Comic strips

2019 Comic Strip Detours and Deviations

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D. D. Degg January 1, 2020 1 minute 3 comments

This is an installment of 2019 Newspaper Comics: Debuts, Departures, and the Dearly Departed.
(part 1:Debuts – – part 2: Departures – – part 3: Dearly Departed – – part 4: Detours/Deviations)

2019 Detours/Deviations
Detailing some changes in syndicated U. S. newspaper comics in 2019.

ALLEY OOP
After four months of reruns following The Benders’ 2018 retirement,
Joey Alison Sayers (writer) and Jonathan Lemon (artist) begin new
Alley Oop comic strip production on January 7, 2019.
The Sunday comic strip for the Sayers/Lemon version is titled Little Oop.

FUNKY WINKERBEAN
Rick Burchett returned as daily artist for a couple weeks in January 2019,
giving Chuck Ayers (busy doing something elsewhere?) a breathing spell.
Allen Bellman was guest artist for the May 12, 2019 Sunday strip.
Thom Zahler and Rob Ro were guest artists for the September 1, 2019 Sunday strip.

IN THE BLEACHERS
Since 2016 the daily panel had been signed “Moore + Benz,”
beginning January 7, 2019 the daily panel is signed “Benz” (Ben Zaehringer).
The Sundays remain unsigned (except March 10, 2019 signed “Benz”).

FORT KNOX
Norm Felchle draws the February 10, 2019 (Valentine) Sunday strip.
Norm Felchle draws the May 26, 2019 (Memorial Day) Sunday strip.

SIX CHIX
Benita Epstein retires as the Friday Chick.
Benita’s last Sunday was March 10, 2019.
Benita’s last Friday was March 15, 2019.
Maritsa Patrinos joins the crew as the new Friday Chick.
Maritsa’s first Friday panel was March 22, 2019.
Maritsa’s first Sunday was April 21, 2019.

BLISS
On March 25, 2019 comedian and actor Steve Martin began contributing gags
to Harry Bliss’ panel (as of this writing Steve Martin is still contributing).

MUTTS
Joe Sinnott, fresh from his 27 year tour as Sunday inker of The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip,
inks two of Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts Sunday strips – March 24, 2019 and April 14, 2019.

DICK TRACY
There were three Minit Mysteries specials during 2019:
December 30, 2019 – January 13, 2019 by Donnie Pitchford and Joe Staton/Shelley Pleger
April 28, 2019 – May 12, 2019 by Jim Doherty and Joe Staton/Shelley Pleger
September 1, 2019 – September 15, 2019 by Mike Curtis and Andrew Pepoy.

PC AND PIXEL
Bill Suddick was the guest artist for the September 1, 2019 Sunday strip.

DILBERT
Television newsman Jake Tapper was the guest artist on the September 23-28, 2019 daily strips.

JUMBLE, THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME
For the seventh year, Jeff Knuek inveigled a few of his National Cartoonists Society
pals to fill in for a week of daily puzzles. From November 18-23, 2019 guest artists were
Ron Ferdinand (Dennis the Menace)
Dan McConnell (Then & Now)
John Hambrock (The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee)
Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate)
Scott Hilburn (Argyle Sweater)
Bunny Hoest and John Reiner (The Lockhorns)

POPEYE’S CARTOON CLUB
King Features, in a celebration of Popeye’s 90th anniversary,
began an online Sunday Popeye comic strip with a rotating roster of
cartoonists. Not a newspaper strip, but here is the list of creators
just to get it on the record. (takes a deep breath)
January 17, 2019 (Thursday) – Liniers
January 27, 2019 (Sunday) – Roger Langridge
February 3 – Sandra Bell-Lundy
February 10 – Jeffrey Brown
February 17 – Lars deSouza
February 24 – Carol Lay
March 3 – Jay Fosgitt
March 10 – Caro Ramsey

March 17 – Tom Neely
March 24 – Shing Yin Khor
March 31 – David Reddick
April 7 – Robert Sikoryak
April 14 – Jeff Parker and Cat Farris
April 21 – Alex Hallett
April 28 – John Hambrock
May 5 – Jim Engel
May 12 – Shan Murphy
May 19 – Jeff Parker
May 26 – Erica Henderson
June 2 – Maddi Gonzalez and Vannotes
June 9 – Lonnie Millsap
June 16 – John Rose and Sarah Rose
June 23 – Isabella Bannerman
June 30 – Reimena Yee
July 7 – Shaenon K. Garrity and Andrew Farago
July 14 – Yesenia Moises

July 21 – Randy Milholland
July 28 – Olive Rae Brinke
August 4 – Bill Holbrook
August 11 – Jean Wei
August 18 – Dean Haspiel
August 25 – Bianca Xunise
September 1 – no issue
September 8 – Maritsa Patrinos
September 15 – Ryan Estrada
September 22 – Scott Shaw! and Stan Sakai
September 29 – Jim Siergey
October 6 – Jules Rivera
October 13 – Justin Pierce
October 20 – Box Brown
October 27 – Chad and Jared Moldenhauer (Studio MDHR)
November 3 – Bob Spang
November 10 – Marloes De Vries
November 17 – Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber
November 24 – John Kovaleski
December 1 – Kate Ashein and Kel McDonald

December 8 – Alan Weiss
December 15 – Micheline Hess
December 22 – Woodrow Phoenix
December 29, 2019 – Savannah Zambrano
instigator/organizer/editor: Tea

corrections and additions
welcomed and encouraged