Panel Discussion - The ILX Comic Strip Poll Results

Medium Large by Francesco Marciuliano – 1 vote
On The Web

Francesco Marciuliano is the writer of Sally Forth, a popular comic strip syndicated by King Features and currently illustrated by Jim Keefe. Marciuliano also wrote The New York Times bestselling book I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats, the national bestseller I Could Chew on This and Other Poems by Dogs, and the upcoming I Knead My Mommy and Other Poems by Kittens. He also writes and draws the satiric webcomic Medium Large.

Mutts by Patrick McDonald – 1 vote
On The Web

Peanuts creator Charles Schulz praised Mutts, calling it "one of the best comic strips of all time." The friendship of Mooch and his neighbor Earl focuses on the differences between cats and dogs as pets and friends: Earl is friendly, loves the company of his human companion and likes to play outside; Mooch is often indifferent to his human companions, except for being fed, and prefers to stay inside or is often seen with Earl, his best friend.. Both animals frequently express themselves through thought balloons when their owners are present. On occasion, McDonnell devotes the strip for a week or so to animal welfare issues, especially the adoption of pets from animal shelters. Themes include Farm Animal Awareness Week and Shelter Stories, where pet adoption as well as pet shelter life is focused on. McDonnell also created artwork for the second generation New Jersey Animal Friendly specialty license plate first issued in 2001. A portion of the revenue from the plates goes to the New Jersey State Department of Health's Animal Population Control Program.

WAY too low imo

Nedroid by Anthony Clark – 1 vote
On The Web

Nedroid is the pen name of online artist Anthony Clark who draws silly pictures and comics "when there's nothing good on TV." You may recognize his work doing the colors for a little-known comic called The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. On his own site, Nedroid draws all kinds of interesting stuff - he has a special fondness for dinosaurs, ladies, and lovingly rendered landscapes following his self-image character, the Eternal Homeless Robot. But the most popular and recurring subject, and likely the reason you're here, is comics based around the adventures of Beartato, Reginald and their friends, officially titled Beartato Comics.

Odd Bodkins by Dan O’Neill – 1 vote
On The Web

Odd Bodkins began its run in 1964 in the San Francisco Chronicle when O'Neill was 21 years old. The strip consisted of the adventures of Hugh and Fred the Bird. During the course of the strip's run, it increasingly reflected O'Neill's life in and his critique of 1960s counterculture. Though he considered himself a strong writer, O'Neill said of his artwork, "I had a very weak line. Either that or palsy."
As Odd Bodkins became increasingly political, O'Neill feared that the Chronicle, which held the strip's copyright, would fire him and hire another artist. The Chronicle had axed Odd Bodkins a few times already, but it had been reinstated following reader protests. O'Neill decided on an odd tactic to regain control of his strip: he would engage in copyright infringement, which he reasoned would force the paper to surrender the strip's copyright back to him for fear of being sued. O'Neill worked 28 Walt Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse and Pluto, into the strip. In late November 1970, the Chronicle fired O'Neill for the final time but did not continue to run the strip. In 1972, during O'Neill's legal battles with Disney over Air Pirates Funnies, the Chronicle finally transferred the copyright of Odd Bodkins back to O'Neill. O'Neill currently lives in Nevada City, California, where he continues to draw Odd Bodkins and is a director in the Original Sixteen to One gold mine.

Oor Wullie by Dudley Watkins – 1 vote
On The Web

Oor Wullie is a Scottish comic strip published in the D.C. Thomson newspaper The Sunday Post. It features a character called Wullie, the familiar Scots nickname for boys named William. Oor Wullie means Our Willie. His trademarks are spiky hair, dungarees and an upturned bucket, which he often uses as a seat - most strips since early 1937 begin and end with a single panel of Wullie sitting on his bucket. The earliest strips, with little dialogue, ended with Wullie complaining ("I nivver get ony fun roond here!"). The artistic style settled down by 1940 and has changed little since. A frequent tagline reads, "Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A'body's Wullie!" (Our Willie! Your Willie! Everybody's Willie!).
Created by Thomson editor R. D. Low and drawn by cartoonist Dudley D. Watkins, the strip first appeared on 8 March 1936. Watkins continued to draw Oor Wullie until his death in 1969, after which the Post recycled his work into the 1970s.

Pictures for Sad Children by John Campbell – 1 vote
On The Web

Pictures for Sad Children was a webcomic created by John Campbell in 2007. The comic, first focusing on the adventures of Paul, "who is a ghost," later branched out to introduce other characters, such as Gary, whom Paul was forced to train at a call center after Paul initially lost his job because he was dead. Gary then became the main character and other characters were introduced including Gary's cousin Sara, her husband Afsheen, and their daughter Maddy. The Gary storyline was abandoned after strip 226 and the comic transitioned to stand-alone strips. As of 2014, Campbell has removed all comics from the comic's website, making the page blank.
In May 2012, John Campbell set up a Kickstarter crowdfunding project to fund production of the second book of Pictures for Sad Children, entitled "Sad Pictures for Children". Some of the perks were outlandish or bizarre, such as Campbell drawing a comic under the influence of DMT, going to the dentist "for the first time in ~8 years" or putting up paste-ups in the donor's city under the risk of being arrested. The campaign succeeded, with $51,615 raised from a goal of $8,000. On September 19, 2012, Campbell posted an update to the Kickstarter project claiming that he faked depression "for profit". This post was followed up by a post stating he had faked faking depression. On February 27, 2014, Campbell posted a final update explaining that 75% of the rewards for supporting the project had been sent out, and that no more would be sent out in the future. Attached was a video of Campbell burning one book for every email received asking about the unreceived books, totaling 127 burned copies of the book. In addition, Campbell stated that one book would be burned for every email received after the update was posted. Campbell also noted that he would be ending the comic, and expressed discontent with money as a concept and stated in part: "I want direct funding for my living necessities. I want to establish relationships with a group of people who can pay for my baseline needs like food and rent. I am looking for people who do not feel they need to see any “return” on their “investment.”

oh shit, a stick figure comic that I forgot to add to my "worst comics" list. (you're going to post those too, right forks?)

at some point

That last Dudley Watkins strip is The Broons, not Oor Wullie.

