Talk:List of newspaper comic strips

web comics
I'd like to propose a list of the more enduring and reliable Web comics, to complement the existing list of comic strips. Should the listing of Web comics be placed under a separate entry ("List of web comic strips"), or should they be added to the existing list of comic strips, perhaps as a sub-category like this:

A ... ...  ...   Web comics - ...                ...                ...

B ... ...


 * It remains to be seen whether web strips will have any enduring impact. Given the nature of the medium they are like;y to be far more ephemeral than the strips on paper.  In the initial stages at least putting them with the other comics may be the best way to go.  If the entire list becomes unmanageable it can probably be spun off later.  Eclecticology 09:17 Aug 22, 2002 (PDT)


 * There are a few Web comics out there, such as "Sluggy Freelance," that are already giving published comics a run for their money. There are a lot of fly-by-night ones that sputter and go out, of course; but some of them are becoming quite popular.  One web comic ("Kevin & Kell") is produced by the same guy who does the newspaper-syndicated strip "On the Fastrack."  So I'm suggesting that Wikipedia gives acknowledgement to the more successful Web comics out there. Modemac

At any rate, I removed the HavenWorks link to webcomics. I gave it a coup d'oeil, and as far as I could tell, it seemed to be mainly print comics with an online edition. Feel free to return it if I'm wrong. I added a link to KeenSpace, a large webcomics host. - user:Montrealais


 * Nobody's going to be too upset at the loss of the HavenWorks link. Some person came through here about a month ago, inserting links to HavenWorks pages all over the place, the vast majority of which were completely inappropriate. I think that the IP eventually was banned, but I'm not sure; they may have just gone away. In any case, this was a very rare link that was worthwhile, so rather than deleting it, I gave it a description and let it stand. Well, Modemac didn't understand my description, and moved it to the wrong place in the article; Montr&eacute;alais saw that it wasn't what Modemac said and removed it entirely. It was never a list of webcomics; it was a list of comic strips available on the WWW, which is different. No matter; the link is still on Comic strip anyway. &mdash; Toby 11:47 Aug 24, 2002 (PDT)

I understand where you're coming from; my point was that there is a difference between comic strips made for paper publication (which may also have a mirror on the Web), and comic strips made first and foremost for the Web. Modemac

I think the list of web comics should be in the list of comics, simply because they are comics. Lists like these seem to fulfill a need I don't quite understand, but why you should leave out a subset of the set is even more beyond me. By including the web comics, the list is even more complete.--User:Branko

Point of order: 8-bit Comics should be listed under E. I'm tired of computer-sorted lists in which numerical titles are not treated as if spelled out.-- Lee M

Removals
I have collected comic strips for fifty years, and so I've gone through the list and added REMOVE to titles I KNOW were never strips, KEEP to titles I know were strips, and ???? where I am unsure. Rick Norwood 23:23, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

So what's the attitude here on entries which are comic book characters, or comic books which have not (to my knowledge) ever been in comic strips? My feeling is that they should be removed from the list.

Some examples in the list which I think fall into this category:


 * Captain Marvel ????(a comic strip was created by never published)
 * Howard the Duck KEEP
 * The Inferior Five REMVOE
 * Superboy REMVOE
 * The Tick REMOVE

I can see having entries for Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, all of whom were featured in comic strips. But the ones above, as far as I know, never were. Shall we remove them? -mhr 01:03, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)


 * Yes! Let's compile the removal list on this page first, and let anyone who believes that there actually was a particular strip chime in. I'll start...


 * Captain Marvel ????
 * Howard the Duck KEEP
 * The Inferior Five REMOVE
 * Superboy REMOVE
 * The Tick REMOVE
 * Cerebus the Aardvark ????(debatable -- the Prince Precious story was in strip form)
 * Comics Revue (a publication that reprints comic strips, but not a comic strip)
 * The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers KEEP (was a strip, in underground newspapers)
 * Flaming Carrot (underground???)
 * The Flash REMOVE
 * The Simpsons ???
 * The Spectre REMOVE
 * Bone REMOVE

ike9898 01:09, Feb 2, 2004 (UTC)


 * After allowing 2 months for comment, I am deleting the above from the list. If you want to add them back, please give a reason. ike9898 18:43, Mar 17, 2004 (UTC)


 * There are quite a few left that I suspect were never strips. Remove them if you know...  ike9898

