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Comic strips New Launches

Reply All launches, NY Daily News drops 12 comics

1 minute 24 comments

Yesterday was a pretty stacked day and I didn’t get a chance to post what I consider significant news.

Donna Lewis’ Reply All launched yesterday. It is running in the Washington Post replacing Watch Your Head. She was also invited to do a live chat with the Washington Post. Transcript is found here.

The New York Daily News dropped 1/3 of their comics (about 12 comics) in a reduction of their comic page. According to Comics Reporter the dropped comics include: Close to Home, Curtis, Dustin, F Minus, Marmaduke, Over the Hedge, Real Life Adventures, Rose is Rose, Sherman’s Lagoon, The Flying McCoys, and The Lockhorns.

I echo what Tom wrote on his blog, “Losing placement at a big circulation paper like the Daily News is a blow to any strip, and losing a page’s worth is a blow to any readership.”

The other changes all have one thing in common – papers are dropping Peanuts. The Cumberland Times-News (MD) cited that since United Media was no longer distributing it, it was a natural time to consider replacing it. Not sure of the other motives, but the timing may suggest a similar line of thinking.

The Laurel Leader-Call (MS) has dropped Peanuts (daily) and added Zits. They’ve also started to run a local feature entitled Nelson that replaces Cow and Boy.

As mentioned The Cumberland Times-News dropped the classic strip in favor of Big Nate.

The other paper dropping Peanuts is The Victoria Times Colonist (Canada). They picked up the Sunday and daily Tundra.

Like the Cumberland Times-News, The Ada Evening News (OK) has picked up Big Nate to replace Peanuts.

I’ve reported that Universal Uclick launched a sales campaign last week for Peanuts.

One last report that I just found. Paul Trap’s Thatababy has been picked up by The Gloucester Times (MA). It’s his hometown paper.

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Comments 24

  1. l picture a sinking island with all cartoonist on it and the water levels rising. Some are wearing no socks, others are rolling up their pants, some bathing suits and only a few boats are ready……

  2. Not a good time to be trying to achieve my dream I guess!!! Maybe I will just stick to my day job…

  4. Thanks Alan, the Daily News is a big blow for those cartoonists who were dropped. It seems that the newspapers taking up the slack are in small cities. We used to have vibrant alternative newspapers. The economy will not support that. If it’s not an oxymoron to speak of cartoonists to unite, we should unite to produce a venue for cartoonists.

  5. Yay, Paul!! Congrats. Always nice when the hometown paper picks you up.
    Nicole, great idea.

  6. I’ve been purchasing “The Daily News” for the last couple of years with the only intention being to read the comics. I would just open the front page, look at what page the comics are on and then give the rest of the paper to my boss. Such sad news. Now what am I going to read? Tax law books? Good grief. 🙂

  7. Congrats, Donna!

    Very unfortunate about the Daily News dropping comics… ugh!

  8. After Cathy retired, I spent some time talking with Donna, encouraging her, knowing they’d be gunning for her strip. She seemed ready for it even then, so I’m happy the day is finally here!…

    Happy for Paul too, I’m only a stones throw from Gloucester. I’ll have to pick up the Times!…

  9. Alan, with the daily bleeding off of strips nationwide, do you know which paper currently has the largest comics section? I though I saw somewhere it was the L.A. Times, but with all the thinning going on, I was curious if there was still a newspaper with a large selection. Thx.

  10. Houston Chronicle has a nice selection online, but I’m not sure if their print edition carries them all. That would have to be one of the bigger ones if so.

  11. Why not have a merger between the New York Daily News and New York Post so the Daily News can get the New York Post daily comics page which contains Garfield, Rhymes with Orange, Mallard Filmore, Wizard (Of Id), Heart of the City, Dennis the Menace, and Non Sequitur.

    Too bad the Daily News will never bring back Dick Tracy, Classic Peanuts, For Better or For Worse reruns and new-runs, and/or Beetle Bailey. But I didn’t know The Daily News picked up Real Life Adventures and some new strip called Between the Lines.

    I wish the Daily News would pick up Dogs of C Kennel or Thatababy for New York City comic fans.

    Does the NYC Daily News still runs Sundays Biographic, Kakaro, Sudoku High Fives, and Family Circus?

    Now if only Gasoline Alley retired before 2011 is over like Annie, Cathy, and Brenda Starr did.

  12. The Houston Chronicle has a vast dailies selection, covering two pages and spilling over with a few illustrated strips on another. However, there’s quite a few of those features they don’t carry in their Sunday paper and I believe Fox Trot and Denise the Menace replace a couple of them as well. But all in all, it’s a hefty collection of strips and is probably 3 strips bigger than what the N.Y. Daily News carries now…

  13. Jeremy, you are correct. the Houston Chronicle is a great paper! They carry a TON of strips. Gives me some sense of hope for my future.

  15. The next logical step is online, ipad, etc. While there are compilation sites, there needs to be one large site (maybe a few) that bring in revenue through ads and other ways (merchandise, etc.) and splits it with the cartoonists.

    The newspapers are going more and more to gossip and entertainment news, rather than hard news, so it’s interesting that they don’t respect the comics as being part of that entertainment group.

    The New York Post should add a page of comics, the few that they run really get lost in the paper and they could use a bunch more. They should pick up the ones The Daily News dropped and perhaps gain readers who will buy the paper to read their favorite strip which was dropped by The Daily News.

  16. The New York Post doesn’t run a Sunday comics section anyway!

  17. The NY Daily News’ Sunday comics section is even more anemic, a far cry from the days of the paper’s founder Joseph Patterson, a person who knew the importance of running the funnies (and ran a syndicate to prove it)

  18. I enjoy the comics very much. I thought I lost a page but no
    there wasn’t any more. With all the extras, adds plus
    sports etc. why take the only thing that gives you a laugh
    away. We need that in this ugly world. Put them back and
    make something else smaller in the paper. Rah, rah,rah for
    the comics.
    An old lady has to have some fun.

  19. Alan, you left out one other strip the NY Daily News canceled. “Tundra” was dropped as well as the other strips already listed.

    The Daily News should’ve learned from my newspaper – the St. Petersburg Times – in 2008 when they managed to add four new daily strips (“Candorville”, “Mutts”, “Holy Mole” and the aforementioned “Tundra”) without dropping any of their current ones. A few weeks ago, the Times added three new Sunday strips (“The Flying McCoys”, “Bizarro” and “Arlo & Janis”) without dropping any of their Sunday strips.

    Good to see newspapers have a new excuse to stop running “Peanuts”. First it was, Schulz stopped drawing the strips and is dead. Now it’s “they changed syndicates”. (The St. Petersburg Times still runs “Peanuts” even with the syndicate change and I’m sure the same will be said for “Dilbert” and other former United Media strips).

  20. Just don’t like it . the comics are great for taking away the
    horrors of the day. I found another place you can put the
    third page of comics, take away the page of contest doings,only
    one can win where all of us can read and have fun with the
    comic page.

  21. We need to start our own “the world needs cartoonists now more than ever” campaign.

    I’ll start this list.

    ” If you laughed today. Thank a cartoonist.”

  22. The only reason i bought the daily news was for the comics, you got rid of tundra, flight deck, beetle baily, everything that made me laugh. Now there is no reason to buy this paper anymore.

  23. I stopped buying the NY Daily News as soon as I realized my comics were a page short. If they’re going to cut their budget, so am I.

  24. Why are all the good comics gone ?
    The Lockhorns and Peanuts were classics –
    this is a very bad sign.

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