List of Crap 59: Top 50 Comic Strips Countdown!

[Johnny Unusual]

 

#23 Dinosaur Comics

61 points, 5 lists, #5 Invader Quirk

Dinosaur Comics is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on 1 February 2003, though there were earlier prototypes. Dinosaur Comics has also been printed in two collections and in a number of newspapers.

Comics are posted on most weekdays. Each comic uses the same artwork, with only the dialogue changing from day to day. There are occasional deviations from this, such as several episodic comics. It has been compared to David Lynch's The Angriest Dog in the World comic, and also made references to it. The strips take on a wide variety of topics, including ethical relativism, the nature of happiness, and the secret to being loved.
 
 Animated Adaptation:
Nah.

 Trivia:   
Every comic contains at least three hidden comments (easter eggs). One is contained in the title tag, which can be accessed by holding the cursor over the strip and waiting for the title text tooltip to pop up, or through the image file's properties menu for browsers with a length limit. The second, which began appearing with the fifth comic, is found in the subject line of the "Contact" e-mail address. The third is found in the RSS feed of the comic and the archive page, being, essentially, the comic's title. The "Transcribe This Comic!" image at the bottom of some comics has a hidden message in its title text as well. The ads displayed on the site, both for Dinosaur Comics merchandise and third-party products, also have hidden messages in their title text. Additional easter eggs have been left in some comics, such as the URL to God's ringtone (the Téléfrançais theme) hidden in the watermark of one comic and an image steganographically hidden in a comic about steganography. The image at the bottom of the webpage displaying the tiny woman and house changes according to the current season.

[Johnny Unusual]

#22 Azumanga Daioh

66 Points, 4 lists, #4 Invader Quirk

Azumanga Daioh (あずまんが大王 Azumanga Daiō?, lit. "Great King Azumanga") is a Japanese comedy manga by Kiyohiko Azuma. It was serialized by MediaWorks in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh from 1999 to 2002 and collected in four bound volumes. In May 2009, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the manga, three additional chapters began serialization in Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday under the title Azumanga Daioh: Supplementary Lessons.

The manga is drawn in a series of vertical four-panel comic strips called yonkoma and depicts the lives of a group of girls during their three years as high-school classmates. The series has been praised for its humor driven by eccentric characters, and Kiyohiko Azuma acclaimed as a "master of the four-panel form," for both his art style and comic timing.

 
 Animated Adaptation:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/huWKSYUX5Fs" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/huWKSYUX5Fs</a>



Trivia:   
Two tribute albums, Tribute to Azumanga Daioh and Tribute to Live Azumanga Daioh, were released on October 2, 2002 and December 10, 2003. Tribute to Azumanga Daioh peak ranked 68th on the Oricon albums chart. Tribute to Live Azumanga Daioh is the live album of the concert held on October 4, 2003 at the public hall of Toshima, Tokyo.

[Invader_quirk]

Nice to see votes from the rest of the board for those two. 

[Johnny Unusual]

#21 Non-Sequitur

66 Points, 7 lists, #3 Therul

Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller (usually credited as just Wiley) in 1992 and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate to over 700 newspapers. The strip can be found online at gocomics.com, and it is also available via email and on mobile phones.

Translated from Latin as "it does not follow", Non Sequitur is often political and satirical, though other times, purely comedic.

The strip has undergone many changes through its history. Originally, the comic was a single panel gag cartoon, similar to Gary Larson's The Far Side. It grew more political (from a moderately liberal perspective) in tone during the 1990s, to the point where it often became a borderline editorial cartoon. Today, the comic has become more traditional, with a multi-panel format and recurring characters. The horizontal daily strip sometimes displays only a single panel.

Non Sequitur has been honored with four National Cartoonists Society Awards, including the Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1995, 1996 and 1998, and the Newspaper Panels Award for 2002. It is the only comic strip to win in its first year of syndication and the only title to ever win both the best comic strip and best comic panel categories.
 