Howard the Duck actually had is own newspaper comic strip briefly in the late 1970s, so I'm adding him back to the list. Gamaliel 21:00, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers did appear as a panel (technically not quite a strip, but still periodical) in some alternative tabloids for a while, I think back in the seventies. jaknouse 01:47, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I removed Madam Satan because she's a comic book character, and a pretty damn obscure one at that. Gamaliel 08:16, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Over in list of web comics they've deleted all comics on the list that don't have a wikipedia article. I don't see why we shouldn't do the same thing, so I've removed all redlinks to web comics. Personally I don't think we should have web comics on this list at all, but many seem to disagree, so that's that. But we definately shouldn't have web comics that the web comics list doesn't even have.


 * I have a big problem with this suggestion, since there may be many web strips deserving of an article that hasn't been written yet.

I've also removed Asterix (KEEP, was a strip in US newspapers), Jeremiah ????, and Tintin ????, which I believe are comic books and not strips.

Gamaliel 17:21, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * Iirc, three weeks into the run of the newspaper strip Asterix and Obelix, Goscinny died and the strip was canceled. We don't seem to be restricting this list to only popular or long-running comics, so if someone restored A&O, I would leave it alone.  Otoh, the world-renowned Astérix comic books enormously outweigh the short-lived US comic strip in significance.  My own policy in adding comic strips to the list has been to choose the ones that have had a fairly major impact, as measured by circulation, longevity, influence, or republication. Gwil 03:22, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm reinstating Tintin, which started weekly in a newspaper, and run daily in the newspaper during WWII. Asterix and Jeremiah are comic books (although newspapers around here (Belgium) tend to publish comic books on a page-per-day basis recently). I'll make a few slight changes to other Belgian comics as well. Fram 15:07, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm in the process of adding some strips to the list. I have book-form collections of all of them, which I figure means they're important enough to be listed.

More candidates for deletion, if you agree: Gwil 03:37, 24 August 2005 (UTC) Gwil 23:29, 29 August 2005 (UTC) Gwil 02:52, 8 September 2005 (UTC) Gwil 15:47, 19 September 2005 (UTC) Gwil 03:22, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Believe It Or Not - not a sequential narrative KEEP (is considered a strip)
 * Blake and Mortimer - similar to Astérix ????
 * Captain Klutz - afaik, only in paperback books (and Mad or Cracked??) REMOVE
 * Droodles - when it appeared in the newspaper, it was a column of text (about 5 inches?) with an illustration. Except for length, you could say the same about Dave Barry's column when it was illustrated by Jeff MacNelly. ????
 * Max and Moritz - I don't care how many people have called it a comic strip, it's not, it's an illustrated children's story in verse. And it was a one-shot!  The only reason it keeps popping up in comic strip histories is that it inspired "The Katzenjammer Kids" ????
 * Spike and Suzy - this is the latest English version of "Suske en Wiske", which normally appears in album form, like Astérix. If we're going to have it in the list at all, we should use the original English title, "Wanda and Willy"; or, better yet, "Suske en Wiske" ????
 * Conrad - can't tell what strip this means KEEP (this is a major US strip)
 * James - same problem, only we have the dates (1999-2000); anyone have a clue? ????
 * Private Snafu - animated cartoon shorts REMOVE
 * Joe Matt - appears to be a comic book; besides, the name of the work is "Peepshow" according to the Wikipedia article
 * North of Here - as far as I can tell, it only runs in one local paper, and it looks very unprofessional. Why does it have a link to it?  Is this somebody hyping his homebrew comic?  KEEP There are collectors of rare comic strips.  Did you know William Gibson wrote and drew a comic strip that only appeared in his home town newspaper?
 * Pop's Place - it really is or was a comic, but has almost zero web presence ????
 * Pretzel Logic - when I searched for it on the web, I could find people talking about it, but no actual samples, dates, or author ????
 * Ribbons and Haywire - I added this one myself, because I have a paperback compilation; however, no web presence ????
 * Snarfquest - (SnarfQuest?) appears to be a regular feature in Dragon magazine, later collected in album form. If so, it would be analogous to other rejected titles like Blake and Mortimer, Asterix, and Jeremiah. ????
 * Cucalón - According to my research, there were four Chilean magazines in succession, Mampato, Cucalón, Ogú, and Pimpín, in which the adventures of Mampato and his friends appeared. This belongs under comic books, not comic strips.


