Panel Discussion - The ILX Comic Strip Poll Results

=73: Mutts by Patrick McDonald (38 points, 1 vote)
already posted

really I was the only vote for this

this poll is weird

=73: AMERICAN ELF by James Kochalka (38 points, 3 votes)
Complete archive for free. The first five years, in print. Buy digital, year-by-year.

Beginning as a local-only strip, then gaining worldwide distribution in comic and book collections from Top Shelf, and eventually influencing a generation of autobiographical cartoonists on the web. At the time it started, by a long walk the best thing the prolific Kochalka had ever done, and quickly made him get better. An every-day, usually four-panel strip about something from his life that day, it focused his drawing, his observation and the concision of his cartooning, and was frequently hilarious and profound. Concluded a year or two ago, and for the best. Relive the early years before he was a father.

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/previews/amelf2000/amelf2000_09.gif

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/previews/amer_elf/amer_elf_01.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/kitbrash/elfart_zps956e215a.jpg

I like its look and like McDonnell's book about Krazy Kat, but gave it a protest non-vote for never being funny. (xp)

time jump

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/American%20Elf%20mar%205%202007.gif

http://www.comicsreporter.com/images/uploads/colors_thumb.gif

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/previews/americanelf4/americanelf4_10.jpg

Mutts probably has more value as part of a comics page than in collections; its care for drawing and dedication to a deliberate aesthetic made it stand out amidst a sea of whatever turds it was pared with in your area. Said aesthetic just becomes overwhelming en masse, without anything to react against.

That said, there was a tribute exhibition as part of the BD Festival in Lisbon last year, where they'd recreated a "house" and room from the strip to display art in, and it felt really charming and cosy. I can see that mindset informing people who enjoy settling into an armchair and immersing themselves in a paperback.

mutts is gorgeous and generally quite clever; certainly one of the last best of the remaining strips

=73: TARZAN by Burne Hogarth (38 points, 3 votes)
Collected by Titan

One day, a friend at United Features told Hogarth that Hal Foster — the guy who’d studied at the same Chicago schools as young Burne — was leaving the popular Tarzan comic strip that ran in hundreds of papers every Sunday.
Was Hogarth interested? Does Tarzan poop in the woods?
Smart enough to know that continuity would be key, Hogarth submitted a Foster-like panel. The bosses couldn’t tell the difference and Burne got the job, starting in the middle of 1937. Burne was 25 years old and Tarzan — his sinews and muscles, the tendons that form the shape below the skin — was his. Along with Jane and lions and apes and all the rest of the teeming jungle — an entire page’s worth every Sunday.
Hogarth moved slowly from a spot-on mimicking of Foster’s style to his own. Over the next dozen years — from 1937 to 1950 — he synthesized aspects of popular cinema with his fine art training to bring respect to an art form that had known few true masters. Hogarth thoroughly understood the elements of action and tension; translating the fragile tether between the two into a rigorous approach to foreshortening and shadows. Thus: a template that has defined the comic book hero from the 1950’s boom to the near-literary present. – burnehogarth.com

http://fantasticocenario.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/tarzan-hogarth-pl1.jpg

http://www.gwthomas.org/BurneHogarth12.jpg

http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_28/subcat_139920/HogarthTarzan2-5-50.jpg

the hogarth tarzan feels like the apotheosis of the full page adventure strip but it's so hard for me to engage those storylines
i have like fifteen chapter books of the oversized prince valiant fanta run and i dunno if i even ever cracked them

goddamn can that guy ILLUSTRATE though

=73: MICKEY MOUSE by Floyd Gottfredson (38 points, 4 votes)
Lavishly collected by Fantagraphics

Hired as a temporary fill-in in the early months of the Mickey Mouse strip (taking over from Disney and Ub Iwerks!), Gottfredson went on to co-write and draw it for, oh four and a half decades. Generally regarded as the best Mickey material ever, and certainly the version of the character that retained a personality for at least a couple of decades. Rip-roaring adventure and zings that still more or less land.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/assets/images/articles/1298908338.jpg

http://www.comicbookresources.com/assets/images/articles/1298908340.jpg

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/comicsalliance.com/files/2012/07/mickeya.jpg

Loving this thread, thanks for all your hard work sic, and every one else.

You're welcome.

get back to gta, you. it's been ages since you told us all a story.

Oh, the tragedy that occurred this weekend… I now know what YLOD means.

Little man can't play his Mickey Mouse game anymore, we've covered up all the mirrors.

NOOOOOOOOO [just had to google YLOD]

69: Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson (39 points, 1 vote)
already posted

Any other strip and I would've let it go:

http://i.imgur.com/bUUfo5r.jpg

thought one of you Arlovers or Janisatics would have delighted in its placing.

I was the only A&J voter -- my #2 -- and I am delighted in its placing.

