The link of the day goes to Charles Apple of the Los Angeles Register who created “A quick illustrated look at the history of classic newspaper comic strips“. The graphic above is a small piece of it. The timeline starts in 1895 with The Yellow Kid and continues to 1997 with the launch of Zits. I’m familiar with most of the dates (at least the year) of some of the strips, but when laid out like this, it’s easier to see sequentially when one popped onto the scene and when they ended (or didn’t).
It’s a great graphic. Hats off the the LA Register for devoting the space to it.
I really enjoyed reading this, but Alley Oop is still being published, isn’t it? It looks like the writer has it ending in 2001 or am I wrong?
He also scrambled the dates for Popeye and Blondie.
Popeye first appeared January 17, 1929
while Blondie debuted September 8, 1930.
It’s a shame that newspaper comic strips ended in 1997.
According to the article, he only listed 31 of his favorite comic strips.
Apparently he hasn’t had a favorite since 1997.
Alley Oop is still very much alive. It’s carried in a number of papers to this day.