 * Agree with the others, but gotta dissent on Believe it or Not. I don't think sequential narratives are necessarily a good measure of inclusion as it would also knock out one panel strips like Family Circus, etc. Gamaliel 03:42, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Sometimes Family Circus sticks to a plot for a week. Marmaduke would be a better example, but it still has continuing characters.  Bizarro would be an even better example, but it's still fictional.  There's a huge distinction between BioN and a one-panel cartoon.  BioN has stories, but they purport to be factual, they share a panel with other unrelated stories, they don't have dialogue.  I maintain that BioN belongs in a different category, along with Walt Disney's True Life Adventures (? not sure of the name, but this was a series of illustrated vignettes of nature lore in the 1950s), Tad Dorgan's sports cartoons, and a cooking cartoon that our newspaper carried not too long ago, which had three panels in comic-strip format with a recipe and a small inset drawing of a chef.  In short, fiction vs. non-fiction.  If you want to adjoin the small category of illustrated non-fiction serial newspaper features to the large category of fictional comic strips, that's another matter. Gwil 15:47, 24 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Believe it or Not and many similar strips are considered comic strips by collectors. So is Disney's True Life Adventures, Mark Trail, The Stars and Bars, Seein' Stars, and many other strips that are partly or entirely non-fictional or even non-narrative. Rick Norwood 23:23, 19 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I had already removed Balke & Mortimer and SOda, which aren't newspaper comics (or comic strips) but magazine comics. I had left Spike and Suzy, because this is definitely a newspaper comic in its original form. New stories still appear first in Belgian and Dutch newspapers. I don't know if it should be placed under it's original name (Suske en Wiske) or under one of its English names (Spike and Suzy, Willy and Wanda, or even Bob and Bobette).

Hope this helps. Rick Norwood 23:23, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

After leaving the proposed removals here for comment for 1-2 months, I've removed Captain Klutz, Conrad, Cucalón, Droodles, James, Joe Matt, Max and Moritz, Pop's Place, Pretzel Logic, Private Snafu, and Snarfquest. I also changed the listing for Spike and Suzy to Suske en Wiske. Gwil 20:03, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Marvel / DC
I think that the Marvel characters like Spider-Man and DC like Superman should be removed from the list because if you keep the you will have to add the list from List of DC Comics publications and the one with Marvel comics on it too, so I think they should be deleted but a link to those two pages should be at the bottom.


 * We've done our best to weed out comic book characters. However, some characters like Spider-Man have had their own comic strips independent of their comic books and thus should be included on that basis. Gamaliel 19:03, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * The following comic book characters also had their own comic strips: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-man, Conan, Howard the Duck, Blue Beetle, Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Asterix and Oblisk, Concrete, and Tom Corbett--Space Cadet. Rick Norwood 23:28, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

beau peep?
I couldn't find beau peep in the list. Is the list only that of american comic strips?

If it's going to be added, it is Beau Peep by Roger Kettle and Andrew Christine a british comic strip that began on 2nd November 1978. I don't know if the strip has stopped though.


 * Any user is welcome to make any additions to the list they think are appropriate. Gamaliel 05:12, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * I've written up a stub and added it to the list. &mdash; Matt Crypto 13:40, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Definitions of terms
(Section moved here from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Comics as felt to be relevant.) Hiding talk 19:34, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm a newbie to WikiProject Comics, although I've contributed a couple of articles to the general Wikipedia, so tell me if I'm out of line here - for example, if this issue has already been settled somewhere else.

It seems to me that one of the most important discussions to have here is to determine the scope of the terms "comics", "comic strips", "webcomics", "comic books", "cartoons", "animated cartoons", "graphic novels", "manga", and so on. (They may be overlapping.)

Example 1: I was highly annoyed to find that the Wikipedia article on Max and Moritz describes it as a comic strip. Max and Moritz is an illustrated rhymed story, and I don't see any meaningful distinction between it and "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss. The reason it's frequently mentioned in histories of comic strips is that it was an inspiration for The Katzenjammer Kids, which is clearly one of the early comic strips.

Example 2: According to the discussion page, Astérix, Jeremiah, and Tintin were removed from the List of comic strips page because they were considered comic books. In that case, the same should apply to Blake and Mortimer. Some other questionable entries are Believe It Or Not!, which is not narrative; Dennis the Menace (UK), which is a full page in a comic book (in tabloid format); and Howard the Duck, which is a comic book.