Is it always as badly drawn as that example above?

I would say no -- that one's an older strip, and a busy mess. I was going to say Johnson's pared the strip down to the visual essentials, but today's puts the lie to that:

http://assets.amuniversal.com/c914e0a02afb0132a1f4005056a9545d

Rather than a "bigfoot" style of cartooning, I guess what he goes for is more "bigface."

what even

It looks better with colour, and i like the fact that the first two panels are silent and involve real comics storytelling, but I don't think this is one for me.

=68: TOONERVILLE FOLKS by Fontaine Fox (40 points, 2 votes)
Toonopedia

The single-panel gag cartoon was a daily look at Toonerville, situated in what are now called the suburbs. Central to the strip was the rickety little trolley called the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the trains," driven in a frenzy by the grizzly old Skipper to meet each commuter train as it arrived in town. A few of the many richly formed characters included the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, the Physically Powerful Katrinka, Little Woo-Woo Wortle, Aunt Eppie Hogg (The Fattest Lady in 3 Counties) and Mickey McGuire, the town bully.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j0LJ7wZtiMU/Tg09r5a7ghI/AAAAAAAAIAs/NovwSOWWI_k/s1600/ToonervilleSunday.jpg

http://www.artbaxter.com/images/blog/2008-postings/03.03-fox/toonerville-sunday.gif

http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_3563/subcat_30295/FontaineFoxToonervilleFolksSunday32352.jpg

=68: THE FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS by Gilbert Shelton (40 points, 3 votes)
Fansite / Pretty much everything in one book.

The use of assorted psychoactive drugs is a predominant theme that runs throughout all volumes of this title. Marijuana is the most frequently mentioned, but numerous other stimulants and hallucinogens are mentioned as well. Most of the Freak Brothers stories include the use of drugs, or attempts to purchase them, for humorous effect..

Food is a commonly recurring subject. These stories most often involve Fat Freddy and his marijuana-induced "munchies" (increased appetite). The squalor engendered by the Brothers' indolence is often highlighted. Several stories satirise governments, particularly the U.S. government. These stories invariably show politicians and their agents as corrupt, incompetent, or both.

It is common for the storylines to begin with an air of realism, but rapidly descend into comic pantomime. - wikipedia

http://www.tcj.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/FreakBros0001.jpg

http://3rdeyedrops.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/freakbros1-jpg.jpeg

https://maddogmedia.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/freaks.jpg

one of my mom's hippy friends gave me a whole basket of comics like these and Zap when I was around ten years old, mind was blown

just saw today's A&J in a real physical American newspaper. In b&w, the sleeve disappears into the spotting on the window.

Still, seeing an entire US comics page (a double page!) makes me forgive p much anything people voted for itt, it's a fucking turd-strewn wasteland in there against which even Nemi would be semi-tolerable

don't feel too bad, we also don't subscribe to newspapers anymore

Not in this town anyway, fuck a Seattle Times

it was the Seattle Times obv

(left out for free in a dive bar)

=68: RED MEAT by Max Cannon (40 points, 3 votes)
Universal

Begun in 1989, Max Cannon's Red Meat is one of the most popular independent comic strips today, currently appearing in over 75 alt weeklies and college papers in the U.S. and abroad. Usually bizarre, sometimes tasteless, always delightfully twisted, cheerfully dark, and laugh-out-loud funny, it features a cast of beloved, repulsive freaks. - Universal

http://www.vorpral.net/images/Spider%20Goat%20Red%20Meat.jpg

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/index-1.gif

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MVLFO6wd5Qg/TBVnBM0bXwI/AAAAAAAAA4U/Z8Jxeh1_nt8/s1600/redmeat.gif

red meat was a web comic before web comics were web comics

=65: LUANN by Greg Evans (41 points, 2 votes)
Universal

The strip takes place in an unnamed suburban setting and is mostly about teenager Luann DeGroot, dealing with school, her love interests, family and friends. Some storylines center on other characters, including her older brother Brad.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/kitbrash/luann_zps766d9f4d.gif

http://www.robotcombat.com/images/luann1.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/Clayskater/Print%20Matter/Luann803gJan1.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/Clayskater/Print%20Matter/Luann104gJan2.gif

=65: "Chick tracts" by Fred Carter, Jack T. Chick, and various (41 points, 2 votes)
Tract listing

