The Daily Cartoonist

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Comic survey reports that FBOFW, Blondie still reign king in comics

Alan Gardner13 mins

The Journal Gazette and Times-Courier (IL) has posted a follow-up to their recent comic survey. They have not said what changes they will make but here are some of the more interesting stats gleaned from the survey (for brevity, I’ve deleted some of the paper’s comments and simply left the facts):

  • About half of the respondents were age 60 and over.
  • The oldest respondent listed her age as 90; the youngest was 11.
  • Just like our survey four years ago, Dinette Set made the top five in both the most liked and most disliked categories.
  • Few had any opinion at all about Grizwells and Herman. They were rarely marked as either one of the most liked or disliked on the survey.
  • On the survey, we also asked readers if there is a comic they like that we don’t currently publish in our newspapers. Cathy received the second most number of votes. The JG/T-C previously published Cathy on its comics page but canceled it after our 2003 survey found it was unpopular.
  • Many of the other comics readers wish we would publish are no longer available, including Calvin and Hobbes.
  • We found that For Better or For Worse was the most popular strip of those age 60 and younger, and came in second for those over age 60.
  • Blondie came in third among those 60 and younger, and was the most popular comic for those age 61 and over.
  • For those ages 40 and younger, the most-liked comics were For Better or For Worse, Dinette Set, Blondie, Garfield and Zits. They disliked Doonesbury, Frank and Ernest, Girls and Sports, Shoe and Mallard Fillmore.
  • For those age 41 to 60, the most-liked comics were For Better or For Worse, Zits, Blondie, Dinette Set and Family Circus. In the dislike category: Doonesbury, Mallard Fillmore, Dinette Set, Girls and Sports, and Dilbert.
  • Those age 61 and over like Blondie, For Better or For Worse, Family Circus, Dennis the Menace and Beatle Bailey. Their least favorites were Close to Home, Mallard Fillmore, Dinette Set, Doonesbury, and Mother Goose and Grimm.

One thought on “Comic survey reports that FBOFW, Blondie still reign king in comics”

  1. You know, I read some Blondie comics published in the 30’s and I thought they were pretty funny. If comics characters aged like real people – that is, if they just got funnier and crankier as they got older – Blondie by all rights should have the funniest characters in comics. That is not the case.

    Blondie took an interesting premise and blanded it out until only a shadow was left.

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