Am I really the only person that voted for it?

I think I voted for the Broons but not Oor Wullie - in both cases it's really only the post-war Watkins stuff I like

Actually, I might have done that too now I think about it.

i don't think i voted for nedroid but i find it super enjoyable

I liked my life better 20 minutes ago when I didn't know that John Campbell had ever existed.

I really like the art on Mutts. It would be so much better if the guy who draws it would work with a writer to give it a little more substance than a Hallmark card.

I forgot to vote (or I'm guessing even nominate) a strip that thus will likely not appear here. RIP, Wildwood.

xp -- otm. I quit reading Mutts a few years ago. I didn't want it to charm me, I wanted it to be funny.

I think the strips with the crab are pretty funny. I wish it was just about the crab.

oh cool, didn't realize this was happening. thanks for taking the reins, forks.

hey J.D. and DJP - your ballots look like they're meant to be in order; am I assuming correctly?

I have no recollection of my ballot so I will say "yes"

had to look mine up -- yes it is.

ta dudes.

i think i voted in this poll? was it polled a long time ago? idk

you did

haha cool! thanks

http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif BREAKING http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif BREAKING http://www.drudgesiren.com/siren.gif

Your diligent ordering of ballots has now been taken into account and the ILX COMIC STRIPS AND SHORT WEBCOMICS AND SOME OTHER THINGS POLL will imminently resume. We start just outside the top 100, due to clustering of ties.

103: THE ANGRIEST DOG IN THE WORLD by David Lynch (24 points)
Lynch fansite

“The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.” Filmmaker / visual artist / composer Lynch’s strip ran with the same four panels and different dialogue weekly in the LA Reader, New York Press and other alt-weeklies from 1983 to 1992, and was later revived on davidlynch.com

did the thread just start over?

Sic is driving from here on in; I don't believe we're starting over

Think this is now the tally of all strips that got more than one vote. The single votes were "honorable placers" or something.

I didn't get around to voting (unless my memory is *really* bad), but probably would've tossed off a vote for the Angriest Dog in the World. Real comics fans should probably be glad I didn't vote, as most of my choices would've been webcomics. Not the super shitty stick figure webcomics (though actually I think stick figures *can* work, sometimes), but still webcomics.

It's a soft reboot.

The ILX Comic Strip Poll Results NOW!

sic, would it be possible to also tell us how many people voted for each strip? also, the names of everyone who voted for bloom county. thanks

Can we get a breakdown of left-handed vs right-handed voters?

=102: SLUGGY FREELANCE by Pete Abrams (25 points)
Sluggy.com

One of the first successful, and probably the longest successful, native web strip. Has evolved from daily gags to long arcs, but still uses something like Comic Sans for lettering.

how many votes did that get?

(obv i'm stoned bc i just realized i could check myself nm) it looks kinda terrible tho esp that second example

that is atrocious

1 vote for Sluggy Freelance. Obv the voter is welcome to provide better examples than I found!

(sorry, I didn't tally number of votes when I ran the numbers. Happy to check on specific examples, and forks and Mordy feel free to answer if I'm away for timezone reasons!)

or as long as I remember I'll include them

=102: SCARY GARY by Mark Buford (25 points, 1 vote)
Universal

Cold, staring eyes mesmerize their victim's attention as sharp teeth nuzzle into the necks of the surprised captive. The warm blood eases the vampire's hunger pangs and desire for life.. . But after a while, a vampire gets older and wants to quit working. That's where Mark Buford steps in. The creator of "Scary Gary" gives fans an inside view on the life of a 700-year-old retired vampire and his evil but very funny friends. (TheCartoonists.ca)

Let’s try some others.
http://www.thecartoonists.ca/images/MarkBuford1.jpg
https://thedailyfunnies.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/11-10-10-scary-gary.png

And a couple of links to different ones just in case:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9kqk7YrbOBc/SlJ1TqC5SQI/AAAAAAAAA8c/WQvU9QjWe4c/s400/sunday+1.gif
http://gocomics.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5f3053ef019aff6d6159970b-800wi

lol ok that's pretty charming. it reminds me a little of joann sfar's vampire in love (tho cruder + more comic strippy)

Assuming that CTRL + ALT + DEL will be Top 40 material.

yeah, Scary Gary is the first one I've found so far that I'd never heard of, but thought I'd enjoy finding in a newspaper, if I read a newspaper

i continue to read the comics page of the newspaper at the same place i read them as a child - my parent's kitchen table. they're the only ppl i know who sub to a newspaper!

Wrapping up the outside-the-top-100:

=102: Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen (25 points)
(already posted)

=102: The Magic Whistle by Sam Henderson (25 points)
(already posted)

One vote each, obv. Angriest Dog In The World got 4.

I cant remember if I can voted in this but angriest dog and magic whistle showing up make me think that I did.

Fuck hat!