Feedback on the funny pages
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sarge has to hunt for Beetle Bailey,
but most readers of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette’s comics pages
find the perennial private every day. Cartoonist Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey is the newspaper’s top-rated comic strip, according to a newly tabulated survey of nearly 6, 000 readers.
The survey’s top question: “How do you feel about each of the daily comics ?” It asked readers to score each comic strip on a top-to-bottom scale of 1 (love it ) to 5 (hate it ).
The poll finds Zits in second place overall. The Family Circus is third.
“It’s nice to know people are still reading [Beetle Bailey ] after 58 years,” Walker told us. At 84, he and Beetle claim the record for “the oldest comic strip still drawn by the same person.”
“I don’t know what else to do with myself,” Walker says with a chuckle from his office in Connecticut. “It’s a lot of fun to do, and it’s good exercise for my mind. I can think up 20 gags in one hour.”
His sons, Brian and Greg, and longtime assistant Jerry Dumas, also write for the strip. They start each month with 140 jokes, “and we only use 30,” Walker says. “We have plenty to choose from to keep the quality up.”
He pencils the strip according to the same rule he has applied to about 21, 000 Beetle Bailey comic strips so far: “I like funny pictures.” Clear pictures help people “get to know the characters and have some feeling for them.”
Gen. Halftrack would whistle at the numbers: 2, 881 people ranked Beetle Bailey a “1” daily, and 1, 461 gave it a “2” — high marks from 75. 5 percent of all respondents.
Beetle gets the top vote Sunday, also. Just the other day, he even got a date with Miss Buxley. Never so lucky, the guys at the singles bar get slapped.
Girls & Sports ranks last among 31 comic strips and panels that run every weekday, and just a wink and blink better than the children’s feature, Night Lights & Fairy Flights, among 27 on Sunday.
The guys in Girls & Sports have trouble finding love. But it’s still one of the newest features in the comics section. They’ve been pitching their come-on lines for about a year, and you never know when they might lock eyes with the reader across the room.
“Our main goal is to have a mix of comics,” Deputy Editor Frank Fellone says. “Not everyone likes every comic — that’s impossible. But our comics offer something for everyone. I like to think that our kind readers don’t begrudge the tastes of others. I read every comic, every day, and there are some that make me grind my teeth in despair. But we keep them because somebody else likes them.”
The Democrat-Gazette asked its readers to rate the comics pages with a clip-and- mail questionnaire the paper ran last fall. The top of the ballot explained why:
“To keep as many readers as pleasantly entertained as possible, we need your help. Tell us which comics you love and which comics you hate, which comics we should keep and which comics we should drop.”
The basketsful of results were a lot to count by hand — “a huge amount,” Fellone says — like toting up how many pans of lasagna Garfield could eat, and how many swimsuits Cathy tries on (and nothing fits ) and how many slices of Swiss cheese go in a Dagwood sandwich.
The form not only asked people to grade the comics, but also to name their favorites. Also, it gathered some background on people’s reading habits, age and education.
It was a lot to fill out — like writing down all the ways the King is a fink. But 5, 751 readers took the time, as if everybody in the whole town of De Queen had fired off a ballot.
“It’s gratifying to know that something in your newspaper can generate that kind of interest,” says Fellone, who watched over the survey as the newspaper’s unofficially-titled “Knight Templar of the comics pages.”
In fact, 5, 751 is more votes for comic strips than the number of votes cast in the recent presidential primaries in 45 of Arkansas’ 75 counties. And the comics are tougher: They’ve all stayed in the race.
The number of responses, by itself, shows people’s devotion to the comics, says Stephen Charla of Little Rock, former curator at the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Fla.
Comics go back to the earliest days of newspapers. The first big hit was The Yellow Kid in the New York World of 1895. Since then, generations of readers have grown up with the funny pages on the breakfast table, and it’s easy to credit the endurance of comic strips to force of habit.
But “if people were really just reading these comic strips out of habit,” Charla says, “I don’t believe it would motivate 6, 000 of them to write in to the local paper to identify their favorites.”
Mort Walker started the cartoon museum. It closed in search of a new home five years ago. Charla joined the Clinton Presidential Library as a museum technician, but he still follows the comics.
“I’m sure your readers genuinely like the strips in your top 10,” he says. “Part of it might be familiarity, since most of the strips that ranked high in your poll have been around for decades and are pretty much institutions at this point. But I think those strips have lasted as long as they have because people can identify with the characters and the situations they find themselves in.
“ It’s easy for readers to see a little of themselves in a character like Dagwood. And I’m sure people enjoy seeing these characters behave in ways they wish they could. Think of Beetle Bailey’s laziness, or Garfield’s gluttony, or Dennis the Menace’s innocent misbehavior.”
HIGHS AND LOIS-ES The poll finds out not only what readers think of the comics in general — the total results — but also the differences between men’s and women’s choices and other factors. For example: Total results go down the list of dailies from top-three Beetle Bailey, Zits and The Family Circus to Blondie, Baby Blues and Hi and Lois; Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible and The Wizard of Id — the top 10.
