Panel Discussion - The ILX Comic Strip Poll Results

The Magic Whistle by Sam Henderson – 1 vote
On The Web

Henderson has been self-publishing xeroxed minicomics since 1980. In the mid-to-late 1980s he drew and published a comic called Captain Spaz with his friend Bobby Weiss. The series ended in 1988 as he was busy in college. In college, he drew a series of minicomics featuring a character known as Monroe Simmons. In 1993 he began self-publishing his best-known title, The Magic Whistle, now published by Alternative Comics. Also in 1993 he began the wordless comic strip "Scene but Not Heard," starring a pink man and a red bear, in Nickelodeon Magazine. It was the magazine's longest-running comic strip. A collection is due out in 2010.

Malfalda by Quino – 1 vote
On The Web

Mafalda is a comic strip written and drawn by Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known by his pen name Quino. The strip features a 6-year-old girl named Mafalda, who reflects the Argentinian middle class and progressive youth, which is concerned about humanity and world peace and rebels against the world bequeathed by their elders. The strip ran from 1964 to 1973 and was very popular in Latin America, Europe, Quebec, and in Asia, leading to two animated cartoon series and a book. The comic strip is composed of the main character Mafalda, her parents and a group of other children. However, the group was not created on purpose, but was instead a result of the development of the comic strip. The other children were created one at a time, and worked by countering specific aspects of Mafalda. The exception was Guille, Mafalda's brother, who was introduced during a period when the author did not have other ideas.

Marmaduke by Brad Anderson – 1 vote
On The Web

Marmaduke was created by Anderson, with help from Phil Leeming (1955–1962) and later Dorothy Leeming (1963–1969), and (since August 2, 2004) Paul Anderson. The strip revolves around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke. The strip on Sundays also has a side feature called "Dog Gone Funny", in which one or more panels are devoted to dog anecdotes submitted by the fans. Anderson, who says he draws on Laurel and Hardy routines for his ideas, received the National Cartoonists Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the strip in 1978. Marmaduke continues to be widely syndicated, and is popular with readers: attempts to cancel Marmaduke have drawn protest, such as those by readers of The Toronto Star in 1999, of the Sarasota Herald Tribune in 2007, and of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1986. Despite this, its longevity and perceived monotony have been noted by satirical publications such as The Onion[8] and have made it the butt of jokes. It has become "a hot source of retro-ironic-subversive humor." For example, a blog called "Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke" deconstructs the strip to offer an alternative explanation for what's happening in the drawing. Another blog called "Marmaduke Can Vote" gives each panel a political slant, while "The Marmaduke Project" re-imagines Marmaduke in other forms. In his satirical analysis at The Comic Strip Doctor, David Malki of Wondermark ranked Marmaduke among "the worst newspaper comic strips" alongside Heathcliff, Family Circus and Dennis the Menace.

holy shit who voted for marmaduke?

in the uk we had fred bassett, an equally useless dog strip. here is a picture of charles schulz and bassett creator alex graham - they were both published in the Daily Mail :-(

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/74872412528255057/

aaargh i am so fucking useless at posting pictures

oh we had Fred Bassett, too

Marmaduke and Fred Bassett both way better than half the stuff appearing here so far

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/57/88/d5/5788d5267c32cd94870bc39dfee7483f.jpg

marmaduke is not better than a square of unprinted paper

xpost
didn't know that! marmaduke may even have appeared in a uk newspaper at some point or other.

thank you for yr assistance, f&wa. graham's cig holder is a treat

we have fred bassett in the US too. it's pretty worthless.

a friend of mine tried out for the job of ghosting fred bassett after graham died, but he didn't get the gig, which was prob bad for his bank balance but gd for his sanity.

i prefer the gambols

fyi... depending on yr browser, right click on an image to find its url. in firefox "copy image location" gets what you need to paste here.

in the 90s the Mail on Sunday used to do a whole pull-out cartoon section that printed both Fred Bassett and Marmaduke, as well as a load of other US syndicated strips!

thanks again, f&wa, i use firefox and will remember yr advice in future

soref, yes! that's where i've seen marmaduke. also Shoe by Jeff MacNelly, which was nicely drawn at least.

marmaduke is not better than a square of unprinted paper

― sci-fi looking, chubby-leafed, delicately bizarre (contenderizer), Thursday, June 12, 2014 2:38 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The thing that makes me hate Marmaduke above most other comics is the waste of space in the Sunday strip. Like, during the week, whatever, it's another shitty one panel strip, it sucks, it's never funny, but someone gave this asshole space for a full strip on Sunday when he's clearly only capable of doing one panel, so the majority of Marmaduke Sundays are OMG-MARMADUKE-BARKING-IN-HUGE-LETTERS-AND-RUNNING-AROUND and then the final panel with his owner saying "Whoa Marmaduke sure is running!" or whatever the horrible punchline is.

Some Old Man Still Churning Out Marmaduke

the moment when we get to a comic strip voted on by more than one ilxor will be like the moment in a long duration drone piece when the pitch suddenly shifts a tiny notch

celebrated uk comedy wasteman charlie brooker wrote a sketch in the early 00s about a bunch of people on a desert island forced to read nothing but the daily mail, it was fucking dire as you'd expect but one part did make me lol quite a bit - this guy who starts believing he's fred basset

mostly cause of how the actor plays it

Fred Basset is at least a cute character design. Marmaduke is an all around monster.

My uncle breeds Great Danes so I am irrationally fond of Marmaduke

they should get that guy to do the voice and motion capture stuff if they ever make a CGI Fred Basset movie

Maxwell the Magic Cat by Alan Moore and Steve Moore – 1 vote
On The Web

Maxwell the Magic Cat was a comic strip written and drawn by Alan Moore under the pseudonym Curt Vile (a pun on the name of composer Kurt Weill), with a friend Steve Moore under the pseudonym 'Jill de Ray' (in parody of Gilles de Rais, a French murderer).

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