 Animated Adaptation:
Negatory


 Trivia:   
Non Sequitur was published in the New Straits Times, a major newspaper in the Muslim-majority country of Malaysia, as part of its weekday line of comic strips. The comic, however, generated controversy in the country and its government following the paper's printing of the syndicated strip satirizing the protests over the controversial Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons on February 20, 2006. The cartoon depicts a street-side cartoonist offering caricatures of Muhammad "while you wait" with a caption stating that the cartoonist has finally realized his goal of being the most feared man in the world.

The New Straits Times subsequently issued an apology. Wiley Miller commented on Malaysia's response of the strip, stating in a February 1, 2007 interview that it is "much ado about nothing."
 

[Asbestos Bill]

Every comic contains at least three hidden comments (easter eggs). One is contained in the title tag, which can be accessed by holding the cursor over the strip and waiting for the title text tooltip to pop up, or through the image file's properties menu for browsers with a length limit. The second, which began appearing with the fifth comic, is found in the subject line of the "Contact" e-mail address. The third is found in the RSS feed of the comic and the archive page, being, essentially, the comic's title.

Wow. I only knew about two of those.

[Johnny Unusual]

Well, that's it for tonight!

[Asbestos Bill]

Ah. Non-Sequitur. I didn't include it, but I frequently enjoy it.

[Coragale]

HOLY SHIT I FORGOT TO INCLUDE NON SEQUITER.

Dammit.

[Johnny Unusual]

Only one person spelled it right.  If it was on my list, it probably wouldn't be two...

[Darth Geek]

I've seen a few Non-Sequitur, and they are usually okay, but not great. But this one:

had me rolling.

[Invader_quirk]

On the subject of Azumanga Daioh... I don't know if it's all Japanese comic strips, but the few I've seen tend to not go for a punchline. Rather, the comedy comes from the characters being themselves, and strips will often be confusing without the context of what has happened previously. You actually need to read a fair amount before you start to get into it and really enjoy it. It's kind of a nice change of pace from your average comic strip format. At least, it is when they're all together, in order, in a nice big book.

[Asbestos Bill]

Only one person spelled it right.  If it was on my list, it probably wouldn't be two...

I had to look back up at the title...although it still had a red underline under it. Sometimes that spellcheck is wrong though...




And on the subject of Ryan North: He is awesome and the Adventure Time comics he wrote have been double-awesome.

[Johnny Unusual]

And on the subject of Ryan North: He is awesome and the Adventure Time comics he wrote have been double-awesome.

Those Adventure Time books are pretty great.  I love the notes and bonus comics at the bottom for each page.

[Pak-Man]

(and no votes for Nestor and Howard from Nintendo Power.  That takes me back).

Ouch! Huge omission on my part. If I'd remembered it, it would be right up there.

EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLE-POST: Good to see Non-Sequitur in there too. I always liked it back when it was a single-panel strip, but in recent years, I've come to especially love the 3-Panel Danae strips.

[Johnny Unusual]

#20 Frazz

67 Points, 4 lists, #6 Invader Quirk

Frazz is a syndicated comic strip by Jef Mallett that, on the surface, is about school custodian Edwin "Frazz" Frazier and the school where he works.  The strip debuted on 2 April 2001.

Mallett has explained that the strip is about discovery, and not merely learning. Frazz's job is just the surface. He reads everything from Milton to Hiaasen to bike racing magazines, he writes, he races, he’s an athlete, and he’s a songwriter, discovering the value of a day job. When songwriting started going well, he kept his custodian job because it was the perfect environment for discovery through the energy and interest of the students. Many of the characters are based on his childhood experiences at school, and at home as the child of an educator. Frazz is, at least attitudinally, based on Mallett himself. During a 1996 book tour of schools to promote a children's book he wrote and illustrated, Mallett noticed that the kids wouldn't quiet down for their teachers or principals, but would for the school janitor; he or she was "the man", existing on a separate plane between the students and adults.


 Animated Adaptation:
Nien

Trivia:   
In a 2008 interview, Mallett said that Bryson Elementary is named after one of his favorite authors, Bill Bryson, author of At Home and A Brief History of Everything.