the longest continuously published newspaper comic in history - believe it or not

[D.D.Degg]

Here's a news item about IDW publishing hardcover
book collections of Ripley's Believe It or Not:
http://www.pr-inside.com/ripley-entertainment-inc-and-idw-publishing-r3698375.htm

I was going to give them a pass with their first claim
that Ripley's Believe It or Not is " the world’s longest
running syndicated cartoon." I thought they, on a
technicality, could claim that as it is a cartoon panel.

But then they took it a step too far when, a few
paragraphs later, they say it is "the longest continuously
published newspaper comic in history."

The Katzenjammer Kids have been continuously
published, excepting a 14 month sabbatical from
1913 to 1914, since 1897.
It was syndicated by various Hearst companies
until it landed with King Features in 1917.*

Gasoline Alley first appeared as part of Frank King's
Sunday The Rectangle page on November 24, 1918
in the Chicago Tribune. The daily started August 25,
1919 running as a sometime strip, sometime panel.
Allan Holtz says the last panel ran April 23, 1921
"probably coinciding with the beginning of its syndication."*

(Ripley's) Believe It or Not first appeared December 19,
1918 and, as Allan Holtz explains, "Until the late
1920s , this feature ran in tandem with general sports
cartoons by Ripley - it was far from a daily feature,
often not appearing for weeks at a time."*

So I'm calling them on their "longest" bs.
I chose NOT to believe it!

* The above information comes from Allan Holtz's
invaluable AMERICAN NEWSPAPER COMICS.
http://www.press.umich.edu/script/press/2133963

D.D.Degg

ps: elsewhere Bruce Canwell of IDW/Library of American Comics
posts a much more subjective list - his Top Ten Individual Comic
Strips:
http://www.libraryofamericancomics.com/blog/article/2588/

[John W Kennedy]

On 2013-06-15 00:39:40 +0000, D.D.Degg said:
> Gasoline Alley first appeared as part of Frank King's
> Sunday The Rectangle page on November 24, 1918
> in the Chicago Tribune. The daily started August 25,
> 1919 running as a sometime strip, sometime panel.
> Allan Holtz says the last panel ran April 23, 1921
> "probably coinciding with the beginning of its syndication."*

Skeezix doesn't appear, and isn't even mentioned, and it's in the
hanging-out-and-working-on-cars mode that gave the strip its title. It
looks like old inventory, though not too old, as all the characters are
on-model. For whatever it's worth, Frank King's 38th birthday had been
14 days before.

--
John W Kennedy
"The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything...."
-- Emile Cammaerts, "The Laughing Prophet"