips set in the United States Gag-a-day comics Jewish-related comics Rugrats (franchise) Comics based on television series Child characters in comics