Since my main interest is newspaper comic strips, I would like to suggest the distinguishing characteristics of comic strips, and open the floor for discussion. When consensus is reached, the next step would be to eliminate noncompliant works from the List of comic strips.

1. A comic strip must have pictures. It need not have words (allow pantomime strips like Henry and Ferd'nand). If it has words, they may be in speech balloons, captions, or both (allow Prince Valiant and Tarzan). Speech balloons are not necessarily enclosed. Captions should be within the panel area, or one or two lines of text directly underneath it (allow Dennis the Menace and Marmaduke; disallow Dave Barry's humor column with MacNelly illustrations, Rodolphe Töpffer's stories, Droodles). A panel is a single picture, representing a scene caught at a single moment, with its attendant text (dialogue or caption), usually enclosed in a frame line.

2. A comic strip is a serial publication. It appears in a periodical printed medium of communication, usually a newspaper or magazine (should the Internet be allowed?). Normally it continues to appear for an indefinite period, as long as it remains in demand, or until the author dies or retires. Individual installments of the strip, corresponding to single issues of its host medium, are narrative - they tell a story or part of a story. Installments may consist of one or several panels (note that most multi-panel comic strips occasionally use a single panel when appropriate, e.g. Non Sequitur). Consecutive installments may or may not form an extended narrative. There may or may not be continuing characters (allow Bizarro and Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend).

3. A comic strip, reproduced in any other medium, is still a comic strip. Some of the earliest comic books were devoted to reprints of comic strips, and there are many collections of comic strips in book format.

4. A comic book is not a comic strip. I wasn't able to come up with a clear criterion to distinguish between comic strips and comic books. Does the word "strip" imply one horizontal row? If there are multiple rows of panels in an installment (or, a fortiori, multiple pages), does that make it a comic book story? Ed Wheelan's newspaper comic strip Minute Movies typically had two rows of panels crammed together horizontally. It would be a shame to separate Sunday funnies from daily comic strips: most of them have the same titles, authors, and continuities as the dailies. In the first half of the twentieth century, many Sunday funnies occupied all or nearly all of a newspaper page. If the daily Gasoline Alley is a comic strip, the Sunday Gasoline Alley page should be too. On the other hand, it would be reasonable to call The Spirit a comic book. It was distributed with the Sunday newspaper, but its stories covered several full pages. Should all magazines devoted primarily to cartoon stories be called comic books? Should Sergio Aragonés's "drawn-out drawings" in MAD be called a comic strip? How about the Hazel cartoons in the Saturday Evening Post, by Ted Key, or Hoest's Laugh Parade in Parade Magazine? How about Pee Wee Harris in Boys' Life? I would disallow The Spirit, "drawn-out drawings", Hazel, Laugh Parade, and Pee Wee Harris. Is that the consensus?

Gwil 06:46, 23 August 2005 (UTC)


 * A quick response, hopefully I'll have time for a more detailed one later. You raise interesting points.  First, Max and Moritz I have seen referred to as a comic strip outside of Wikipedia, so I don't think it is unfair to use the term, although perhaps not so definitively as it currently is.


 * The definitions of all the terms you mention are, unfortunately, not extremely well defined outside of wikipedia, and since we can't take a POV, they really have to remain pretty ill defined here, I would have thought?


 * Well, suppose I looked for categorizations in ten different books about comic strips by recognized authorities, and found that they overwhelmingly rejected Max and Moritz as a comic strip?


 * Brian Walker, in his book "The Comics Before 1945" (paraphrased), says that comic strips are hard to pin down, because comic strip creators are constantly innovating and changing the scope of the definition. That looks bad for my case... Gwil 01:34, 24 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I haven't looked at List of comic strips, but again, the term is ill defined. In the UK we call most things comic strips, regardless of format, and some scholars hold that a comic book is merely the publication format and what is inside is the comic strip.  It all gets rather complicated when you remove the strip from the comic book and place it in a raphic novel, for instance, Maus is often referred to as a graphic novel when it started life as a strip.  So yes, I can disagree with the removal of Tintin et al from those lists, but I can also understand why they were removed.


 * As to your characteristics, I fail to see why one would remove Tpffer's stories from the list, whilst allowing single panels. Single panels are not a strip, since they do not appear stripped, there is no sequence, it is only one panel, and therefore they do not fit the term, which was created to define sequential panels, at least as I understand it.  Single panels are cartoons.


