List of Crap 59: Top 50 Comic Strips Countdown!

[wurwolf]

Awwww yisssss me and my baby, bringing the Get Your War On! Nice write up, Johnny -- this line in particular made me laugh out loud:

(with a few exceptions, most notably Voltron)

fuckin Voltron lol

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

I remember playing the Little Nemo game on Nintendo.  Took me and my cousin days to get by that damn train.

Didn't know it was a comic though.

[Johnny Unusual]

#35 Beetle Bailey

47 Points, 4 lists, #6 Pegos220379   


Beetle Bailey (begun on September 4, 1950) is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker. Set in a fictional United States Army military post, it is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator. Over the years, Mort Walker has been assisted by (among others) Jerry Dumas, Bob Gustafson, Frank Johnson and Walker's sons Neal, Brian and Greg Walker. The latter is currently credited on the strip.

Beetle was originally a college student at Rockview University. The characters in that early strip were modeled after Walker's fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri. During the strip's first year, Beetle quit school and enlisted in the U.S. Army on 13 March 1951, where he has remained ever since.

Most of the humor in Beetle Bailey revolves around the inept characters stationed at Camp Swampy, (inspired by Camp Crowder, where Walker had once been stationed while in the Army). Private Bailey is a lazy sort who usually naps and avoids work, and thus is often the subject of verbal and physical chastising from his supervisor, Sergeant Snorkel. The characters never seem to see combat themselves, with the exception of mock battles and combat drills. In fact, they seem to be in their own version of stereotypical comic strip purgatory (initially basic training, they now appear to be stuck in time in a regular infantry division). The uniforms of Beetle Bailey are still the uniforms of the late 1940s to early 1970s Army, with green fatigues and baseball caps as the basic uniform, and the open jeep as the basic military vehicle. Sergeant First Class Snorkel wears a green Class A Army dress uniform with heavily wrinkled garrison cap; the officers wear M1 helmet liners painted with their insignia. While Beetle Bailey's unit is Company A, one running gag is that the characters are variously seen in different branches of the Army, such as artillery, armor, infantry and paratroops.

 
Animated Adaptation:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/A5Sn21fle1g" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/A5Sn21fle1g</a>

Trivia:
For the most part, Walker's relationship with the real-life U.S. Army has been cordial. But not always. During the early 1950s, the strip was dropped from the Tokyo edition of Stars and Stripes because it allegedly encouraged disrespect for officers. The civilian press made a huge joke of that, and the ensuing publicity gave the young strip its first big boost in circulation.
 

[Asbestos Bill]

That's the best Beetle Bailey I've ever seen...!

[Johnny Unusual]

Another interesting bit of trivia alluded to above is that the first year of Beetle had no army stuff and was more akin to Archie or older college movies (I wish I could name one of them as an example.  Isn't there an old one where a chimpanzee goes to college or something?  Anyway, those movies were like the animal house of the 40's)

[Johnny Unusual]

 #34 Zits

47 Points, 8 lists, #10 Pegos220379

Zits is a comic strip written by cartoonist Jerry Scott and illustrated by Jim Borgman about the life of Jeremy Duncan, a 16-year-oldhigh school sophomore (previously a 15-year-old for the life of the comic). The comic debuted in July 1997 in over 200 newspapers and has since become popular worldwide and received multiple awards. As of 2010, it continues to be syndicated by King Features and is now included in 1,500 newspapers.

Set in central Ohio suburbia, the strip centers on Jeremy as he tries to balance his family life, social life, the academic demands of high school and his plans for the future, often with a heavy dose of surrealism, making it stand out from being just a typical teenager cartoon strip.
 
 Animated Adaptation:
Nopers

 Trivia:
Commenting on the strip, Charles Schulz remarked that "'Zits' is the worst name for a comic strip since 'Peanuts.'

[Johnny Unusual]

 #33 My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable

50 Points, 2 lists, #1 A Pretty Girl is Like, Wurwulf

David Thomas Rees (born June 22, 1972) is a left-wing cartoonist and humorist whose best-known work combines bland clip art with outrageous "trash talk" to incongruous effect. The comic strips, often overtly political, have achieved wide popularity,[citation needed] while baffling or disgusting some readers.

Rees grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was an avid reader of Rex Morgan, M.D. comics. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, for whose student newspaper he drew some comic strips. His office-cubicle humor is partly inspired by a stint working in a basement for Citicorp; he was later a part time fact-checker for Maxim magazine and Martha Stewart Weddings magazine until laid off.

Of Rees' comic series, the best known and most controversial is Get Your War On. He is also the author of the comic strips My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable, and Adventures of Confessions of Saint Augustine Bear

My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable uses clip art related to karate and martial arts and has said characters having odd conversations.  Also, hitting.
 