Pickles is a close 11 th. Luann is 12 th, and then: Mutts, Born Lucky (in the Sports section ), Overboard, Rose Is Rose, The Elderberries (discontinued ) Zack Hill, Ripley’s Believe It or Not (in the classifieds section ), Pearls Before Swine, Jump Start, Dilbert, Mallard Fillmore (in the classifieds ), Strange Brew, Doonesbury (in the classifieds ), Judge Parker, Cathy, The Duplex, Get Fuzzy, Lio and Girls & Sports.
Men salute Beetle Bailey, but they don’t dance with Cathy.
Women give Baby Blues the most hugs and kisses. Readers of ages 17 and younger like Zits the best daily, and Judge Parker the least. Those of ages 55 and older score Beetle Bailey the highest daily, and Lio at the bottom. The Family Circus is tops with high school graduates and readers with less than high school degrees. Those with “some college” take to Beetle Bailey, also a guy with some college. College graduates give Zits extra credit.
The ballot posed two followup questions: “If your feet were held to the fire, which one comic is your favorite ?” the ballot asked. Ouch ! — tough question. Baby Blues got the most votes, 723.
“If you were king for a day, which one comic would you cancel ?” the ballot egged on. Respondents — 1, 416 of ’em — sicced the Grim Reaper on Lio.
Lio declines comment — the strange boy never talks — but his lonely plight is common among newer comic strips in competition with longtime preferences.
GET LT. FUZZ In 1950, Beetle Bailey was the new strip that had to scramble for success, as Mort’s son, Brian Walker, points out. Beetle faced inky odds in competition with yesterday’s Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie, the favorites of a bygone era. As Beetle caught on, the oldtimers had to hustle to stay in the game. “We’re all trying to make a living,” Brian says. Brian has written extensively about comics history, including the recent companion volumes, The Comics Before 1945 and The Comics Since 1945 (Abrams ). For him, it’s also family history.
Beetle started in college, in 1950. He swapped the porkpie hat of his college days for an Army helmet, but he kept the slouch. Beetle went home on furlough to see his sister, Lois, and the visit led to Hi and Lois. Mort Walker and the late Dik Browne started Hi and Lois in 1954.
Brian and Greg Walker and Chance Browne (Dik’s son ) produce today’s Hi and Lois. Chance’s brother, Chris, took over their dad’s other strip, Hagar the Horrible.
They all have to work hard to stay on top, Brian says.
Beetle Bailey runs in about 1, 800 newspapers worldwide, “and we have to fight for every one of those.”
John Deering, the Democrat-Gazette’s chief editorial cartoonist, has two nationally-syndicated comics in the survey. Readers graded his comic strip, Zack Hill, 18 th among the dailies. His panel, Strange Brew, is 24 th by the same count, topping Doonesbury and Judge Parker.
“I have always aspired to rate higher than Judge Parker,” Deering quips, “although I have the highest respect for the judiciary.”
Deering’s ratings place his comics in the same midrange as a couple of his own personal favorites, Dilbert and Pearls Before Swine. The newspaper’s survey is just one measure of a strip’s popularity. Books are another. Sopratos is the latest Pearls Before Swine collection, and no cubicle is complete without a Dilbert wall calendar.
“I’m happy to rate close to such solid strips that have strong followings,” Deering says.
MUTTS AND JESTS Comics history is loaded with long-gone favorites that memory insists were the best ever: Walt Kelly’s Pogo, Al Capp’s Li’l Abner, Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Charla is among readers who miss Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side — comics whose artists have retired. But “I always hesitate to say that anything’s ‘ not what it used to be, ’” he says. “When people say that, it’s usually nostalgia talking.” Some changes are real. Comics sections generally “are dominated by gag-a-day humor strips” in place of yesterday’s comic-strip crime-fighters and love-seekers, Charla points out. “Newspapers began printing the comics smaller and smaller, and the humor strips were better able to survive that shrinking process... the art in a strip like Cathy or Dilbert registers more easily at that size.” Less to draw doesn’t necessarily mean less work, though, Charla says. “I’m guessing it’s just as hard for today’s cartoonists to come up with a joke a day as it was for their predecessors.”
Comic-strip writer Brian Walker finds Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois “very different.”
“Beetle is very much physical humor,” he says. “It’s a bunch of gag lines and the occasional knee-slapper if you’re doing your job right. Hi and Lois is more subtle — more a real look at people’s experience.”
Hi and Lois has jokes about belly-button rings and cell phones to keep the strip up-to-date, while Beetle is stationed in a timeless sort of “Beetle Bailey fantasy land,” as Brian calls it. Beetle won’t be headed for Iraq.