 * Maybe this is a North American PoV (I think also South American). I'm predisposed to calling anything on the comics page of a newspaper a "comic strip", unless it's a feature (horoscope, Jumble, etc.).  But if you consider the single-panel cartoons as a serial - weeks' or years' worth of one title - I think they're more like than unlike a multi-panel comic strip. Gwil


 * The second one seems too inclusive, I can not see anything which would not be included with that definition, but I don't take exceptional objection past the single panel issue discussed above.


 * You're right, characteristic 2 doesn't eliminate very much. I stuck it in to give a clearer idea of comic strips to the proverbial man from Mars who doesn't know anything about Earth culture. Gwil


 * The third one, again is how I understand it but is also contentious, as per Maus.


 * The fourth one seems to me easily solved if one sees a comic book as a format publishing comic strips, as is the case in the UK. In the U.S. market I am not so sure that that definition is still applicable, even though, as you say, that is the roots of the form.  I don't think a comic strip should be distinguished as being of one horizontal row, as that disregards European usage of the term  completely.  Dan Dare, Tintin and so on are all comic strips.  However, a neat sidestep of the issue may be to rename the list as a list of newspaper comic strips and thus only include those strips that appear in newspapers. Hiding  talk 09:19, 23 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Last thoughts. The Spirit is most definitely thought of as a comic strip, and I think the consensual fudge at the moment is to use comics as the catch all, possibly for all bar cartoons. Hiding talk 09:27, 23 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your feedback.


 * BTW, this discussion isn't from out of the blue. I wanted to make some additions to List of comic strips, but I wasn't sure where to draw the line. Gwil


 * Here's the fudge currently used at Category:Comic strip cartoonists:


 * This category lists newspaper comic strip cartoonists. Those who illustrate comic strips for British or European comics or albums, are categorised as comics artists.

Does that help any? I think as you say, it is a question of usage of the term comic strip around the world that causes the problem. I think if the list clearly defines what is included and not included, that would solve inclusion and exclusion issues somewhat. At the moment the list uses the comic strip article as its definition for inclusion and exclusion, which currently doesn't discuss the single panel, which at the moment has an article at Gag cartoon, but does include the European and UK definition. However the article is currently somewhat North American centric. However, this discussion, if it relates to List of comic strips, is probably best had there. Hiding talk 13:11, 24 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi, Hiding. Inclusivists would have the Bayeux Tapestry be called a comic strip -- not only a comic strip but a Conan comic strip.  It mixes words and pictures, tells a sequential narrative, and mentions a character named Conan.  Exclusivists would say that Prince Valiant is not a comic strip because it doesn't have word balloons.  But, in practice, Prince Valiant is called a comic strip and the Bayeux Tapestry isn't.


 * The word comic strip has different meanings in the US and the UK, and probably other countries use the words in ways I'm not familiar with.


 * As you probably know by now, there was a Howard the Duck comic strip and an Asterix comic strip. Both appeared daily and Sunday in American newspapers, just like all the other comic strips.  The UK Dennis the Menace is probably not a comic strip by our definition, though it is by theirs.  The US Dennis the Menace is a comic strip, but in the subcategory of a daily panel but a Sunday strip.


 * Your attempt to define comic strip looks pretty good to me, but it is too long. Originally, comic strips appeared in newspapers, comic books appeared on newsstands, and that was that.  The Spirit has always been a problem, but there was daily strip of The Spirit that was clearly a comic strip.  Now, of course, with strips in underground newspapers, in magazines, on the web, everything is higgley piggley.  My own vote is to limit comic strips (in the US usage) to strips in newspapers and to web strips that self-identify as comic strips. Rick Norwood 23:51, 19 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi Rick Norwood, only just spotted this. Appreciate your comments, but am unsure of your point regarding "The UK Dennis the Menace is probably not a comic strip by our definition".  When you say "our" do you mean Wikipedia?  If so I take issue with that point.  Also note that regardless of whether the Bayeaux tapestry is a comic strip or not, it's also debatable as to whether it is a tapestry.  I'm not fussed either way as to whether it is a comic strip, although I'm not sure it is meant to be humourous.  I also find it odd to think of daily panels as comic strips, since they aren't stripped, they're just panels.  I'm quite happy for this list to state that it only lists newspaper comic strips, if that is the way people want to go, so long as it becomes named accordingly.  I'm not sure why we should have to use the US usage, it seems systematic bias to me. Note also that comic books originally repackaged newspaper comic strips, even in the US, so the distinction isn't as clear as you seem to be making out. Hiding  talk 19:01, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Template
Currently the template for comic strip listings seems to be:

