1981 Sunday Comic (book) section

[nakak]

Back in the early '80s, many newspapers tried to attract comic strip fans by printing their Sunday comics in a little "comic book" format. To make a long story short, the plan didn't work and they went back to the regular format within few years.

I purchased a bulk of these "books" on eBay and posted the contents from one of them on my blog. So if you love reading old comics, you might like this:

http://bakertoons.blogspot.com/2007/12/sunday-comic-books.html

[Peter Paltridge]

It doesn't have Bloom County, but that had only been in production for less than a year.

Wow, so many dry soap opera comics. I knew they were big back then, and I even knew of the popular-license stuff like the Star Wars serial....but seriously....there was a Dallas comic strip???

I can't even tell what genre this "Ben Swift" strip is. The last line almost sounds like one of those unfunny punchlines strips actually try, but it could have also been intended as a serious remark. Either way, I don't know what it means:
"The time, yes. The stomach, no. These days you can learn to walk on Coleman's Creek."
:confused:

That guy in the turban in the "Annie" strip is awesome. :D I can't even begin to guess how someone who looks like that got connected with big-business tycoons.

[Dynamite XI]

It's kind of cool seeing Star Wars and Star Trek drawn in that 1930s-50s sci-fi serial style. I've always been a fan of that style.

I wonder what Watterson would have thought if the Sunday C&H had been printed in this particular comic book format. It would have given him that full page he always talked about...

[Zorak Masaki]

That wizard of id strip makes no sense at all. Two people are kissing, and one of them called "Zeke" apparently melted her wedding ring. Then someone tells the king they found a gold nugget in the potato field, he dismisses him, yells "RODNEY", we see a bunch of people digging, and then zeke tells his wife that he finished the plowing. So whats going on exactly?

[Peter Paltridge]

That wizard of id strip makes no sense at all. Two people are kissing, and one of them called "Zeke" apparently melted her wedding ring. Then someone tells the king they found a gold nugget in the potato field, he dismisses him, yells "RODNEY", we see a bunch of people digging, and then zeke tells his wife that he finished the plowing. So whats going on exactly?
I won't lie, it took me a while to figure it out: "Zeke" must own the potato field, and "Rodney" must be in charge of the King's serfs or something. Zeke got out of plowing the field for his wife by fooling the King into thinking gold was buried there.

Yeah, I think I got it now.

Look at Garfield. Those panels are half the size of what was printed in most papers. The strip was somehow "narrowed" and I can't tell if the newspaper did it, or if the syndicate offered Garfield in an alternate form.

[Chris Wood]

Very cool stuff. Some all-time classics, and a few I've never seen before. The problem with the action strips is that so little happens in each installment.

[nakak]

Look at Garfield. Those panels are half the size of what was printed in most papers. The strip was somehow "narrowed" and I can't tell if the newspaper did it, or if the syndicate offered Garfield in an alternate form.
Some Sunday strips used to be formatted so that the first panel and a panel under it (usually panel #4) can be removed for space reasons without ruining the main joke.

They seem to have abandoned the format, though.

[mobo85]

Some Sunday strips used to be formatted so that the first panel and a panel under it (usually panel #4) can be removed for space reasons without ruining the main joke.

They seem to have abandoned the format, though.

The throwaway panels are indeed the first and fifth based on how the full strip (http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1981-ga810712) looks. I looked through a few random Sunday Garfield, and it looks like the current format came into existence in 1982. Sunday Garfields now have what Jim Davis calls a "logo box" and a throwaway panel afterwards. So there's either a logo box and seven panels or six panels. I believe Garfield is still formatted like this, and Calvin and Hobbes was until Bill Watterson decided to go for a paneless format on Sundays. Some King Features strips (Beetle Bailey, etc.) have a half-sized logo box and two throwaway panels. (In the 1981 example here, the logo box is also a panel, so that's three throwaway panels. Although they explain why Sarge is opening his drawer in the first place, you don't really need them to understand the strip.)

I also find it somewhat interesting that there was a nationally syndicated comic strip encouraging teenagers to become mail carriers.