Chick’s scary, angry Fundie diatribes have given many a kid terrible nightmares. His favorite topics tend towards subject matter like “You’re going to Hell,” Halloween is evil, eternal damnation, abortion, the Vatican is evil and created Islam, demons walk amongst us, child molesters, the Antichrist will rise soon, New Age beliefs, Judaism, Mormonism and Islam are Satanic, witches are everywhere, homosexuality is an abomination (Chick’s solution? Fire-n-brimstone, baby!), Darwin’s theories are Satanic, Harry Potter is Satanic, feminists are Satanic, the Satanic plot behind rock music (The Beatles were Druids!), “You’re going to Hell,” the Commies are everywhere (Catholics are to blame for this, of course) and just about any other crazy, fucked up conspiracy theory you can think of. He’s kind of the Glenn Beck (or maybe better still Alex Jones) of paranoiac Christian comic books. Did I mention that a lot of his comics were about how YOU (that’s right you, the person reading this) are going to Hell? Chick’s God is a VENGEFUL God. The Old Testament Jehovah has got nothin’ on Chick’s version. – Richard Metzger spruiking Dan Raeburn’s unparalleled Imp #2

http://santitafarella.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/beignning-of-chick-tract-titled-this-was-your-life.jpg

http://images.tcj.com/2013/12/TopicLisa0001_zps489bb899.jpg

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/image/c/carter_fred/carter_fred_thedeceived.jpg

http://media.chick.com/tractimages67491/0084/0084_16.gif

http://evangelicaloutpost.com/images/boo_19.gif

http://www.therobotspajamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/0046_15.gif

http://media.chick.com/tractimages67491/0273/0273_10.gif

man, i've always hated luann

Luann and Fox Trot run together for me.

=65: B.C.by Johnny Hart (41 points, 3 votes)
A 50th anniversary collection

A “re-committed” fundamentalist Christian who taught Sunday School every week in the little Presbyterian church in the nearby New York town of Ninevah, Hart frequently delivered sermons in his comic strip. Said Maxwell: “Hart believes the Lord put him into the cartooning world for a reason. Every prudent chance he gets, he takes advantage of it. On Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter—and many days between—Hart’s characters offer messages reflecting the cartoonist’s own firm belief in the gospel message. ‘I find myself trying to put the gospel into practically every strip I create without being obvious about it,’ he says.” - R.C. Harvey

http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_3563/subcat_33998/bcsunday53187.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2XiHE57ofTY/T39BfgR796I/AAAAAAAAHSQ/uoac1j6mvbM/s1600/B.C.%2BJohnny%2BHart%2BGood%2BFriday.jpg

The early Pre-Christian era of B.C. is great - good solid gag stuff w/ quite hip drawing

hmm I kinda miss my jack chick collection

=65: BUZ SAWYER by Roy Crane (41 points, 3 votes)
On The Web

Roy Crane created the adventure comic strip with Wash Tubbs, and many a superhero owes a debt to Crane’s square-jawed, hard-hitting adventurer Captain Easy. But during World War II, he left the Captain Easy strip to create a more realistic fighting man, a Navy pilot named John Singer Sawyer, who fought in the Pacific Theater from 1943 until V-J Day in 1945, and whose adventures continued under Crane's pen for three more decades.
"If I had to pick a favorite [classic comic-strip reprint] right now, I’d say the Fantagraphics reprints of Buz Sawyer by Roy Crane. I just love the energy, humor, adventure and charm of them." – Kurt Busiek quoted at Fanta

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a7/Buzjune44.jpg/550px-Buzjune44.jpg

http://www.bordercrashcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Roy-Crane-Buz-Sawyer.jpg

http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_3563/subcat_29143/CraneD01031977.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g4GZ377sBkA/TW-g5aIdh5I/AAAAAAAAQfg/3wO323lQifE/s1600/crane03.jpg

http://cdn.coollinesartwork.com/Images/Category_2/subcat_29143/RoyCraneBuzSawyerDaily10181950.jpg

haven't read any buz sawyer, but the wash tubbs sequence in the smithsonian collection is outstanding.

busiek loving crane makes perfect sense

and at the top of the 65 bracket:

=65: ANDY CAPP by Reg Smythe (41 points, 4 votes)
Longform Best Of 2012

“[Reg Smythe] is the most popular English humorist with Americans since Charles Dickens.” -
      - Al Capp

http://www.benzilla.com/uploads/2007/09/andy_capp.jpg

http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_3563/subcat_29856/SMYTHEREGAndyCapp61473.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140225171859/ukcomics/images/b/bf/Andy-Capp.jpg

http://api.ning.com/files/kxOsEzy6ZB1FEQjO-kIkk6cRQCcUsmGCRXK0fXpvO*dnbsOC6dD0N0xawo5hFVQcEh1D3GY0kMU-u1Y5qP9Gi3Zuwem57PuL/Andy_Capp_2.jpg

That violent alcoholic is comedy gold i tell ya

That longform piece is really good btw.

i'll give it a look

is Andy Capp the only character to appear in this poll who has been adopted as a mascot by ultras?

http://paper-fang.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/youre-some-hero-andy-capp.html

that depends. what are ultras?