Title (publication dates) by Original Creator Name(s) [- web comic]

with by changed to originated by when the original creator has been replaced. I would like to suggest that the nationality be appended to this template. If no one disagrees, I'll start the process going. Examples:


 * Flook (1949-?) by Trog (Wally Fawkes) (U.K.)
 * Foolish Questions (1908-1934) by Rube Goldberg (U.S.)
 * Footrot Flats (1975-1999) by Murray Ball (New Zealand)
 * For Better or For Worse (1979- ) by Lynn Johnston (Canada)

Gwil 16:53, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Common usage is UK rather than U.K., but other than that, feel free. Hiding talk 18:25, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

I'd also like to add R after the Reuben winners' names. With 335 comic strips in the list and counting, it's getting hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Gwil 00:14, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I added the nationalities of the majority of the strips off the top of my head, so I may have made a few mistakes. I'll try to check any that I'm not sure of. Gwil 17:05, 27 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Since in wikipedia R stands for revert, why not paste in "Reuben Award winner"?Rick Norwood 23:30, 19 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I personally don't care what symbol is used, but "Reuben Award winner" (in bold?) strikes me as bulky. How about OCY for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, which is more precise?  Anyway, this is a Wiki; if you like it better that way, go ahead and change it.


 * Now that we have the title, dates, author, and nationality for almost all the strips, would it make sense to change the list into a four-column table, or maybe five-column (one for notes)? Gwil 03:49, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

I've changed the R to Reuben. Doesn't take up much more space and a lot easier to read. I've also added a number of strips that I have certain knowledge of. A few I don't have dates or artists for, such as Gene Autry. I am tempted to remove Capt. Klutz, but it is so hard to be sure that a strip has NEVER appeared in ANY newspaper. Does anybody know who added it in the first place, and if it was in that big lot of additions that turned out to be comic book characters? As far as I know, Capt. Klutz has only appeared in a paperback book. Rick Norwood 15:39, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Also, please note the spelling of the name of the comic strip in which Popeye first appeared: Thimble Theatre. Rick Norwood 21:50, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

I have recently starting consulting the book Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists 1924-1995 The Complete Index by Dave Strickler to determine which comic strips have been syndicated for at least ten years, on the belief that such strips would very likely be found to be "significant" as per the rules of the wikipedia. I have to date added those titles which start with either "A" or "B" which have not already been included, and found that the page is already longer than would be desired.

I would suggest that the entries be shortened in those instances where the strip has no other data or page on the wikipedia to include only the title of the strip, the years in which it ran, and country of origin, possibly also with an indication of whether it is a Reuben winner. In the event the strip already has its own page, the country of origin might be eliminated as well. Also, it might save space if it were indicated that all strips are United States except where otherwise indicated, as most of them seem to be from the United States. I believe that such a shortening of the entries would make for a shorter page which might be able to include more strips. Also, considering that the Reuben Award winners are listed separately, I think that the Reuben citation might now be irrelevant. Finally, if it is still too long, the list could perhaps be broken into two pages, one listing strips still active and one listing those which have been discontinued. I would be quite happy to hear the opinions of any of the rest of you. Thank you for your time and consideration. Badbilltucker 14:46, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Best bet is to split alphabetically, guidance at Naming conventions (long lists) is to name the split pages either List of comic strips: A or List of comic strips: A-B-C-D. Hiding The wikipedian meme 20:17, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Recent revert
None of this is a big deal, there's just not enough room in the edit summary:


 * I'll take your word for it that Kirby drew the strip under the name "Charles Nicholas", but it should be clear that while Nicholas may have been Kirby's pseudonym in this case, Nicholas was also an entirely different real person. I have come up with an alternative wording that I hope will satisfy us both.
 * I've been reading Concrete for years and I've never heard of a Concrete comic strip. Could you provide some citation for this and perhaps add it to the Concrete article as well?

I suspect that these changes were undone accidentally by your revert, but in case they were not I will justify them here:


 * Detective Fork is a webcomic with no artice. The List of web comics doesn't keep redlinks, no reason why we should keep redlinked webcomics either.
 * The City is a longstanding strip in alternative newspapers. No reason to remove this.

