List of Crap 59: Top 50 Comic Strips Countdown!

[Johnny Unusual]

Whew.  Please appreciate I'm pretty busy these days as I'm doing this that I'll try to make sure that there will be 5 comic strips a day listed.  I usually like to do more, but blah blah blah let's get down to business.  FUNNIES' BUSINESS!  Ha!

First off... there were no ties!  Pretty rare for one of my lists.  Next, I'll be trying to include any comics you want me to use, but no promises.  If I miss yours, just post it after.  Finally... Uh, that's it I guess.  Let's begin!

So pour yourself a bowl of sugary cereal and try to treat your computer like the Weekend Edition, minus all the bad news.

[Johnny Unusual]

#50 A Mad Look At…/Drawn Out Dramas (the Mad work of Sergio Aragones)

34 Points, 2 lists, #3 Johnny Unusual

What is it?:
Sergio Aragonés has written and drawn his "A Mad Look At…" feature for over 40 years. Each is a series of gag strips with a common theme. Aragonés' Mad cartooning is notable for almost never using word balloons; when they occur at all, they will most often feature a drawing of whatever is being discussed. Aragonés will periodically bend this rule for a store window sign, a stray "Gesundheit," or some other dialogue vital to the punchline.

Aragonés also provides the "Mad Marginals" or "Drawn-out Dramas", which are small gag images that appear throughout the magazine in the corners, margins or spaces between panels. Aragonés debuted the feature in Mad #76 (January 1963), and it has appeared in every issue of the magazine since, except for Mad #111. According to Aragonés, his work for that issue was lost in the mail.

Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is widely regarded as "the world's fastest cartoonist." The Comics Journal has described Aragonés as "one of the most prolific and brilliant cartoonists of his generation." Mad editor Al Feldstein said, "He could have drawn the whole magazine if we'd let him."

Animated Adaptations?: No.  Wait, isn’t there a Mad TV show now?  Does that have Sergio cartoon?  It should.

Trivia:
Sergio Aragones also co-created DC’s cowboy hero Bat Lash (I like him).

[Johnny Unusual]

#49 Ziggy

34 Points, 5 lists, #7 ColeStratton

Ziggy is a cartoon created by Tom Wilson, a former American Greetings executive.

Ziggy is a small, bald, trouserless, barefoot, almost featureless character (save for his large nose) who seems to have no friends, hobbies, or romantic partner, just a menagerie of pets: Fuzz, a small white dog; Sid, a cat afraid of mice; Josh, a discouraging parrot; Goldie, a fish; and Wack, a duck. The appeal of the cast is juxtaposed with the endless stream of misfortunes which befall Ziggy. The character is frequently depicted in surreal or arbitrary situations, though many jokes mine typical comic strip pop culture territory, such as computers and the perils of modern life. Other pop cultural references can be found in the archives.

Ziggy first appeared in the 1968 book collection When You're Not Around, published by American Greetings. The newspaper strip began in June 1971. In 1987 the strip was taken over by Tom Wilson II. The animated 1982 Christmas television special Ziggy's Gift, which contained the Harry Nilsson song "Give, Love, Joy", won an Emmy Award. There are annual calendars produced as well as various books and promotional items.

Animated Adaptation?:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bSVGv2nQQz8" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/bSVGv2nQQz8</a>

Trivia:
Tom Wilson has acknowledged that one in five Ziggy cartoons makes direct reference to the mathematical concept of the Axiom of choice. In his 2009 autobiography, Wilson stated that this recurrent theme is "my own unique way of expressing my love for mathematical analysis. Cartooning has been a career for me, but math was always my passion."

[Johnny Unusual]

BTW, I was just watching Arrested Development. Tony Hale needs to play the live action Ziggy!

[Johnny Unusual]

#48 The Adventures of Tintin

36 Points, 2 lists, #6 ColeStratton

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic albums created by Belgian artist Remi Georges(1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of Hergé. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in more than 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.

The series first appeared in French in Le Petit Vingtième, a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siècle on 10 January 1929.

The success of the series saw the serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir and spun into a successful Tintin magazine. Then in 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé, which produced the canon series of twenty-four albums. The Adventures of Tintin have been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film.

Set during a largely realistic 20th century, the hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter. He is aided in his adventures by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in the original French edition). Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash and cynical Captain Haddock, the highly intelligent but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol) and other supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond). Hergé himself features in several of the comics as a background character, as do his assistants in some instances.