 Animated Adaptation:
Nuh-uh

 Trivia:
In July 2010, Rees announced his Artisanal Pencil Sharpening service, where for $12.50 plus $2.50 S&H, people can mail in their own pencils to be sharpened, or receive a sharpened pencil provided by the craftsman. According to the site, "...craftsman David Rees still practices the age-old art of manual pencil sharpening. His artisanal service is perfect for artists, writers, and standardized test takers. Shipped with their shavings and a 'certificate of sharpening', these extra-sharp pencils make wonderful gifts.". His book, How to Sharpen Pencils, was released April 16, 2012.

John Hodgman wrote the introduction, I believe.

[Johnny Unusual]

 #32 Manly Guys Doing Manly Things

51 Points, 3 lists, #4 Coragale


Manly Guys Doing Manly Things is the accurately titled webcomic featuring all of your favorite macho men from video games, comics, and pop culture getting into shenanigans. As the URL suggests, the punchline is, indeed, machismo.
 A badass named Commander Badass (who is also a commander) who travels through and beats the shit out of things.
 
 Animated Adaptation:
Well, I don’t know if this was official, but if it’s not, that’s pretty good voice acting.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/lLVwUy_mezA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/lLVwUy_mezA</a>

 Trivia:
Originally created as an entry for a webcomic contest hosted by the online video game magazine the Escapist

[Johnny Unusual]

#31 Mother Goose and Grimm

53 Points, 4 lists, #10 Mrs Dick Courier

Mother Goose and Grimm (aka Mother Goose & Grimm) is an internationally syndicated comic strip byPulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mike Peters of the Dayton Daily News. It was first syndicated in 1984 and is distributed by King Features Syndicate to more than 800 newspapers. Peters has received recognition for the strip with the National Cartoonists Society's 1991 Reuben Award and a nomination for their Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 2000.

The strip's main character is a bull terrier named Grimm, known as Grimmy. Although he is a pet, he is currently depicted as being able to speak with both human and animal characters in the strip. Grimmy's communication was previously depicted in thought balloons. Grimmy's fellow pet is a cat named Attila, with whom he has a sometimes acrimonious but sometimes friendly relationship. Both Grimmy and Attila are owned by Mother Goose (whom the two refer to as "Mom"), an anthropomorphic goose living in human society. The supporting characters include Ralph, a not too bright Boston Terrier. The strip originally had an additional regular, a pig named Ham who shared the house with Mother Goose, until that character was dropped during the 1990s.

The strip's subject matter features both one-a-day gags and week-long storylines. The central characters sometimes encounter real-life personalities such as Fidel Castro andTrouble Helmsley. Occasional strips feature gags in which none of the main characters appear; many of these involve animals acting anthropomorphically or are based on characters from literature, popular culture, folklore and mythology, such as Dracula, Superman, Robin Hood and Zeus.

The November 7th, 2011, strip mentions two restaurants, Le Barnardin and Per Se, located in New York City, suggesting that the characters may live there.
 

 Animated Adaptation:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nV2jpD0s3BU" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/nV2jpD0s3BU</a>


 Trivia:
In a comic strip published on January 2, 2009, one character wonders if the Colombian crime syndicate puts parts of the body of Juan Valdez in each can of coffee. The comic strip refers to an advertising slogan of Colombian coffee that there's a little bit of Juan Valdez in every can of Colombian coffee. In response to the comic strip, the Colombian Coffee-growers Federation made plans to sue artist Mike Peters for linking Colombian coffee to human rights abuse. The Colombian Coffee-growers Federation announced it would seek at least $20,000,000 "for damage and harm, detriment to intellectual property and defamation" as well as a retraction from all newspapers that published the comic strip that day. Federation President Gabriel Silva called the comic strip "a denigrating and disrespectful piece of black humor". Peters responded saying that he loves Colombia, drinks Colombian coffee every day, and meant no offense or insult. Peters said the comic strip is meant to be read along with the other comic strips that week, including one that refers to a can of Pringles potato chips containing the ashes of the inventor of Pringles.
 

[Johnny Unusual]

That's it for today.  Tune into tomorrow for some more.

[Invader_quirk]

I probably should have had Grimmy at the bottom of my list, since I didn't even have a full 25. It's occasionally worth a chuckle.

EDIT: Nah, probably not.

[Asbestos Bill]

#31 Mother Goose and Grimm[/center]
The strip originally had an additional regular, a pig named Ham who shared the house with Mother Goose, until that character was dropped during the 1990s.

I wonder if that had something to do with Toy Story...

[Asbestos Bill]

I probably should have had Grimmy at the bottom of my list, since I didn't even have a full 25. It's occasionally worth a chuckle.

EDIT: Nah, probably not.

Why so down on Grimmy? Given a long enough list, it would have been on mine.

[Invader_quirk]

I probably should have had Grimmy at the bottom of my list, since I didn't even have a full 25. It's occasionally worth a chuckle.

EDIT: Nah, probably not.

Why so down on Grimmy? Given a long enough list, it would have been on mine.

I suppose. I'm just not sure I even like most Grimm strips. If I've ever liked anything in the comic, I suppose it's better to include it than blank space, though.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Ah, Manly Guys Doing Manly Things. Pretty much the premier strip these days if you want to see some good Gyarados action:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)