Thanks. Gamaliel 18:34, 13 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, the webcomics were undone accidentally. Sorry.


 * I know that Charles Nicholas is a real person. The statement that Kirby ghosted the comic strip for him comes from The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon, who ought to know. One of the ghosted strips appears in the book.  The way it reads now is fine.


 * Whether the Concrete comic strip is a "real" comic strip is debatable. It did not appear in newspapers, but in Dark Horse Extra, a Dark Horse publication in the format of a Sunday newspaper comics section, that published strips in a format that intentionally mimiced the format found in Sunday newspapers.  So, if it looks like a comic strip, appears periodically like a comic strip, is it a comic strip?  If not, why not?  (The main reason I mentioned it here is that I thought a lot of Concrete fans might like to know about it.) Rick Norwood 20:32, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Length of List
I recently added the strips beginning with "A" or "B" which were listed in a book as having been in syndication for at least ten years. At that time, I found that this page is already longer than the recommended maximum length. I would suggest that we consider some of the following options to shorten the length of the list.

1) Possibly separate the strips which are no longer being created on a separate page. This is an extreme measure, but would certainly shorten the pages. 2) For those strips which already have their own pages, the data could be reduced to simply the title of the strip or the title and years of production/syndication. The other data could be found on the strip's own page. Given that the Reuben Awards are listed elsewhere in the wikipedia, I believe that that indicator could safely be removed from the list, shortening it a little. 3) I think we could save some memory space by indicating that all strips listed are United States unless clearly indicated otherwise. I don't know how much space would be saved by doing so however.  4)  For those strips which do not have a page of their own, I think that the most data required on the list would be title, years of circulation, and writers/artists. Nation of origin could be handled as per 3 above.

I would welcome any feedback.Badbilltucker 8:24, 24 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I replied above where you posted this before, but I'll copy it here for ease of reference:


 * The way to do it is to split alphabetically, guidance at Naming conventions (long lists) is to name the split pages either List of comic strips: A or List of comic strips: A-B-C-D. Hiding The wikipedian meme 15:06, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for missing the earlier statement, Hiding. Thank you for the information and I will implement the suggestion, probably with a break between "M" and "N". Unfortunately, other tasks will probably keep me from doing it today, but I should have it done by at least the end of the week. Thanks again. Badbilltucker 16:19, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Splitting of List
Hello. As I have stated above, I have recently starting reviewing which comic strips were syndicated for at least ten years through 1995 for eventual possible inclusion on this list, on the basis that any comic strip which has been syndicated for at least 10 years probably qualifies as significant. After having added the "A"'s and "B"'s from the list, I find that the page is already longer than would be wanted. I have myself never even attempted splitting a list like this, and realize that there is a very good chance that I would screw it up big time. On that basis, if there are any of you out there who have greater experience in such things, I am asking you to do so. I am afraid like I said that I would make a number of serious mistakes if I were to try it. Thank you. Badbilltucker 18:00, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I won't promise to do it now, but leave it with me, and nudge me at my talk page if it isn't done by Friday. Hiding The wikipedian meme 19:04, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether this would follow the wikipedia guidelines or not. However, I think that it might make sense to turn the list of comic strips page into a page listing comic strips by nationality, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and all other countries from which listed comic strips have come. These countries would probably be listed alphabetically, and the longer lists would be put on separate pages with a link to those pages at the name of the country. The advantages of doing so would include that it would reduce the amount of work which would have to be done in changing the existing links, as the central page would still have every listed country on it, and probably make it easier for users to find whatever strips listed might be from their specific country of interest. I would appreciate any feedback.Badbilltucker 13:07, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Newspapers or not
While this page is about comic strips, the three subpages are titled "newspaper comic strips". This contradicts the text on this page: "The following lists include comic strips where they have been published in newspapers or magazines, including comic magazines as published in Europe." European comic magazines are not the same as newspapers (not as comic books), and if they are to be included in these lists, then the name of the articles (sublists) should be changed (no "newspapers" in title). Otherwise, the parent list (this page) should be moved to "newspaper..." as well, and the line about comic magazines should be removed, and all comic strips published mainly in such magazines should be gone as well. Fram (talk) 14:52, 9 November 2009 (UTC)


 * To clarify, some European cartoons have moved back and forth from comic strips to books and back again, such as Achille Talon and Asterix.


 * --UnicornTapestry (talk) 21:04, 31 August 2010 (UTC)