“I think it would be hard to find a lot of humor in that situation,” he says. Total scores “Beetle Bailey” is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s most popular daily and Sunday comic strip, based on total results in the newspaper’s comics poll. The poll asked readers to rate each strip on a scale of 1 (love it ) -to-5 (hate it ). Low numbers win, and nobody else lays low like Beetle. Only his age is up there — 58. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean War. Cartoonist Mort Walker kept the bumbling Beetle out of Korea, though, and away from Vietnam and the Middle East, and says, “I’m glad I did.” Real wars have enough trouble. The score is the total count for each strip, divided by the number of people who responded to the question. Low is best. Daily comics SCORE
1. Beetle Bailey 1. 441
2. Zits 1. 448
3. Family Circus 1. 493
4. Blondie 1. 509
5. Baby Blues 1. 585
6. Hi and Lois 1. 621
7. Dennis the Menace 1. 668
8. Garfield 1. 733
9. Hagar the Horrible 1. 734 10. Wizard of Id 1. 774 11. Pickles 1. 860 12. Luann 1. 904 13. Mutts 2. 024 14. Born Lucky 2. 064 15. Overboard 2. 066 16. Rose is Rose 2. 139 17. Elderberries 2. 159 18. Zack Hill 2. 187 19. Ripley’s Believe It or Not 2. 330 20. Pearls Before Swine 2. 488 21. Jump Start 2. 495 22. Dilbert 2. 523 23. Mallard Fillmore 2. 530 24. Strange Brew 2. 586 25. Doonesbury 2. 807 26. Judge Parker 2. 839 27. Cathy 2. 867 28. The Duplex 2. 867 29. Get Fuzzy 2. 905 30. Lio 3. 238 31. Girls & Sports 3. 293 Sunday comics SCORE
1. Beetle Bailey 1. 573
2. Zits 1. 609
3. Family Circus 1. 625
4. Blondie 1. 646
5. Baby Blues 1. 720
6. Hi and Lois 1. 784
7. Dennis the Menace 1. 855
8. Garfield 1. 879
9. Hagar the Horrible 1. 920 10. Wizard of Id 1. 945 11. Luann 2. 116 12. Ziggy 2. 210 13. Mutts 2. 272 14. Crock 2. 274 15. Rose is Rose 2. 346 16. Zack Hill 2. 403 17. Pearls Before Swine 2. 758 18. Dilbert 2. 769 19. Mallard Fillmore 2. 820 20. Strange Brew 2. 824 21. Rhymes with Orange 3. 028 22. Cathy 3. 106 23. Doonesbury 3. 115 24. Get Fuzzy 3. 166 25. Lio 3. 574 26. Girls & Sports 3. 636 27. Night Lights Fairy Flights 3. 650 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Favorites and not so favorites “If your feet were held to the fire,” the comics poll asked, “which ONE comic is your favorite ?” The result ? — a big, happy burp for “Baby Blues.” The survey also asked, “If you were king for a day, which ONE comic would you cancel ?” Poor Lio. Get rid of the kid with the squid, most readers said.
TOTAL Favorites VOTES 1. Baby Blues 723 2. Zits 708 3. Pearls Before Swine 450 4. Family Circus 345 5. Beetle Bailey 297 6. Dilbert 290 7. Blondie 281 8. Mutts 239 9. Pickles 216 10. Doonesbury 215 11. Rose is Rose 197 12. Dennis the Menace 189 13. Garfield 167 14. Judge Parker 166 15. Get Fuzzy 157 16. Overboard 139 17. Mallard Fillmore 104 18. Luann 92 19. Hagar the Horrible 89 20. Wizard of Id 67 21. Lio 58 22. Cathy 46 23. Elderberries 41 24. Hi and Lois 36 25. Ziggy 25 26. Strange Brew 21 27. Zack Hill 17 28. Crock 111 29. Night Lights Fairy Flights 6 30. Rhymes with Orange 3 31. Girls & Sports 2 32. Jump Start 2 33. Born Lucky 1
TOTAL Cancel it ! VOTES 1. Lio 1, 416 2. Doonesbury 683 3. Girls & Sports 647 4. Get Fuzzy 292 5. Cathy 283 6. Strange Brew 250 7. Judge Parker 247 8. Night Lights Fairy Flights 234 9. Mallard Fillmore 212 10. Pearls Before Swine 190 11. Dilbert 181 12. Zack Hill 104 13. Rose is Rose 86 14. Rhymes with Orange 55 15. Baby Blues 52 16. Zits 46 17. Family Circus 44 18. Mutts 36 19. Garfield 35 20. Hagar the Horrible 33 21. Overboard 30 22. Dennis the Menace 26 23. The Duplex 25 24. Beetle Bailey 23 25. Crock 21 26. Blondie 14 27. Luann 10 28. Elderberries 9 29. Wizard of Id 9 30. Ziggy 8 31. Jump Start 7 32. Ripley’s Believe It or Not 7 33. Hi and Lois 6 34. Born Lucky 5 35. Pickles 2 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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