A look back at a century of Daily News funnies
Yorktown, N.Y.: The Daily News missed an opportunity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its color Sunday comics supplement, first appearing on Feb. 25, 1923. Given that The News’ original publisher, Joseph Medill Patterson, hand-picked and often named the comics he wanted, and that The News has one of the richest comics histories in the industry, it’s an omission that speaks to the sad state of interest in comic strips today.
The debut color section ran eight pages (it grew to 24) and featured “The Gumps,” “Winnie Winkle,” “Gasoline Alley,” “Smitty,” “Harold Teen,” “Pigtails,” “The Teenie Weenies” and “Mama’s Angel.” After hundreds came and went, it’s gratifying to see “Gasoline Alley” still here.
A short list of top strips that ran include, in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, “Terry and the Pirates,” “Moon Mullins,” “Little Orphan Annie,” “Dick Tracy,” “Smilin’ Jack,” “Tiny Tim,” “Brenda Starr, Reporter,” “Hopalong Cassidy,” “Beyond Mars,” “Davy Crockett,” “On Stage,” “Closer Than We Think” and “Coloring College.” When the New York Daily Mirror shut down in 1963, The News picked up “Li’l Abner,” “Kerry Drake,” “Rex Morgan, M.D.” and “Louie.” The 1960s gave us “Flubs & Fluffs,” “Hapless Harry” and “Tales of the Green Beret,” with “Beetle Bailey” and “Blondie” coming over from the Journal-American. The 1970s brought “Broom-Hilda,” “Hägar the Horrible,” “The Family Circus,” “Dunagin’s People,” “Doonesbury,” “Motley’s Crew,” “Cathy,” “Peanuts,” “Marmaduke” and “Shoe.” The 1980s gave us “Herman,” “Heathcliff,” “For Better or for Worse,” “The Born Loser,” “Mother Goose and Grimm,” “The Far Side” and the greatest of all, “Calvin and Hobbes.”
The 1990s to present saw the shrinking and institutionalized neglect of the Sunday comics, to the detriment of readers who grew up with “the funnies.” It’s a century legacy to be celebrated.