The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Its engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by dashes of sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Animated Adaptation?:
Many!  Computer animation, hand drawn animation, and…
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/wg3SfnXf-0A" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/wg3SfnXf-0A</a>

Trivia:
Charles de Gaulle once said "My only international rival is Tintin".  Having read the comics, I believe that de Gaulle has actually done more reporting than Tintin.

[Johnny Unusual]

#47 Axe Cop

36 Points, 3 lists, #5 Pak-Man
 

Axe Cop is a webcomic by brothers Malachai Nicolle (age 5 when the series began, now age and Ethan Nicolle (age 29 when the series began). Malachai is responsible for the ideas and stories, while Ethan turns them into comics. The first four comics were drawn in December 2009 and posted to Facebook; the website was not launched until January 2010.
Axe Cop is about the adventures of a police officer who prefers to wield an axe in battle. He's a gruff, tough man dedicated to killing bad guys. The comic focuses on the times he's called away from the daily grind to help with more complex problems, such as rescuing a child from a zombie dog woman, helping Bat Warthog Man find his friends, or babysitting. This generally involves fighting bad guys from other planets. Axe Cop has gathered a loyal team. His first ally is Flute Cop, who goes on to become Dinosaur Soldier and various other things.

Axe Cop is nominally set in the present day, enlivened with dinosaurs, zombies, robots, etc., and with a propensity to feature whatever topic happens to be holding the writer's attention, such as sea creatures, brains, and especially babies. Little effort is made to keep track of backstories, powers, and equipment. This is not to say that the comic is entirely chaotic: the main characters and their relationships stay consistent, there are persistent world-building elements (most notably the shape-shifting properties of being splattered with blood), and a number of powers and items recur (e.g. the hypnotize button on Axe Cop's wrist has not been mentioned again, but the robot arms in his mustache are explained.)

Animated Adaptation:
On April 24, 2012, it was announced that Fox would adapt Axe Cop for an animated series of the same name for its new Saturday late-night animation block serving as a complement to its popular Sunday-night Animation Domination block in the 2013-2014 season.

Trivia:
In the TV show The IT Crowd, Roy has the CHOP poster framed in his hallway.

[Johnny Unusual]

#46 Blondie

36 Points, 5 lists, #11 Monty



Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features a well-endowed blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).

Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young, who continues to write the strip. Young has collaborated with a number of artists on Blondie, including Jim Raymond, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun and currently, John Marshall. Through these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2000 newspapers in 47 countries and translated into 35 languages. Since 2006, Blondie has also been available via email through King Features' DailyINK service.

Animated Adaptation:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/OKVSPe65huQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/OKVSPe65huQ</a>

Trivia:
Originally designed to follow in the footsteps of Young's earlier "pretty girl" creations Beautiful Bab and Dumb Dora, Blondie focused on the adventures of Blondie Boopadoop—a carefree flapper girl who spent her days in dance halls.

[Johnny Unusual]

Alright everybody.  Have a good night.

[Pak-Man]

Woo! Axe Cop!

Also, he didn't make my list, but it's good to see Ziggy slipping in at 49. His strip gets a lot of flack, but if you read just the right strip in just the right mood, your day can be brightened. I've seen it. :^)

[Johnny Unusual]

Oh Ziggy, will you ever win?

[Relaxing Dragon]

D'oh! The list just started and I've already got two major omissions on my part. I totally spaced on the A Mad Look At series, which is a shame, since that's seriously the one part of that magazine I constantly go back to. MAD in general is a little hit and miss for me, especially with their newer stuff, but that feature never fails to make me smile.

And had I remembered that Tintin was, at one point, a newspaper comic, that would've been my Number 1. For sure

EDIT: Also, very cool that the puppet version of Tintin is on youtube. I know a friend of mine has been trying to find it for quite some time (for years and years it was only available in the Tintin museam in Belgium).

[Darth Geek]

Axe Cop looks...sublime...in it's nuttiness. Might have to check that one out.

[Johnny Unusual]

#45 Dr. McNinja

37 Points, 2 lists, #1 Coragale
   


The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a webcomic written and drawn by Christopher Hastings, and inked formerly by Kent Archer and since 2010 by Hastings himself . Published three times a week on its own website, it features the fictional adventures of a character named Dr. McNinja, a thirty-five-year-old doctor who is also a ninja. Dr. McNinja is highly story-driven, with twenty- to ninety-page issues. The first story was published in the summer of 2004 as a one-off, and the comic has been in regular publication since late 2005. The site also sells Dr. McNinja merchandise.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a member of Dayfree Press. An August 31, 2006 announcement in the news section of the Dr. McNinja website indicates that an exclusive monthly installment of Dr. McNinja will appear in the British magazine .net.
 
