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Scary Gary by Mark Buford 2008-2025

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It has been two months since the last original run daily of Scary Gary and six weeks since Mark Buford last issued a new Scary Gary Sunday comic strip – so we’re calling it: Scary Gary 2008 – 2025.

Scary Gary by Mark Buford, June 16, 2008
Scary Gary by Mark Buford, June 19, 2008
Scary Gary by Mark Buford, June 20, 2008

Creators Syndicate profile of Mark Buford:

Mark went on to earn a degree in psychology from the University of West Georgia.  Upon graduation, he continued to draw comics and eventually went back to school to learn graphic design.  As a freelance graphic designer, he found some success in submitting his comics to magazines and alternative newspapers.  A major syndicate executive contacted Mark after seeing one of his cartoons in a local Atlanta newspaper.  He encouraged Mark to keep writing and drawing, and to submit any strip ideas that happened to come up.

From 1995 to 1997, Mark worked on developing comic strips, finally landing his first syndication deal in 1997 for a daily strip titled Meatloaf Night.

Mark continued to freelance, selling gag panels to magazines and alternative newspapers until early 2006, at which time he began developing Scary Gary.  He submitted Gary in December of 2006, and teamed up with Creators Syndicate in February 2007.  Scary Gary makes its debut in June 2008.

Not mentioned is that while developing the syndicated Meatloaf Night Buford contributed to King Features’ showcase syndicated panel for up and coming cartoonists The New Breed.

The New Breed by Mark Buford, November 1, 1996

Mark’s Meatloaf Night was about children growing up in suburbia. Apparently comfortable with the setting his Scary Gary comic strip replaced the children with monsters in suburbia.

Scary Gary by Mark Buford, February 2, 2020
Scary Gary by Mark Buford, June 23, 2023
Scary Gary by Mark Buford, June 16, 2019

Sadly, Scary Gary never made it into the large number of newspapers I thought it deserved. Newspapers.com has the daily appearing only in The News and Observer. The last few years it only shows up in Sunday editions of The Journal-Constitution.

The last new daily strip was dated January 4, 2025:

Scary Gary by Mark Buford, January 3, 2025
Scary Gary by Mark Buford, January 4, 2025

The last original run Sunday appeared on January 19, 2025:

Scary Gary by Mark Buford, January 19, 2025

The last month or two of dailies were about as much reruns as original strips, the last Sunday comic followed two weeks of reruns.

SCARY GARY by MARK BUFORD

June 16, 2008 – January 4, 2025 (daily) and January 19, 2025 (Sunday)

Creators Syndicate

Rest in Peace, Gary

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Comments 13

  1. Will Scary Gary continue in reruns? They’ve kept it going in reruns so far, but it doesn’t feel like enough newspapers have it to bother with reruns.

  3. Do we have official confirmation from Mark Buford or Creators Syndicate that the strip has ended? If so, that’s a shame—I’ve really enjoyed reading it on GoComics for many years. I’d love to see a proper farewell for Scary Gary, similar to the iconic Calvin and Hobbes “Let’s go exploring” Sunday strip or the conclusion of Foxtrot’s dailies.

    Side note: I’ve noticed that when Scary Gary goes into reruns, the colors in the strip appear much darker, especially in Leopold’s shade of green. Any reason for this?

  4. The life insurance cartoon is listed as being from this coming June(It is from June 2008).

  5. The Detroit Free Press has Sunday Scary Gary. In 2012, they were kicking out For Better or For Worse and had a space that they split in half. Half went to Scary Gary and the other to Rhymes with Orange, which moved from a different page. The space left was replaced with The Pajama Diaries.

  6. I know the Chicago Tribune carried Scary Gary from 2008-2010.

    Are Creators.com comic strips trying to be rerun/legacy strips mostly (Archie, One Big Happy, Rugrats, and Wee Pals come to mind)? No wonder first run Creators.com comic strips like Heathcliff, B.C., Wizard of Id, Dogs of C Kennel, and Speed Bump which also appear on GoComics.com haven’t been updated on GoComics the last few days,

    1. I hate to break this to you, but sixty percent of the comics you listed at the end there are legacy strips as well.

  7. One of my favorites. And a perfect example demonstrating that the level of a success a comic achieves is so often not about the quality of the material but the state of the business.

  8. I completely missed this strip. Anyone know where the archives can be found?

    1. GoComics is only missing the six months.

    2. The first six months can be found in the collection “A Good Severed Head is Hard to Find,” but based on the popularity of the comic strip, good luck finding that book.

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