Animated Adaptation:
Nope.

Trivia:
It was announced on April 11th, 2012 that Christopher Hastings had entered into a partnership with Fat Cat Gameworks to create a Video Game based on the comic for mobile and web. Titled "Dr. McNinja's Radical Adventures", it is slated for release by July, 2012. The project is using the Kickstarter platform for funding, to avoid the need for a publisher.
 

[Johnny Unusual]

#44 Hägar the Horrible

37 Points, 7 lists, #10 Smith Dr John Smith
   


Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne (1917–1989), and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 (and subsequent death), his son Chris Browne has continued the strip. As of 2010, Hägar is distributed to 1,900 newspapers in 58 countries and translated into 13 languages. The strip is a caricature and loose interpretation of medieval Scandinavian life.

"Hagar the Terrible" was the nickname given to the late Dik Browne by his sons; Browne adapted the name to Hägar the Horrible for the purposes of alliteration. After his death Dik Browne's sons changed the title of the strip to Dik Browne's Hägar the Horrible in tribute. The name is pronounced Hay-gar by Chris Browne.

Hägar (sometimes written "Hagar") is a shaggy, scruffy, overweight, red-bearded Viking. He regularly raids England and sometimes France. Animation-industry writer Terence J. Sacks notes the juxtaposition of contrary qualities that make Hägar endearing to the reader: "Hägar's horned helmet, rough beard and shaggy tunic make him look somewhat like a caveman or primitive viking, but you also know Hägar has a soft underbelly occasionally exposed."
 
Animated Adaptation:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xlWsxppAtOo" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/xlWsxppAtOo</a>


Trivia:
For a brief time, the strip had its own brand of sponsored soda, "Hägar the Horrible Cola". It is generally recalled as one of the funniest flops of the marketing industry.

[Johnny Unusual]

 #43 Amazing Spider-Man

40 Points, 3 lists, #3 A Pretty Girl is Like
   

The daily newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man debuted on January 3, 1977. Produced by Marvel and syndicated by the Register and Tribune Syndicate through 1985,Cowles Media Company in 1986, and King Features Syndicate since, the comic strip was successful in an era with few serialized adventure strips. The strip slowly grew in circulation and as of 2012 is still being published. It was first written by Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita. Stan Lee's brother, Larry Lieber, illustrated and later wrote the strip for much of its run. In 1992, Paul Ryan took over the penciling (with Joe Sinnott inking) on the Sunday version of the strip and drew that feature for three years. Since 1997, the daily strips are pencilled by Larry Lieber and inked by Alex Saviuk, while the Sunday strips are penciled by Saviuk and inked by Joe Sinnott.

Early story arcs in the newspaper strip were paced much like a comic book, and a complete story unfolded in about 2 months of Sunday and daily strips. While the strip and the comic book feature the same characters, they do not share the same continuity. The strip differs from the established story lines of the comic books, most notably in the villains who Spider-Man fights and the women who Peter Parker dates. Many villains were introduced that have never appeared in other media, including the Rattler, a man who acquired snakelike characteristics. A rare exception was the 1987 wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson which occurred in both the comic book and the comic strip.

On December 31, 2008, the strip announced major changes. The following day, the strip underwent a reboot restoring Peter Parker as an unmarried young man living alone in a renovated apartment, attending college, and dating longtime best friend Mary Jane whenever she is available. On January 3, it was revealed that the timeline of the rebooted strip is set "in the days before Peter and Mary Jane were married". On May 24, 2009, the marriage was restored to the dailies, with the previous storyline involving Electro having been revealed to be a dream. The revelation dawns on Peter as Mary Jane walks out of the shower, paying homage to the infamous cliffhanger of Dallas involving the return of Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing.

Guest stars in the newspaper strip include Wolverine, Daredevil and Doctor Strange. Villains include Dr. Doom, Kraven the Hunter, the Rhino and Mysterio.

Stories from the strip have been reprinted as three paperback books. Some story arcs were also reprinted in a trade paperback in the 1980s, showcasing several different artists. A black & white trade paperback reprint of the first two years of the newspaper strip was released on May 3, 2007 by Panini Publishing UK. Some stories have also been reprinted in the magazine Comics Revue.

 
 Animated Adaptation:
Many:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4o29VoxtsFk" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/4o29VoxtsFk</a>

Trivia:
In 1981, skyscraper-safety activist Dan Goodwin, wearing a Spider-Man suit, scaled the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, the Renaissance Tower in Dallas, Texas, and the John Hancock Center in Chicago,Illinois.